NXP Achieves its First Certified Thread Stack as Thread Group Opens its Certification Program

On Feb 9, Thread Group announced that their Thread certification program is open for business, and members can begin submitting components or products for Thread certification.

What is Thread Certification?

Thread is a network communication protocol designed to control products in the home and beyond. You can read more about the technology here. At NXP, we have worked closely with the other founding members of Thread Group to create this new communication standard and corresponding certification program so that companies can design and sell secure and reliable IoT products for the home. Thread certification involves testing a product against a defined list of test cases to measure its compliance with the Thread specification while inside a mixed network of certified stacks to measure its interoperability with other Thread products. Currently, there are 4 certified stack solutions available – NXP, Arm, OpenThread and Silicon Labs.

Why is Thread Certification Important?

With the Thread certification program now open, the Thread Group envisions products seamlessly communicating with each other where people live and work. To ensure that products from different manufacturers can communicate reliably and securely, they need to undergo testing with multiple vendor configurations. If the product passes these tests, it can be certified as a “Thread Certified Component” or as an end product that’s “Built on Thread” and will be eligible to carry the associated Thread logo.

How do you get Thread Certification?

The Thread certification program is open to Thread Group members. Thread Group membership also gives you access to all the tools needed to bring your Thread product to market quickly. Getting certification is achieved by submitting your product to an Authorized Test Lab (ATL). A list of ATLs will be maintained by Thread Group. Currently, UL is the approved test house for Thread certification.

Prior to submitting a product for certification, customers can test their solution against the Thread test harness (which is free to Thread Group members). The Thread Test Harness semi-automates the test cases defined in the Thread Test Plan. The harness sets up the required topology using the test bed reference devices, and runs the test steps within the Test Plan.

A test bed catalog is also available which lists the necessary equipment needed to build a test bed with mixed vendor devices. NXP offers cost reduced pricing to Thread members who order NXP devices from this catalog.

Our Thread software release also includes a Thread Stack Certification Harness Device under Test (DUT) User’s Guide which guides users through setting up the test harness and running it on an NXP device under test. By using the Thread Group test tools along with NXP’s certified stack and enablement, you can develop, debug and test your Thread product in your own workspace and then have high confidence of passing certification when submitting it to an ATL.

Where can I go for more information or help?

At NXP, we offer complete end-to-end solutions for building Thread products including end nodes, routers and border routers. Customers can leverage our extensive portfolio of scalable and lower power MCUs, wireless MCUs and our i.MX application processors for Linux-based border routers and gateways that come with complete software enablement. More information about NXP’s Thread solutions can be found at nxp.com/thread.

Additionally, we have an online community dedicated to Thread. Here you can find documents, discussions and Q&A from our Thread experts.

We are very excited to be leading the efforts in bringing Thread to market and look forward to seeing many innovative products from our customers!