Per the Thread 1.1.1 Specification, a Border Router connects a 802.15.4 network to networks at different layers, such as WiFi or Ethernet. A Thread network requires a Border Router to connect to other networks.
A Thread Border Router minimally supports the following functions:
- End-to-end IP connectivity via routing between Thread devices and other external IP networks
- External Thread Commissioning (for example, a mobile phone) to authenticate and join a Thread device to a Thread network
OpenThread's implementation of a Border Router is called OpenThread Border Router (OTBR). OTBR includes a number of features, including:
- Web UI for configuration and management
- Thread Border Agent to support an External Commissioner
- NAT64 for connecting to IPv4 networks
- Thread interface driver using wpantund
Note: This is an early MVP release of OpenThread Border Router that will be improved over time.
More information about Thread can be found at threadgroup.org. Thread is a registered trademark of the Thread Group, Inc.
All end-user documentation and guides are located at openthread.io. If you're looking to do things like...
- Learn about the OTBR architecture
- See what platforms support OTBR
- Build and configure OTBR
...then openthread.io is the place for you.
If you're interested in contributing to OpenThread Border Router, read on.
We would love for you to contribute to OpenThread Border Router and help make it even better than it is today! See our Contributing Guidelines for more information.
Contributors are required to abide by our Code of Conduct and Coding Conventions and Style Guide.
We follow the philosophy of Scripts to Rule Them All.
OpenThread Border Router follows the Semantic Versioning guidelines for release cycle transparency and to maintain backwards compatibility. OpenThread Border Router's versioning is independent of the Thread protocol specification version but will clearly indicate which version of the specification it currently supports.
OpenThread Border Router is released under the BSD 3-Clause license. See the LICENSE file for more information.
Please only use the OpenThread name and marks when accurately referencing this software distribution. Do not use the marks in a way that suggests you are endorsed by or otherwise affiliated with Nest, Google, or The Thread Group.
There are numerous avenues for OpenThread support:
- Bugs and feature requests — submit to the Issue Tracker
- Stack Overflow — post questions using the
openthreadtag - Google Groups — discussion and announcements at openthread-users
The openthread-users Google Group is the recommended place for users to discuss OpenThread and interact directly with the OpenThread team.
To learn more about OpenThread, see the OpenThread repository.