Particle Rolls Out IoT Mesh Networking Hardware

Internet of Things platform provider Particle announced three mesh networking devices on Tuesday, aimed at improving the size of IoT networks while reducing the overall cost for customers.

The three devices all offer mesh networking, alongside Bluetooth, Wi-Fi or LTE. Developers are able to choose which standard best fits their needs, Bluetooth for smaller areas, LTE for larger.

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Here are the prices:

• Argon, Wi-Fi, mesh and Bluetooth – $15 per device,
• Boron, LTE, mesh and Bluetooth – $29 per device,
• Xenon, mesh and Bluetooth – $9 per device.

Particle Mesh reduces the need for a direct link to cloud services. That makes the set-up and running of IoT networks cheaper because devices do not need to be constantly connected through Wi-Fi or LTE to remain active. Particle says that this has been a barrier to IoT expansion for some companies.

The mesh networking also makes the networks smarter, as they can learn from each node and self-heal parts of the network.

“We built Particle Mesh to address a gap in the market: building local networks to connect IoT products to each other without being a networking guru. We’re excited to see what problems our customers solve with this new technology,” said Zach Supalla, Particle co-founder and CEO.

Particle Mesh is built on OpenThread, the open standard for IoT networks developed by Nest Labs.

“Thread was created to support developers in building connected products with a networking protocol that activates the internet in IoT,” said Grant Erickson, President of Thread Group.