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Apple has become a member of The Thread Group, an organization that supports companies interested in innovating networking solutions for consumer smart home devices using the Thread mesh standard (via 9to5Mac).

Apple has been added to the list of official members on the group's website, although what that means in practical terms is unclear. According to literature available online, the group's mission is "to focus on education, marketing, promotion of the Thread Networking Protocol, and ensuring a great experience through rigorous, meaningful product certification".
the-thread-group-mesh-networking.jpg
Thread Group is a not-for-profit organization responsible for the market education around the Thread networking protocol and certification of Thread products. Thread is an IP-based wireless networking protocol providing the best way to connect products in the home. With Thread, product developers and consumers can easily and securely connect more than 250 devices into a low-power, wireless mesh network.
Thread is just one among several mesh standards that smart home products can be certified to support. Zigbee and Z-Wave are two such examples of rival standards competing in the connected home market, while Bluetooth was also recently updated to support mesh networking, or creating large-scale networks across devices without relying on a central hub or router.

In recent years, Wi-Fi mesh systems have become a popular solution for in-home wireless networks, with options from companies like Linksys, Orbi, Eero, and Google.

The technology is also looking to expand, with the Wi-Fi Alliance in May announcing a new certification program called "EasyMesh", which aims to allow users to build mesh networks in their homes across different brands.

Apple joined the Qi Wireless Charging Consortium ahead of its adoption of inductive charging in last year's iPhone lineup, so Apple's Thread Group membership is sure to ignite speculation that the Thread standard could be coming to HomeKit products or even a future version of HomeKit.

Article Link: Apple Signals Smart Home Mesh Networking Interest by Joining 'The Thread Group'
 
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pete2106

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Dec 7, 2012
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You’ll get my Time Capsule and Airport Express when you pry them from my cold, dead hands. Or when Apple comes out with an AirPort mesh network. Whichever comes first.

Are they that good? I have an Airport Extreme sitting in the house that I never got around to setting up.
 
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sidewinder3000

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Jan 29, 2010
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Are they that good? I have an Airport Extreme sitting in the house that I never got around to setting up.
Incredibly simple to set up, reliable and reasonably powerful with a super easy iOS app to control them with. You can get newer WiFi routers that have greater range and all sorts of new trafficking features. Would love if Apple came out with updated versions that have the added benefits of the last 5 years’ tech advances. But considering their age they are a damn simple, no-hassle part of my network.
 
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orbital~debris

macrumors 68020
Mar 3, 2004
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UK, Europe
I used to think this way, then I got an Eero mesh that gives me 900/900 from my AT&T 1g fiber. It’s so much faster than Airport.

Yes, that sounds good from a spec perspective, but a) is that speed benefit frequently fully utilised in your real world usage b) does that speed benefit outweigh the utility of a native app on macOS and iOS for controlling/configuring the network?

Not to mention, the AirPort product line offers high security (they were one of the few not listed as compromised by security breaches), and integrated hard drives for seamless Time Machine backups…

I’m not yet convinced the speed boost is worth it.

However, I’d love to see Apple adopt mesh networking, and mesh the technology with the benefits of their retired AirPort product line and their current HomeKit initiative.

The ‘cherry on top’ of that scenario would be for HomePod to be able to act as a mesh node.
 

sidewinder3000

macrumors 65816
Jan 29, 2010
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I used to think this way, then I got an Eero mesh that gives me 900/900 from my AT&T 1g fiber. It’s so much faster than Airport.
Sounds great. And if I had to buy now that’s pribably what I’d get. But I’m not rocking 1G yet, and I’m in no hurry to update equipment that works well. I’ll probably wait until the next WiFi standard comes out, at which point Apple will hopefully be back in the game with a mesh set up.
 

scottlitch

macrumors regular
Oct 8, 2008
152
241
Columbus, Ohio
I've been thinking about how all of these Apple devices, like HomePod and Apple TV should be mesh extenders. Does anyone else think that all Wi-Fi devices will have mesh extension built into them eventually? It would make sense if the device itself could extend the network's range. Having HomePods and ATV's throughout the home acting as a mesh network makes sense to me.
 
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pete2106

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Dec 7, 2012
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Incredibly simple to set up, reliable and reasonably powerful with a super easy iOS app to control them with. You can get newer WiFi routers that have greater range and all sorts of new trafficking features. Would love if Apple came out with updated versions that have the added benefits of the last 5 years’ tech advances. But considering their age they are a damn simple, no-hassle part of my network.

