Wi-Fi is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio waves. These are the most widely used computer networks in the world, used globally in home and small office networks to link desktop and laptop computers, tablet computers, smartphones, smart TVs, printers, and smart speakers together and to a wireless router to connect them to the Internet, and in wireless access points in public places like coffee shops, hotels, libraries and airports to provide the public Internet access for mobile devices.
Linksys is an American brand of data networking hardware products mainly sold to home users and small businesses. It was founded in 1988 by the couple Victor and Janie Tsao, both Taiwanese immigrants to the United States. Linksys products include WiFi routers, mesh WiFi systems, Wifi extenders, access points, network switches, and WiFi networking. It is headquartered in Irvine, California.
The Wi-Fi Alliance is a non-profit organization that owns the Wi-Fi trademark. Manufacturers may use the trademark to brand products certified for Wi-Fi interoperability.
Conexant Systems, Inc. was an American-based software developer and fabless semiconductor company that developed technology for voice and audio processing, imaging and modems. The company began as a division of Rockwell International, before being spun off as a public company. Conexant itself then spun off several business units, creating independent public companies which included Skyworks Solutions and Mindspeed Technologies.
Z-Wave is a wireless communications protocol used primarily for residential and commercial building automation. It is a mesh network using low-energy radio waves to communicate from device to device, allowing for wireless control of smart home devices, such as smart lights, security systems, thermostats, sensors, smart door locks, and garage door openers. Like other protocols and systems aimed at the residential, commercial, MDU and building markets, a Z-Wave system can be controlled from a smart phone, tablet, or computer, and locally through a smart speaker, wireless keyfob, or wall-mounted panel with a Z-Wave gateway or central control device serving as both the hub or controller. Z-Wave provides the application layer interoperability between home control systems of different manufacturers that are a part of its alliance. There is a growing number of interoperable Z-Wave products; over 1,700 in 2017, over 2,600 by 2019, and over 4,000 by 2022.
TP-Link Technologies Co., Ltd., is a global manufacturer of computer networking products based in Hong Kong and Shenzhen, China.
Silicon Laboratories, Inc. is a fabless global technology company that designs and manufactures semiconductors, other silicon devices and software, which it sells to electronics design engineers and manufacturers in Internet of Things (IoT) infrastructure worldwide.
Ruckus Networks is a brand of wired and wireless networking equipment and software owned by CommScope. Ruckus offers Switches, Wi-Fi access points, CBRS access points, Controllers, Management systems, Cloud management, AAA/BYOD software, AI and ML analytics software, location software and IoT controller software products to mobile carriers, broadband service providers, and corporate enterprises. As a company, Ruckus invented and has patented wireless voice, video, and data technology, such as adaptive antenna arrays that extend signal range, increase data rates, and avoid interference, providing distribution of delay-sensitive content over standard 802.11 Wi-Fi.
Ubiquiti Inc. is an American technology company founded in San Jose, California, in 2003. Now based in New York City, Ubiquiti manufactures and sells wireless data communication and wired products for enterprises and homes under multiple brand names. On October 13, 2011, Ubiquiti had its initial public offering (IPO) at 7.04 million shares, at $15 per share, raising $30.5 million.
ecobee is a Canadian home automation company that makes smart thermostats, temperature and occupancy sensors, smart light switches, smart cameras, and contact sensors.
Ring LLC is a home security and smart home company owned by Amazon. Ring manufactures home security products that incorporate outdoor surveillance cameras, including the Ring Video Doorbell smart doorbell, and hosts an app, Neighbors, for online social sharing of captured footage among users. Ring also provides video footage from its cameras and data from its Neighbors app to law enforcement agencies on request. Its police partnerships have been criticized by civil rights advocacy groups as building an invasive private surveillance network. Privacy concerns have increased since Mayor London Breed of San Francisco has supported ordinances that would allow city police to be able to access Ring footage at any time.
Thread is an IPv6-based, low-power mesh networking technology for Internet of things (IoT) products. Thread is reliable, secure and delivers fast response times, extended coverage and years of battery life to elevate smart home and building experiences. The Thread protocol specification is available at no cost; however, this requires agreement and continued adherence to an End-User License Agreement (EULA), which states that "Membership in Thread Group is necessary to implement, practice, and ship Thread technology and Thread Group specifications."
Invoxia is a French consumer electronics company known for the design and development of innovative smart devices that use artificial intelligence, such as the first GPS tracker on the market to use LoRa technology, the first connected speaker outside the Amazon ecosystem to use the Alexa voice system and a line of GPS trackers for preventing bike theft and monitoring pet activity. For the B2B market, it provides fleet tracking and asset management services. It also provides industrial IoT services including hardware design and development and the training and integration of neural networks.
Amazon Dash was a consumer goods ordering service which uses proprietary devices and APIs for ordering goods over the Internet.
Amazon Alexa, also known simply as Alexa, is a virtual assistant technology largely based on a Polish speech synthesiser named Ivona, bought by Amazon in 2013. It was first used in the Amazon Echo smart speaker and the Echo Dot, Echo Studio and Amazon Tap speakers developed by Amazon Lab126. It is capable of voice interaction, music playback, making to-do lists, setting alarms, streaming podcasts, playing audiobooks, and providing weather, traffic, sports, and other real-time information, such as news. Alexa can also control several smart devices using itself as a home automation system. Users are able to extend the Alexa capabilities by installing "skills" such as weather programs and audio features. It uses automatic speech recognition, natural language processing, and other forms of weak AI to perform these tasks.
The Nest Wifi, the successor to Google Wifi, is a line of mesh-capable wireless routers and add-on points developed by Google as part of the Google Nest family of products. The first generation was announced on October 4, 2016, and released in the United States on December 5, 2016. The second generation was announced at the Pixel 4 hardware event on October 15, 2019, and was released in the United States on November 4, 2019.
Amazon Echo Show is a smart speaker that is part of the Amazon Echo line of products. Similarly to other devices in the family, it is designed around Amazon's virtual assistant Alexa, but additionally features a touchscreen display that can be used to display visual information to accompany its responses, as well as play video and conduct video calls with other Echo Show users. The video call feature was later expanded to include all Skype users.
Matter, formerly Project Connected Home over IP (CHIP), is a royalty-free home automation connectivity standard, with manufacturers only incurring certification costs. Announced on December 18, 2019, Matter aims to reduce fragmentation across different vendors, and achieve interoperability among smart home devices and Internet of things (IoT) platforms from different providers. The project group was launched and introduced by Amazon, Apple, Google, Comcast and the Zigbee Alliance, now Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA). Subsequent members include IKEA, Huawei, and Schneider. Matter-compatible products and software updates for existing products are expected to be released in 2022. Although the Matter code repository is open-source under the Apache license, the Matter specification is licensed by CSA.
Home Assistant is a free and open-source software for home automation designed to be a central control system for smart home devices with a focus on local control and privacy. It can be accessed through a web-based user interface by using companion apps for Android and iOS, or by voice commands via a supported virtual assistant such as Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa.
Checkmarx is a global software security company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia in the United States. The company was acquired in April 2020 by Hellman & Friedman, a global private equity firm with headquarters in San Francisco. Founded in 2006, Checkmarx integrates automated software security technologies into DevOps. Checkmarx provides static and interactive application security testing, software composition analysis (SCA), infrastructure as code security testing (KICS), and application security and training development (Codebashing).
