AllJoyn is an
open source software
Open-source software (OSS) is computer software that is released under a license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study, change, and distribute the software and its source code to anyone and for any purpose. Open ...
framework that allows devices to communicate with other devices around them. A simple example would be a motion sensor letting a light bulb know no one is in the room it is lighting, so it can shut itself off.
Originally the AllSeen Alliance promoted the project, from 2013 until 2016 when the alliance merged with the
Open Connectivity Foundation
The Open Connectivity Foundation (OCF) is an industry organization to develop standards, promote a set of interoperability guidelines, and provide a certification program for devices involved in the Internet of things (IoT).
By 2016 it claimed to ...
(OCF).
In 2018 the source code became hosted by
GitHub
GitHub, Inc. () is an Internet hosting service for software development and version control using Git. It provides the distributed version control of Git plus access control, bug tracking, software feature requests, task management, continuous ...
.
History
The AllJoyn technology was promoted by
Qualcomm
Qualcomm () is an American multinational corporation headquartered in San Diego, California, and incorporated in Delaware. It creates semiconductors, software, and services related to wireless technology. It owns patents critical to the 5G, 4 ...
in 2011.
In December 2013, Qualcomm signed over the source code and trademark to the
Linux Foundation
The Linux Foundation (LF) is a non-profit technology consortium founded in 2000 as a merger between Open Source Development Labs and the Free Standards Group to standardize Linux, support its growth, and promote its commercial adoption. Additi ...
with the creation of the AllSeen Alliance.
The alliance promoted interoperability for the
Internet of things
The Internet of things (IoT) describes physical objects (or groups of such objects) with sensors, processing ability, software and other technologies that connect and exchange data with other devices and systems over the Internet or other comm ...
, and a number of consumer brands signed on including
LG,
Sharp Corporation
is a Japanese multinational corporation that designs and manufactures electronic products, headquartered in Sakai-ku, Sakai, Osaka Prefecture. Since 2016 it has been majority owned by the Taiwan-based Foxconn Group. Sharp employs more than 5 ...
,
Haier
Haier Group Corporation () is a Chinese multinational home appliances and consumer electronics company headquartered in Qingdao, Shandong. It designs, develops, manufactures and sells products including refrigerators, air conditioners, washin ...
,
Panasonic
formerly between 1935 and 2008 and the first incarnation of between 2008 and 2022, is a major Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation, headquartered in Kadoma, Osaka, Kadoma, Osaka P ...
,
Sony
, commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...
,
Electrolux
Electrolux AB () is a Swedish multinational home appliance manufacturer, headquartered in Stockholm. It is consistently ranked the world's second largest appliance maker by units sold, after Whirlpool.
Electrolux products sell under a variety ...
,
Sears
Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began a ...
and
Arçelik
Arçelik A.Ş. is a Turkish multinational household appliances manufacturer which owns Beko and Grundig.
The company engages in the production and marketing of durable goods, components, consumer electronics and after-sale services. Its products ...
. Other members included
Silicon Image
Silicon Image is a provider of semiconductors for the mobile, consumer electronics and personal computers (PCs). It also manufactures wireless and wired connectivity products used for high-definition content. The company’s semiconductor and IP p ...
,
Cisco
Cisco Systems, Inc., commonly known as Cisco, is an American-based multinational digital communications technology conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develops, manufactures, and sells networking hardware, ...
,
TP-Link
TP-Link Technologies Co., Ltd. (), is a global manufacturer of computer networking products based in Hong Kong and Shenzhen, China.
History
TP-Link was founded in 1996 by two brothers, Zhao Jianjun ( ''Zhào Jiànjūn'') and Zhao Jiaxing ( ' ...
, Canary,
Changhong
Sichuan Changhong Electric Co., Ltd., doing business as Changhong () domestically and CHiQ internationally, is a Chinese consumer electronics company based in Mianyang, Sichuan, founded in October 1958. It is the second-largest manufacturer of t ...
, Two Bulls, Affinegy,
doubleTwist
doubleTwist Corporation is a digital media company founded by Monique Farantzos and Jon Lech Johansen. It is backed by Index Ventures (Skype, Last.FM) and Northzone Ventures.
The doubleTwist application enables users to send photos and videos t ...