I did spend two hours on a Sunday afternoon intending to set it up but I abandoned it because I couldn't come up with a funny name for my Wifi network :p
 

69Mustang

macrumors 604
Jan 7, 2014
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In between a rock and a hard place
I've been thinking about how all of these Apple devices, like HomePod and Apple TV should be mesh extenders. Does anyone else think that all Wi-Fi devices will have mesh extension built into them eventually. It would make sense if the device itself could extend the network's range. Having HomePods and ATV's throughout the home acting as a mesh network makes sense to me.
I am generally not a fan of the combo devices that have disparate functionality. One function breaks, does it screw the other function?
 

avanpelt

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Jun 2, 2010
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You’ll get my Time Capsule and Airport Express when you pry them from my cold, dead hands. Or when Apple comes out with an AirPort mesh network. Whichever comes first.

I see statements like this quite a bit on this forum; and while I understand the sentiment behind them, I think it would do people some good to reassess the wireless landscape. Prior to switching to eero, I had two 'tower' AirPort Extremes that were wirelessly bridged. I was getting throughput of 30-40 Mbps between them. That was fine for everyday use, but I knew I was getting a tiny fraction of the gigabit fiber pipe I have.

It finally bothered me enough to do some research and see what's out there. I purchased the eero three pack in December 2016 and I haven't looked back. Immediately after setting up the three eeros in my house, my wireless throughput everywhere in my home increased and it is usually between 80 Mbps-300 Mbps depending upon where I'm standing in my house. I know I'm still not getting the full benefit of the gigabit pipe (and won't until I do wired backhaul between the eeros); but I'm plenty happy with the noticeable jump in throughput.

The best part is that the eeros have worked exactly like my AirPort Extremes used to. I don't have to think about them at all. They're just there in the background doing what they do and requiring zero maintenance from me. They update firmware themselves and they just plain work.
 
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macduke

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Jun 27, 2007
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So it seems like WiFi networks and cellular networks and everything are pretty safe with multiple devices in our house. But have any studies been done on a completely wireless smart home? I'd be interested to see if there are any adverse health effects from 250 wireless signals bouncing all around my house. Probably not, but still curious whether it has been studied. The density of wireless communications devices is only going to increase as the decades fly by.
 

justperry

macrumors G5
Aug 10, 2007
12,553
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I'm a rolling stone.
In recent years, Wi-Fi mesh systems have become a popular solution for in-home wireless networks, with options from companies like Ubiquiti, Orbi, Eero, and Google.

Fixed, reason, Ubiquiti should be mentioned, they have (semi)Professional gear for just a bit more than consumer prices, it also is much better than Linksys has ever been, another business unit from my company just got Ubiquiti, they couldn't be happier, also no yearly licensing fees which our business unit still has to pay for their crappy network gear.
 
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hmmfe

macrumors 6502
Feb 28, 2003
262
69
New Apple routers? Yes please.

I support your enthusiasm, but Thread is not about WiFi mesh routers - at least not directly. Thread is a low-power, low-bandwidth mesh protocol for connecting IoT devices. Apple's interest in Thread is about HomeKit. I doubt they'll jump into the Thread Router or Thread Border Router Gateway market - let alone WiFi mesh.

That being said, I hope Apple is still capable of surprises and has a new vision for the smart home. Surely, Apple realizes that since the Smart Phone market is maturing and will not see the growth that it's enjoyed over the last decade there must be a new category to foster revenue growth (aside from services which depends on hardware sales).

I liked the smaller, bolder Apple much better.
 

SBlue1

macrumors 68000
Oct 17, 2008
1,936
2,366
I would highly welcome new Airport routers. My dying old AirPort Extreme is slow with its stone age old technology.

And dont let me get startet about the AP Express! One of them is failing every day now with those extreme temperatures over here in Europe. Usually it just fails once a week. Cant wait to replace that slow junk.
 

justperry

macrumors G5
Aug 10, 2007
12,553
9,745
I'm a rolling stone.
I would highly welcome new Airport routers. My dying old AirPort Extreme is slow with its stone age old technology.

And dont let me get startet about the AP Express! One of them is failing every day now with those extreme temperatures over here in Europe. Usually it just fails once a week. Cant wait to replace that slow junk.

One word:

Ubiquiti


I did spend two hours on a Sunday afternoon intending to set it up but I abandoned it because I couldn't come up with a funny name for my Wifi network :p

GrumpyCat ;)
 
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xero9

macrumors 6502a
Nov 7, 2006
863
486
One word:

Ubiquiti

I like my Unifi AP Pro with PoE and the way it mounts on the ceiling like a smoke detector, but I find the performance to be lacking. When when I'm 2 feet away from it I only get about 140Mbps (this is on a gigabit connection). Not saying I'd get better on an Airport or any single device router/AP, but it's not as great as I'd like.
 
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