Sigma Designs makes Z-Wave protocol partly open source

Sigma Designs, owner of the Z-Wave protocol, has made some of the protocol’s specifications open source. It involves the interoperability layer, along with the S2 security framework and two APIs: Z-Wave-over-ip and Z-Wave middleware.

Until the code was released, manufacturers had to sign a non-disclosure agreement, after which access to the Z-Wave Alliance developer kit could be obtained. Over the years, several initiatives and projects have been started to reverse engineer the protocol, such as OpenZWave.

Z-wave is mainly used in internet-of-things and smart home applications. Among other things, it makes use of setting up a mesh network between the different devices that are in contact with each other. Devices that depend on a battery also have a low energy consumption, because fewer distances have to be traveled via the mesh network to a transmitter-receiver that is, for example, connected to the mains. In addition, all Z-wave hardware and software work together, regardless of the brand or type, or the version of the protocol that is used.

In a post on the Sigma Designs site, Justin Hammond, developer of OpenZWave, says opening up the protocol will strengthen the open source community around z-wave. The Z-Wave Alliance does remain the regulator for what happens to the Z-Wave brand and ensures the certification of products that use the protocol and are put commercially ‘on the market’.

By making some of its Z-Wave technology open source, Sigma Designs is competing with other indoor IoT protocols such as bluetooth, Nest’s Thread, and Zigbee.