The Joint Development Foundation, part of the Linux Foundation family, has launched the OpenSTX Foundation, a new community-driven initiative to promote Synchronous Transmission (STX)-based wireless networking as an open industry standard.

Designed for mission-critical environments, STX enables highly synchronized, low-latency wireless transmissions—ideal for industrial IoT, cyber-physical systems, and smart infrastructure. The foundation brings together industry leaders and research institutions to develop an enterprise-ready, vendor-neutral STX specification.

“Wireless infrastructure is critical to the future of industrial systems, cities, and connected devices—but it must be built on open, reliable, and interoperable foundations,” said Jim Zemlin, Executive Director of the Linux Foundation. “The launch of the OpenSTX Foundation reflects the Linux Foundation’s commitment to advancing open, community-driven standards that deliver real-world impact across sectors.”

Early backers of OpenSTX include Technology Innovation Institute, Fly4Future, Graz University of Technology, Imperial College London, SKF CNEA, University of Trento, Technical University of Darmstadt, and RedNodeLabs.

Key potential applications include:

• Industrial automation: real-time wireless control of machines and robots
• Smart cities: synchronized communication across traffic, power, and environmental networks
• Disaster response: instant ad-hoc wireless networks for first responders
• Logistics and tracking: scalable asset tracking with reliable updates

“OpenSTX is about more than a new wireless protocol—it’s about enabling resilient, time-sensitive communication in the environments that need it most,” said Dr. Michael Baddeley, Principal Researcher at TII and chair of the OpenSTX Foundation Steering Committee. “From factory automation to disaster response, STX brings determinism and reliability to use cases that demand both. By building this as an open standard, we’re ensuring interoperability, and broad accessibility from day one.”

Interested organizations and contributors can learn more and get involved at openstxfoundation.org.