Miguel Afonso Caetano"In the early 2000s, mesh networks were on the verge of being everywhere and connecting everything. Daisy-chaining many devices like beads on a string would “accommodate hundreds or thousands of nodes” and provide “low, up-front cost, easy network maintenance, robustness, and reliable service coverage,” according to mesh-networking forecasts from 2004 and 2005, respectively.
But it would take over two decades to get there. During that time, a range of mesh protocols and standards emerged, each claiming to be the solution—only to flame out or splinter into new incompatibilities.
In 2026, mesh networks that can work together in real-world settings are finally arriving. But rather than a single dominant standard that could power all variety of mesh networks, three separate but interoperable technologies are instead reaching maturity more or less simultaneously: Thread 1.4, a mesh standard for low-power smart-home devices; the Wi-Fi 7 standard for high-bandwidth computing; and the smart-home protocol Matter, which acts as a translator, so devices on different mesh networks can talk to one another. Together, these three provide the beginnings of compatibility and interoperability that has eluded mesh proponents for so long.
However, this multistandard compromise may well only be a way station. “I expect that one mesh technology will eat all the others eventually, possibly incorporating them,” said Mihail Sichitiu, professor of electrical and computer engineering at North Carolina State University, in Raleigh. “Maybe not immediately, but eventually. Looking at how other things evolved, it’s just a matter of time.”"
https://spectrum.ieee.org/mesh-network-interoperable-thread
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