Google Home Hub (October 9, 2018)

[JDRoberts]

OK, I found more details. Still not a hub.

CYNC Devices and Google Home

The C by GE bulbs are using a proprietary Bluetooth mesh which is most similar to ZLL: it’s a hubless network. These bulbs work without any hub at all. Google devices are just joining the same network, but they are not establishing the network. Think of it like a hue Bridge.

The Technical Reason why that Hue device is a Bridge, not a Hub

Warning: super technical network engineering explanation follows. But the short answer is just that it’s a bridge by definition. The longer answer: A bridge (or gateway) converts requests in one protocol to that of another. The hue bridge is a Wi-Fi/ZLL Bridge. The bridge does not, however, “establish” the network. That is it does not assign network IDs to other devices that join to it or control which devices join. Instead, because the hue bridge is a ZLL device, there is no establishing coordinator on its network. [IMG_4091] A ZigBee Light Link network has no ZigBee network coordinator, even a bridge device merely acts as a router {repeater} So it’s a bridge per the definition of bridge in the ZLL specification. The end devices don’t need the bridge in order…

The Google device will act as a Wi-Fi/proprietary Bluetooth bridge. But not a hub.