If you have smart home devices at your home which are operated by multiple hubs or app.You feel trouble while selecting a smart device for home worried about the compatibility with hub available with you.If you are a developer working on various platform or working on different apps for yuor IOT devices,you are a manufacturer deploying your device on various IOT technologies.Then you may get reprieve from this hassles.The new unifying connectivity protocol called Matter may be the solve all the hassles for you.The matter is a initiative of the Project CHIP(Connected Home over IP) started by Connectivity Standards Alliance(Formerly known as Zigbee Alliance) or CSA along with the Big players like Amazon,Google,Samsung and lots of other companies in the IOT space
What is Matter?
Matter is a IP based reliable,flexible and secure wireless protocol.This protocol operates in ISM Band.It uses low bandwidth technology like Thread and high Bandwidth technology like WIFI6.It uses Bluetooth Low Energy protocol for commissioning the device in to the Network.
The Matter Protocol is Application level protocol which works with newer wireless protocol like Thread which provides mesh network and wifi6 wireless protocol which high bandwidth,secure Protocol. BLE or Bluetooth Low Energy protocol is used fro commissioning the device into the Matter Network.Some details about these wireless protocol is as given below.
Matter Architecture OverView(Image Credit : NordicSemi)
The Matter is based on the Thread protocol which supports 802.15.4 wireless specs along with WIFI
.The matter sits at the top level where application layer is located,
Thread: Thread is IPV6 based,secure mesh wireless protocol.It is reliable and it supports no single point failure feature.It is low power and self healing.The thread supports mesh network.The smart devices can communicate with each other through mesh network and can be run in lower power mode.The Border Router communicates with cloud or external network.The network can run locally without Internet.
WIFI6:The matter uses WIFI6 to communicate with cloud.The matter offers security of WAP3 level.The WIFI6 offers good network connectivity.
Bluetooth Low Energy: Ble is used to commissioning the device into the matter network.
How matter Works?
The Matter devices spread across the Home will communicate locally using the advantage of Thread mesh feature.The network communication will be robust as thread provides single point failure feature.The Border Router which could be part of any Smart Home device,will be used to communicate to the external network or cloud. In fact,there is no need of internet to operate the home devices when you are at Home as these devices can communicate with each other locally.When you are out of your home,then the Smart home devices can be operated remotely.The Thread and Wifi 6 will facilitate security to the next level making Home Automation secure.The matter provide privacy and protect the sensitive data from the attackers.
In order add the device to the network,BLE is a used to authenticate and securely add the device into the network.The matter protocol appears to be stable and secure as it uses already proven technologies.
Companies supporting Matter
Many Big players like Amazon,Google,Samsung,Apple are taking efforts to make matter successful/Apart from these other companies are more than two companies have joined this campaign.Some of them Belkin,Philips Hue,GE lighting and comcast. As these comapnies are rallying behind the matter means there may be surge in the demand for Smart home devices in the IOT space.Many of them have already announced that there are going releasing the Matter based devices in the market. Alexa Homekit,Google Home,Apple Homekit will be having the support for matter.These companies can release the software update to be flashed into the existing hardware. Many companies are also planing to release firmware to be updated on the existing hardware.
What will happen to old Smart Home Devices?
If you have devices which are using other technologies,then some manufactures have announced that they will release the update for these devices to make it compatible with matter.Amazon and Google and Apple have already announced that there will be an update to make Amazon Echo,Google Home,Apple kit hubs will get an update which will make them compatible with matter.For the manufactures ,if it is not possible to release the an update then matter compatible Bridge hardware will be released in the market.If you are planning to buy some Smart home Device then you can wait for sometime,sooner you may be getting Home Device based on matter.
When Matter Devices will be Released?.
Many matter devices were showcased during the Exhibition of Consumer Electronics show in jan 2022.As per the announcement,some devices may releases late in Year 2022 or early 2023.The first generation of the Matter devices will be based on the Matter Spec version 1.0.The Matter 1.0 specification was released in October 2022.The devices categories will be focused on, may be door Bell,Windows sliders,Thermostats, Lighting etc.We will also expect Matter based the amazon Echo,Google Apple Home,kit in the market.
Conclusion
Many big players in IoT Space are betting on this new technology i.e. matter,we may see many Home Automation Devices supporting matter in the market soon.Not all the devices types for Home Automation will be covered during first few releases of matter Devices.Effort are on from CSA to focus on releasing more and more devices based on the matter in the market.There may be boom seen in the Home Automation soon.Many Manufacturing companies in the IoT field may excited to see this happen,Let us see how matter is going to change the IoT Scene.
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