,
Fon,
Harman,
HTC
HTC Corporation ( zh, t=宏達國際電子股份有限公司, s=宏达国际电子股份有限公司, p=Hóngdá Guójì Diànzǐ Gǔfèn Yǒuxiàn Gōngsī, first=t) or High Tech Computer Corporation, (literally ''Hongda International Electron ...
,
LIFX
LIFX (pronounced Life-X) is a line of energy-efficient, multi-color, Wi-Fi enabled, digital addressable LED light bulbs that can be controlled via a Wi-Fi equipped device such as a smartphone or smartwatch.
History
LIFX was originally manufact ...
,
Liteon
Lite-On (also known as LiteOn and LiteON) is a Taiwanese company that primarily manufactures consumer electronics, including LEDs, semiconductors, computer chassis, monitors, motherboards, optical disc drives, and other electronic components. T ...
,
Muzzley
Muzzley is an app to control Internet of Things devices. The app, available for iOS, Android and Windows 10 allows to control these devices. They provide third party devices integrations through their API's and SDK's for manufacturers to directl ...
, Onbiron, Sproutling,
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...
, and
Wilocity
Wilocity was a fabless semiconductor company based in California founded in 2007 developing 60 GHz multi-gigabit wireless chipsets for both the mobile computing platform and peripheral markets. Wilocity was founded in March 2007 by executive ...
On 10 October 2016, the AllSeen Alliance merged with the Open Connectivity Foundation (OCF). OCF sponsored both the
IoTivity
The IoTivity is an open source framework created to standardize inter-device connections for the IoT. Any individual or company can contribute to the project, and this may influence OCF standards indirectly. However, being a member of the OCF can ...
and AllJoyn open source projects at the
Linux Foundation
The Linux Foundation (LF) is a non-profit technology consortium founded in 2000 as a merger between Open Source Development Labs and the Free Standards Group to standardize Linux, support its growth, and promote its commercial adoption. Additi ...
. The expanded OCF board of directors consisted of executives from Electrolux, Arçelik A.S., ARRIS International plc, CableLabs, Canon, Cisco, GE Digital, Haier,
Intel
Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 seri ...
,
LG Electronics
LG Electronics Inc. () is a South Korean multinational electronics company headquartered in Yeouido-dong, Seoul, South Korea. LG Electronics is a part of LG Corporation, the fourth largest '' chaebol'' in South Korea, and often considered a ...
,
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...
,
Qualcomm
Qualcomm () is an American multinational corporation headquartered in San Diego, California, and incorporated in Delaware. It creates semiconductors, software, and services related to wireless technology. It owns patents critical to the 5G, 4 ...
,
Samsung
The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...
, and Technicolor SA. Within the merging process, the project's license was changed to the
Apache License 2.0.
Source code was located in the AllJoyn project repositories until the end of 2017.
In 2018, development ended after the source and documentation were copied to
GitHub
GitHub, Inc. () is an Internet hosting service for software development and version control using Git. It provides the distributed version control of Git plus access control, bug tracking, software feature requests, task management, continuous ...
.
Technology
AllJoyn provided a core system services for interoperability among connected products and software applications across manufacturers to create dynamic proximal networks using a
D-Bus
In computing, D-Bus (short for "Desktop Bus")
is a message-oriented middleware mechanism that allows communication between multiple processes running concurrently on the same machine. D-Bus was developed as part of the freedesktop.org project, ...
message bus.
[http://cdn.oreillystatic.com/en/assets/1/event/61/Peer-to-Peer%20Technology_%20Driving%20Innovative%20User%20Experiences%20in%20Mobile%20Presentation.pdf ] Qualcomm
Qualcomm () is an American multinational corporation headquartered in San Diego, California, and incorporated in Delaware. It creates semiconductors, software, and services related to wireless technology. It owns patents critical to the 5G, 4 ...
has led development of this open source project, and first presented it at the
Mobile World Congress
MWC Barcelona (formerly but still commonly referred to as Mobile World Congress) is an annual trade show organised by GSMA, dedicated primarily to the mobile communications industry.
The event is held in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain at the Fir ...
2011.
Unity Technologies
Unity Software Inc. (doing business as Unity Technologies) is a video game software development company based in San Francisco. It was founded in Denmark in 2004 as Over the Edge Entertainment (OTEE) and changed its name in 2007. Unity Technolo ...
has provided the 'AllJoyn Unity Extension' packaged with the AllJoyn SDK release 2.3.6 and above.
