What Is Thread & How Does It All Connect?
Photo Credit: JuSun - iStock
Thread is emerging as one of the most meaningful connectivity layers in smart homes today, shaping how devices discover each other, stay online, self-heal, and operate efficiently. Last week we explored Matter 1.5, the device language reducing interoperability friction across ecosystems. This week follows as its natural continuation, focusing on Thread, the IPv6-first mesh protocol increasingly selected to provide the network foundation beneath Matter deployments.
Consumers rarely think about the network until it fails, but for the industry, it’s absolutely top of mind. Rising MDU (Multi Dwelling Unit) density, overlapping hub environments, battery device expectations, and demand for resilient, encrypted, IP-based communication are driving a quiet but irreversible shift, developers, manufacturers, and mainstream brands are choosing Thread as their mesh foundation.
This moment mirrors past standard transitions in the smart home category: protocols evolve, ecosystems adopt, and consumer expectations shift around them.
Thread, Explained Simply
The Basics
Thread is a low-power, wireless mesh networking protocol that lets smart home endpoints talk over IPv6, locally, reliably, and securely. Unlike Zigbee, which requires gateways or bridges to translate radio language into internet language, Thread speaks IP natively, assigning devices globally unique IPv6 addresses that can be routed without additional gateways or translation layers.
Core characteristics that define Thread:
IPv6-first, it is built to function on modern internet addressing from day one
Self-healing mesh, if one device drops, others reroute traffic locally
Low power persistence, battery devices can sleep without disconnecting
No proprietary relays, Thread can operate without vendor-built cloud middlemen
Secure commissioning, devices join the mesh with encrypted credential handoffs
How the Mesh Forms
Thread networks are formed by nodes. Each node can talk to multiple neighbors, and if needed, pass traffic forward for other devices. This creates a distributed network, instead of a single hub bottleneck.
Border Routers, The Brain of the Mesh
To bridge your local Thread mesh to Wi-Fi or Ethernet when internet access is required, Thread uses border routers, hubs or speakers with Thread radios onboard that route traffic between Thread endpoints and your home’s IP network.
Major border router makers shipping Thread hubs include some of the world’s top tech players:
Border routers don’t have to run the same software, or come from the same vendor, multiple can coexist in one home, extending the mesh without interfering.
The Industry Shift, Thread Is Becoming the Baseline
From Single Hub to Multi-Node Mesh Thinking
Hubs are evolving from controllers that individually delegate device commands to routers that orchestrate entire networks locally, routing activity between endpoints over IP mesh. This signifies a transition from point-to-point radios, or gateway translation requirements, to distributed multi-controller network fabrics, where control and routing become a system-wide behavior.
“Hubs and routers don’t manage one device at a time, they unify entire meshes and talk over IP. That’s what Thread was built for and it’s finally delivering in the mainstream,” noted Jennifer Pattison Tuohy at The Verge.
Digital Trends echoes this future-oriented direction, stating, “Thread border routers are evolving into the backbone, and future smart homes may have more than one active router per home, reducing interference points and improving network resilience.”
MDU Density as a Catalyst
Protocol scalability becomes mission-critical in apartments (MDU/MDUs or Multi Dwelling Units), dorms, condos, and multi-floor living. Bluetooth struggles in range and interference, Wi-Fi strains under volume and router overlap, and gateway-based protocols introduce complexity and latency. Thread is being chosen to solve these challenges most meaningfully because it eliminates the need for vendor-specific gateways, reduces multi-device interference issues, and ensures that battery, wellbeing, and access hardware behave predictably across a mesh.
Thread + Matter, The Most Cooperative Pairing
Matter Defines Behavior, Thread Defines Resilience
Matter 1.5 (and earlier versions) give smart home devices a universal application language. Thread gives them an underlying mesh network, where that language can be transported across overlapping controllers and endpoints reliably.
Key aspects of the pairing:
Language layer → Matter 1.5
Transport layer → Thread mesh over IPv6
Radio layer → IEEE 802.15.4
Topology → Distributed mesh, multiple hubs can share routing duties
Battery efficiency → Sleepy End Device (SED) support
Security → Encrypted, local-first credential handoffs
IKEA’s standard transition underscores this cooperation best.
IKEA’s Thread Bet, A Major Mainstream Signal
Ikea relaunched its smart home portfolio with 21 Matter-compatible devices built primarily on Matter-over-Thread, providing one of the clearest, most mainstream commitments to Thread infrastructure and endpoints so far. The updated DIRIGERA Hub now operates as both a Matter controller and a Thread border router, and bridges older non-Matter hardware via bridging, eliminating the risk of ecosystem abandonment. Affordable endpoints like bulbs and remotes can pair directly out-of-the-box using TouchLink, reinforcing the usability-first values driving the Thread push.
David Granath, Range Manager at Ikea of Sweden, emphasized this pivot clearly: “The baseline was shifting to a new technology, from Zigbee to Thread, but we also looked to make them more affordable, easier to use and more interoperable.”
Why IKEA matters to this story:
It validates global hardware adoption, not niche tech experiments
It flips the default from gateway requirements to IP-native mesh
It pushes multi-hub-connected living forward
It makes affordability part of the standard story
It ensures battery devices stay on the mesh while asleep
It reinforces that Thread is being built into everyday home products at scale
That makes Thread mainstream, interoperable, and hard to ignore.
Consumer Reality, The Network Matters More Than the App
What modular products in the presence sensor category also underscore is battery endpoints’ reliance on mesh persistence. Meross recently updated its MS605 to use Thread mesh connectivity specifically to achieve up to 3 years of battery life via CR123A, while still allowing users to utilize any Thread-capable hub for commissioning without vendor lock-in. The move signals that gateway-free commissioning, battery-first placement, and mesh persistence matter far more than what app ships the control UI.
Delbert Sun also called out protocol fragmentation concerns when discussing Thread and Matter as the most cooperative pairing: “Protocol fragmentation is the biggest obstacle and Matter + Thread is the key to breaking it.”
Next 5 Years, The 2030 Lens
Manufacturers and developers are now optimizing for:
Multiple border routers per home
Sleep persistence for battery devices
IPv6 mesh fabrics for interference resilience
Local message delegation, not vendor cloud routing
Dense housing scalability with no gateway translation
A smart home that responds instantly to sensors, locks, and device state
Thread is reshaping the smart home industry by creating a new baseline for IP-first mesh networking, low-power endpoints, multi-hub scalability, and encrypted local communication. Mainstream brands committing to Thread hardware, especially IKEA, are signaling that consumer expectations for reliability, low battery drain, and interoperability across ecosystems will increasingly depend on Thread rather than app-specific routing or proprietary gateways.
Matter gave devices a shared language. Thread ensures they can actually use it, without chaos, with less friction, and with better resilience in our respective homes.
