 | |
| Formation | 2002 |
|---|---|
| Type | 501(c)(6), trade association |
| 38-3655436 | |
| Headquarters | Davis, California, United States |
| Website | csa-iot |
The Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA), formerly the Zigbee Alliance, is a group of companies that maintain and publish the Zigbee and Matter standard, along with several others. [1]
Over the years, the Alliance's membership has grown to over 500 companies, including the likes of Amazon, Apple, Comcast, Google, Yandex, Ikea, and Samsung SmartThings. [2]
The CSA has four levels of membership: associate, adopter, participant, and promoter. [3]
Associate membership is free. However, it only allows the member to white-label certified products as well as use Alliance Certification trademarks for a per product and annual fee.
Adopter members are allowed access to completed CSA specifications and standards, like Zigbee. They also gain access to Alliance technology logos and trademarks for certified products [4]
Participant members have voting rights in Alliance Working Group teams and play a role in Zigbee or Matter development alongside access to Alliance technical working groups, and have early access to specifications and standards for product development. [5]
Promoter members enjoy all other member level benefits as well as help lead with final approval on all standards developed by the Alliance by holding a seat on the Alliance Board of Directors. They pay an unknown one-time initiation fee as well as an annual membership fee of $105,000. As of 2024 there are 33 promoter members of the CSA who facilitate the promotion and advertisement of CSA developed standards, primarily Matter. [3]
The Alliance also has two regional member groups in China and Europe: The Connectivity Standards Alliance Member Group China (CMGC) is formed by members with a focus on promoting Alliance technologies in the China market. [6] The Europe Interest Group (EIG) consisting of 98+ member companies and 216 individual members has a focus on the European market. [7]
The name Zigbee is a registered trademark of this group, and is not a single technical standard. The organization publishes application profiles that allow multiple original equipment manufacturer (OEM) vendors to create interoperable products. The relationship between IEEE 802.15.4 and Zigbee [8] is similar to that between IEEE 802.11 and the Wi-Fi Alliance.
The requirements for membership in the Alliance cause problems for free-software developers working with Zigbee because the annual fee conflicts with the GNU General Public Licence. [9] The requirements for developers to join the CSA also conflict with most other free-software licenses. [10] The CSA board of directors has been asked to make their license compatible with GPL, but refused. [11] Bluetooth has GPL-licensed implementations. [12] However, the main Matter SDK is licensed under Apache 2.0 alongside the Typescript and Rust implementations. [13] [14] [15]
On May 11, 2021, the Zigbee Alliance announced its rebranding to Connectivity Standards Alliance. [16]
The Bluetooth Special Interest Group is the standards organization that oversees the development of Bluetooth standards and the licensing of the Bluetooth technologies and trademarks to manufacturers. The SIG is a not-for-profit, non-stock corporation founded in September 1998. The SIG is headquartered in Kirkland, Washington.
Zigbee is an IEEE 802.15.4-based specification for a suite of high-level communication protocols used to create personal area networks with small, low-power digital radios, such as for home automation, medical device data collection, and other low-power low-bandwidth needs, designed for small scale projects which need wireless connection. Hence, Zigbee is a low-power, low-data-rate, and close proximity wireless ad hoc network.
Source-available software is software released through a source code distribution model that includes arrangements where the source can be viewed, and in some cases modified, but without necessarily meeting the criteria to be called open-source. The licenses associated with the offerings range from allowing code to be viewed for reference to allowing code to be modified and redistributed for both commercial and non-commercial purposes.
Nordic Semiconductor ASA was founded in 1983 and is a Norwegian fabless technology company with its headquarters in Trondheim, Norway. The company specializes in designing ultra-low-power wireless communication semiconductors and supporting software for engineers developing and manufacturing Internet of Things (IoT) products.
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. The Z-Wave brand and technology are owned by Silicon Labs. Over 300 companies involved in this technology are gathered within the Z-Wave Alliance.
A home network or home area network (HAN) is a type of computer network that facilitates communication among devices within the close vicinity of a home. Devices capable of participating in this network, for example, smart devices such as network printers and handheld mobile computers, often gain enhanced emergent capabilities through their ability to interact. These additional capabilities can be used to increase the quality of life inside the home in a variety of ways, such as automation of repetitive tasks, increased personal productivity, enhanced home security, and easier access to entertainment.
Qualcomm Atheros is a developer of semiconductor chips for network communications, particularly wireless chipsets. The company was founded under the name T-Span Systems in 1998 by experts in signal processing and VLSI design from Stanford University, the University of California, Berkeley, and private industry. The company was renamed Atheros Communications in 2000 and it completed an initial public offering in February 2004, trading on the NASDAQ under the symbol ATHR.
Continua Health Alliance is an international non-profit, open industry group of nearly 240 healthcare providers, communications, medical, and fitness device companies. Continua was a founding member of Personal Connected Health Alliance which was launched in February 2014 with other founding members mHealth SUMMIT and HIMSS.
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.
Software Freedom Conservancy, Inc. is an organization that provides a non-profit home and infrastructure support for free and open source software projects. The organization was established in 2006, and as of June 2022, had over 40 member projects.
GreenPeak Technologies was an Utrecht, Netherlands-based fabless company developing semiconductor products and software for the IEEE 802.15.4 and Zigbee wireless market segment. Zigbee technology is used for Smart Home data communications and to facilitate the Internet of Things, the term used to refer to devices designed to be operated and managed by internet-enabled controllers and management systems.
AllJoyn is an open source software framework that allows compatible devices and applications to find each other, communicate and collaborate across the boundaries of product category, platform, brand, and connection type. Originally the AllSeen Alliance promoted the project, from 2013 until 2016 when the alliance merged with the Open Connectivity Foundation (OCF). In 2018 the source code became hosted by GitHub.
Thread is an IPv6-based, low-power mesh networking technology for Internet of things (IoT) products. 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."
The IoTivity is an open source framework created to standardize inter-device connections for the IoT. Any individual or company can contribute to the project, and this may influence OCF standards indirectly. However, being a member of the OCF can benefit from patent cross-licensing protection.
Aeotec Group GmbH is a home automation and electronics multinational company based in Hamburg, Germany, and is known as Aeotec. It used to be known as Aeon Labs and was headquartered in Silicon Valley, California. It was founded in 2011.
Universal Electronics Inc. (UEI) is an American smart home technology provider and manufacturer of universal remote controls, IoT devices such as voice-enabled smart home hubs, smart thermostats, home sensors; as well as a white label digital assistant platform optimized for smart home applications, and other software and cloud services for device discovery, fingerprinting and interoperability. The company designs, develops, manufactures and ships products both under the "One For All" brand and as an OEM for other companies in the audio video, subscription broadcasting, connected home, tablet and smart phone markets. In 2015, it expanded its product and technology platform to include home automation, intelligent sensing and security.
Weave is a network application layer protocol and, in implementation, a comprehensive toolkit for building connected Internet of Things-class applications, with a primary and current focus on consumer and residential applications.
Matter is a freely available connectivity standard for smart home and IoT devices. It aims to improve interoperability and compatibility between different manufacturer and security, and always allowing local control as an option.
Home Assistant is free and open-source software for home automation, designed to be an Internet of things (IoT) ecosystem-independent integration platform and smart home hub for controlling smart home devices, with a focus on local control and privacy. Its interface 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, Amazon Alexa, Apple Siri, and Home Assistant's own "Assist" using natural language.
ZigBee is only royalty-free if not used for commercial purposes