Original equipment manufacturer
An original equipment manufacturer (OEM) is generally perceived as a company that produces non-aftermarket parts and equipment that may be marketed by another manufacturer. It is a common industry term recognized and used by many professional or ...
and
original design manufacturer
An original design manufacturer is a company that designs and manufactures a product that is eventually rebranded by another firm for sale. Such companies allow the firm that owns or licenses the brand to produce products while having to engage in ...
partners included
Foxconn
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd., trading as Hon Hai Technology Group in China and Taiwan and Foxconn internationally, is a Taiwanese multinational electronics contract manufacturer established in 1974 with headquarters in Tucheng, New T ...
,
Technicolor
Technicolor is a series of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes, the first version dating back to 1916, and followed by improved versions over several decades.
Definitive Technicolor movies using three black and white films ...
,
LG-
Innotek,
LeTV
Le.com (), known legally as Leshi Internet Information and Technology Corp., Beijing, is a Chinese technology company, and one of the largest online video companies in China. It is headquartered in Chaoyang District, Beijing.
Leshi Internet ...
, and
Xiaomi
Corporation (; ), commonly known as Xiaomi and registered as Xiaomi Inc., is a Chinese designer and manufacturer of consumer electronics and related software, home appliances, and household items. Behind Samsung, it is the second largest ma ...
.
The AllJoyn software framework and core system services let compatible devices and applications find each other, communicate and collaborate across the boundaries of product category, platform, brand, and connection type. Target devices include those in the fields of Connected Home,
Smart TV
A smart TV, also known as a connected TV (CTV), is a traditional television set with integrated Internet and interactive Web 2.0 features, which allows users to stream music and videos, browse the internet, and view photos. Smart TVs are a techno ...
, Smart Audio, Broadband Gateways, and Automotive. The communication layer (and thus hardware requirements) was limited to
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio wave ...
.
The system used the
client–server model
The client–server model is a distributed application structure that partitions tasks or workloads between the providers of a resource or service, called servers, and service requesters, called clients. Often clients and servers communicate over ...
to organize itself. For example, a light could be a "producer" (server) and a switch a "consumer" (client).
Each "producer" on the network has an XML file called ''introspection'' that is used to advertise the device's abilities and what it can be asked to do.
It is possible to extend the AllJoyn framework's capabilities by bridging other protocols. Microsoft has added a technology called ''Device System Bridge'' that allows devices using home or building protocols such as
Z-Wave
Z-Wave is a wireless communications protocol used primarily for residential and commercial building automation. It is a mesh network using low-energy radio waves to communicate from device to device, allowing for wireless control of smart home d ...
and
BACnet
BACnet is a communication protocol for building automation and control (BAC) networks that use the ASHRAE, ANSI, and ISO 16484-5 standards protocol.
BACnet was designed to allow communication of building automation and control systems for applic ...
to appear on an AllJoyn network.
Microsoft integrated the AllJoyn runtime (standard client) and Router Node service in
Windows 10
Windows 10 is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It is the direct successor to Windows 8.1, which was released nearly two years earlier. It was released to manufacturing on July 15, 2015, and later to retail on J ...
.
The system had technology for audio streaming to multiple device ''sinks'' in a synchronized way.
AllJoyn provided services that could be integrated with its core, such as onboarding, configuration, notification, and control panel.
The Lighting Service Framework (LSF) service was integrated into the common device model service.
See also
*
Open Interconnect Consortium
The Open Connectivity Foundation (OCF) is an industry organization to develop standards, promote a set of interoperability guidelines, and provide a certification program for devices involved in the Internet of things (IoT).
By 2016 it claimed t ...
, a similar, competing standard
*
IoTivity
The IoTivity is an open source framework created to standardize inter-device connections for the IoT. Any individual or company can contribute to the project, and this may influence OCF standards indirectly. However, being a member of the OCF can ...
, a similar, collaborating open source project, also sponsored by
Open Interconnect Consortium
The Open Connectivity Foundation (OCF) is an industry organization to develop standards, promote a set of interoperability guidelines, and provide a certification program for devices involved in the Internet of things (IoT).
By 2016 it claimed t ...
References
External links
*
{{Home automation
Consumer electronics
Audio software
Digital television
Home automation
Internet of things
Linux Foundation projects
Open standards