I see a lot of confusion in the thread regarding IoT, and to clear up some of that, IoT operates across multiple different layers of the OSI model: PHY, Network, Application. PHY is how data is modulated (think radios, etc), Network is how data is shared / routed (think WiFi), Application is the contents of the data across the network (ie, Light: Off)<p>IEEE 802.15.4 - a PHY standard, equivalent to 802.11 standards that WiFi is built on top of.<p>Z-Wave - a recently acquired technology that vertically slices the entire OSI model, defining PHY interaction, network communication, and application. SiLabs recently acquired it, but it has always only offered chips from a single company.<p>Zigbee - multiple versions of several standards: the most popular used the 802.15.4 standard for the PHY, but used custom networking and custom application layers.<p>Thread - a 6LoWPan mesh network protocol, built on top of 802.15.4. It provides the Networking layer, but does not define application layers. Allows for IPv6 traffic. It also defines some security and BLE interop. Lots of companies make Thread chips and offer their own Thread stacks<p>Matter - an Application layer standard that defines the shape and behavior of messages sent across a variety of different networking technologies: Thread, WiFi, etc. Requires IPv6, and potentially border routers to translate the PHY differences.