Explaining the mess before the Matter standard
The current state of the smart home market mirrors the early days of mobile app stores – divided and constrained. Picture this: a consumer buys a smart light bulb, only to realize it’s not compatible with their existing smart home system. The puzzle grows even more complex for manufacturers, having to navigate a fragmented ecosystem and make costly decisions that can make or break their product’s success.
The reality was that each device came with its own unique language, or protocol, making integration a challenge. From Wi-Fi to Zigbee, Bluetooth Low Energy, and Thread, every tech vied to be the standard for smart homes. This mess of languages held back the true potential of smart homes and the Internet of Things (IoT). This brought forth a question: why not have a single language that every device can understand? It would be unrealistic to swap out every existing gadget.
So this is where Matter came into picture. It’s the solution looking to make a standard. With Matter, it doesn’t matter who made the device; they can all communicate and work efficiently together. Plus, it embraces the technologies like Wi-Fi, Thread, and Bluetooth® LE. It’s built on trusted protocols like TCP and UDP with IPv6, ensuring connectivity across various devices on different networks.
Matter: A Collaborative Leap
Matter is not just another tech initiative. It’s a collective endeavor backed by the Connectivity Standards Alliance, tech giants like Apple, Google, and Amazon, as well as other key players in the tech industry. First introduced to the world in 2019 as Project CHIP, it underwent a rebranding in 2021 and emerged as Matter.
What’s Matter all about? At its core, it’s an open-source connectivity standard. Designed with a vision to tackle interoperability issues, it paves the way for faster and more cost-effective development in the realm of the Internet of Things (IoT). From smart homes to commercial buildings, Matter aims to speed up adoption, making our environments smarter and more connected. More than just a standard, it provides a unified solution for smart devices to harmoniously work together, leveraging an open-source reference stack courtesy of the Connectivity Standards Alliance.
Empowering Developers and Users Alike
Matter have a clear mission in mind: to simplify the process for developers to build secure and dependable solutions. If you’re aiming for your product to effortlessly communicate across major smart home ecosystems, Matter is your go-to choice.
For consumers and businesses, the beauty of Matter lies in the freedom of choice. Want to mix and match brands in your smart home or commercial building? With Matter, you’re guaranteed they’ll be compatible easily. Home users, especially those with different smart devices – think smart locks, ventilation systems, or voice-activated speakers, can integrate any new ‘Matter-certified’ gadget into their existing smart setup. The entire system acts together, functioning as a whole unit.
But Matter isn’t just about technical specifications. It stands out with its open-source reference implementation. For developers, there are tangible benefits: a quicker time to market, decreased reliance on a single vendor’s protocol stack, enhanced quality through testing for various use-cases, and security. Thanks to the transparency it offers to the developer community, vulnerabilities can be spotted and rectified in real-time, ensuring a safer smart ecosystem for all.
The New Standard for Smart Home
Matter’s standard is set to allow end devices, essentially the “things” in IoT, to communicate with Wi-Fi network “pods”. Through these pods, they can connect to the internet. This ensures data from sensor nodes can get to where they’re needed most. This approach makes Wi-Fi and Matter a prime pairing for complete indoor connectivity.
Both Matter and Wi-Fi 6 bring enhancements in energy efficiency to the table. And with the advent of Wi-Fi 7, it offers even more in this department, we can expect our devices to be even more energy-efficient and boast longer battery lives. Wi-Fi 7 devices have a unique advantage; they can connect to two bands at once, which means faster speeds thanks to band aggregation.
