Smart Home is a widely known term for making life as easy as possible in a Smart Home, whose systems are compatible, offering a whole range of conveniences that allow the user to integrate the many functions of the home and control them with a smartphone. Is it possible to close the roller shutters of the roof windows while running a cleaning robot in a stay in another city? Yes, but until now, integrating all the factors could be problematic.
Until now, any person who wanted to build or extend a Smart Home system had to solve many problems encountered along the way. Which wires, outlets and sensors fit together? How many apps and additional services need to be downloaded to support the devices to make everything work consistently? A new Smart Home standard based on Matter technology aims to make all of this easier.
Matter Technology is a composition of existing technologies, defining a way for devices using different low-level protocols to be able to understand each other on application layer. Matter is a kind of open-source connectivity standard, integrated with more than 200 leading companies. Its protocol, or communication language, uses existing technologies such as Thread, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Ethernet.
In practice, this would mean that all accessories that are compatible can be easily connected and controlled via a single application, while not revealing private/confidential information in the Cloud. Users’ confidential information is safe, and despite the use of many different accessories from many manufacturers, there is data security, which has been strongly emphasized in recent times. At least that’s what it’s developers promise. Is this true?
What is the Thread protocol?
Thread itself is a wireless communications’ protocol. It differs from Wi-Fi primarily in that each compatible device acts as a router for other devices in the Smart Home system. This means that such a network can be huge, because there is no problem associated with loss of range, as in the case of Wi-Fi. Hence, one can conclude that there is no need to limit the number of devices or applications in the Smart Home.
https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/matter-explained
Advantages of Thread
Unlike Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth, the Thread Protocol was specifically developed as a smart home protocol. This innovative system eliminates the problems faced by users of devices that connect via Bluetooth, which is very energy-intensive. ZigBee and Z-Wave systems, on the other hand, require dedicated hubs, which are cumbersome to set up and maintain and can be a crucial point of failure.
Matter and its Network
Matter acts as a way to combine IP technologies, including Ethernet, Wi-Fi, Thread and Bluetooth (to share different devices). Products from different manufacturers are difficult to integrate into a single Smart Home system because each “speaks” a different language. The Matter system makes it possible for each device in a smart home to be, in a sense, bilingual. This means that a smart device will communicate in its own language and the Matter communication language. As a result, equipment from different manufacturers will be able to interact with each other without any problems. This is a real market technical innovation. In this way, it allows all devices to communicate with each other locally, without the need to connect them to the Cloud. This means an easier way to integrate appliances into a Smart Home network. With the solution Matter offers, one never again has to wonder what smart equipment will be suitable for a user’s home. Then connecting equipment from different manufacturers will be possible, simple and fast!
Matter creates more connections between more objects, simplifying programming for manufacturers and increasing compatibility for consumers.
On November 3, 2022, an extremely important event took place in Amsterdam, the Inauguration of Matter-an organization called the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA), during which, an association of well-known manufacturers such as Amazon, Google, Apple, Ikea and many others officially launched Matter.
What does the Smart Home of the future promise and what can it already do today?
[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]The idea for the network was born around 2020, where major companies such as Apple, Google and Amazon joined the ZigBee Alliance to create a common connectivity standard for the aforementioned devices that improve Smart Home operations. At the time, the current Matter was laboriously named – CHIP(ConnectedHomeoverIP).
Since then, the topic was present, but still waiting for development, until November 3, 2022. That’s when the world learned that CHIP is now Matter, and that name spread even further, and the first version of the new protocol is expected to support connectivity using Ethernet, Wi-Fi, Google Thread (as you can see, ZigBee is missing), while Matter-certified devices are expected to be compatible with Google Assistant, Alexa, Smarting from Samsung and HomeKit from Apple.
The goal was to make it easier to integrate devices within a single Smart Home system, and to allow manufacturers to work on devices that work with different ecosystems and voice assistants.
It’s a revolution of sorts, showing how a single network is supposed to connect the products of the leading, often competing giants in the new technology market. What is the goal of this – collaboration to provide cutting-edge solutions and streamline the daily life of Smart Home users, who can use products from different manufacturers, creating a technological hybrid designed to ensure maximum convenience of use and compatibility.
Matter is a unifying industry Smart Home Standard, which promises reliable and secure connectivity, providing a guarantee that equipment will be well aligned with each other and fully compatible.
What about the Z-Wave or ZigBee system?
ZigBee and Z-Wave are currently the most popular connectivity systems in the Smart Home Industry. The aforementioned CSA (Connectivity Standards Alliance) or association of Smart Home technology manufacturers was established in 2019, and its previous name was the Zigbee Alliance. According to currently available information, the new association will maintain two connectivity standards – ZigBee and Matter. Z-Wave remains a competitor to the two aforementioned standards. It is possible that solutions will be created that will allow all communication language systems to work together, but Matter and Z-Wave will not be directly compatible with each other.
Bluetooth Mesh vs. Matter Technology
The Bluetooth Mesh concept officially emerged in 2017, being the next step in the evolution of the system,enabling the creation of extensive networks of modules that communicate with each other. They significantly extend the communication range and increase the size of the network. The adopted solutions allow efficient communication even with extremely low-power modules powered by batteries with small capacities.
The Bluetooth Mesh concept was developed as an answer to one of the main limitations of the BLE interface, namely the lack of multiple-to-multiple communication capabilities. BLE only allows one-to-one or one-to-many connectivity. Creating a network of devices communicating via BLE is also severely limited by the limited range of this type of transmission, especially in building interiors, where individual modules are often separated by many walls or obstacles that attenuate signal strength.
Communication based on a mesh topology (many-to-many) is also more suitable for IoT systems for functional reasons. An example would be a building management system with smart lighting installed in it. It can be controlled simultaneously by multiple sources, such as several different smartphones (of each household member), a motion sensor or wall switches.
Bluetooth Mesh technology has two layers, or communication protocols. This allows devices such as smartphones or tablets to communicate indirectly (using a GATT frame) with all modules in the network.
Typically, any network-powered Bluetooth Mesh module supports this functionality simultaneously, because it has enough power to continuously listen to the communication link. A relay-enabled module could be a wall light switch, for example. In Bluetooth Mesh technology, the process of adding a new node to the network is referred to as provisioning.
Matter technology circumvents the limited range of Bluetooth Mesh by making all equipment fully compatible, boldly stating that Matter technology is a step beyond Bluetooth Mesh.
What problems does Matter solve when it comes to Smart Home?
Among the most popular manufacturers of Smart Home solutions are systems offered by Apple, Google and Amazon. The obstacle faced by owners of their solutions is connectivity. Each of these companies is free to choose its own communication language for home devices. Rarely do they support all solutions. Therefore, consumers must often be limited to buying smart devices that “match” the ones they already have, usually from the same manufacturer.
This is changing thanks to Matter. The Matter standard ensures compatibility with most of the most popular ecosystems. This means that when you buy a device compatible with the new solution, you won’t have to worry about its compatibility with the smart home of the equipment user.
The first Matter-enabled devices are expected to appear at the end of 2022. Such declarations were made at a November meeting of the Connectivity Standards Alliance. According to the assumptions, support can be added to existing devices through a software update. The release of such an update has already been announced, for example, by Signify, which is responsible for Philips Hue or WiZ.
Is this the beginning of a smart home revolution? Time will tell.
