The Connectivity Standard Alliance (CSA) which delivers open standards for smart homes and the Internet of Things (IoT) has announced Matter- an answer to the interoperability issue of a smart home. Matter is a new protocol created to have a common communication language between IoT devices.
Matter, formerly known as Project Connected Home over IP (CHIP), was first announced in December 2019 by Amazon, Apple, Google, Comcast and Zigbee Alliance, now called CSA. This was later joined by many other members including Samsung, Huawei, Ikea and several others.
What is Matter?
Matter can be called a standard communication language between IoT devices. It isn’t any device or equipment. It is a universal connectivity standard to help solve the intercommunication challenge between smart homes and IoT devices in homes or offices.
It is an open-source protocol to help connect various devices under one roof with each other. Devices supporting Matter standards will come with a unique branding or logo indicating that the product can communicate with any other Matter-certified product from any manufacturer.
CSA states that “Matter is built around a shared belief that smart home devices should be secure, reliable, and seamless to use. By building upon Internet Protocol (IP), Matter will enable communication across smart home devices, mobile apps, and cloud services, and define a specific set of IP-based networking technologies for device certification.”
There are several devices that already support multiple platforms but Matter will help broaden this platform support.
How does Matter work?
Matter runs on Wi-Fi and Thread networks. WiFi enables the Matter badged devices to communicate with each other and with cloud over a local network. and allows smart home devices to communicate with the cloud.
Thread is a wireless protocol specially built for IoT devices to address its challenges like interoperability, security, reliability, range and energy. Thread can be regarded as the backbone of Matter as it ensures seamless communication between smart home devices and with the cloud.
Why do we need Matter?
Matter solves the biggest problem of having smart home devices which is the intercommunication between these devices. Say you have a smart light from one brand and a smart assistant from another brand. In this case, you won’t be able to control your light using your voice command. Matter will solve this problem by letting devices from any brand seamlessly communicate with each other.
Matter will also solve another biggest challenge of IoT devices which is the constant availability of internet connection. Matter will allow devices to work even when there’s no internet connection by reducing the dependency of IoT devices on Cloud.
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