SAN JOSE, Calif. — In a deal that may foreshadow a move toward unity in the Internet of Things, the Thread Group and the ZigBee Alliance will define a spec for running ZigBee's application layer over Thread. The move will provide hundreds of ZigBee devices a path to a network that natively supports Internet Protocol addresses.

"We want to get away from silos and fragmentation and recognize the importance of the smart home," said Tobin Richardson, president of the ZigBee Alliance.

"A lot of our members have been asking us what runs over Thread and asking for a version of ZigBee," said Chris Boross, president of the Thread Group. "Since Thread runs purely at the network layer, we always wanted to partner with others" to reduce fragmentation in protocols, he added.

The specification for running the ZigBee Cluster Library over Thread will be available sometime after June. That's when the Thread Group releases to its members its Thread version 1.0 spec, announced in July.

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