It seemed like a farfetched thought to even imagine top competitors such as Google (News - Alert), Amazon and Apple working together to find an IoT solution to have smart home devices communicate with each other in a seamless and reliable fashion.
Well, that became a reality as those three were among 280-plus members of the Connectivity Standards Alliance that brought their technologies, experience and innovations together to help release the Matter 1.0 specification and the opening of the Matter certification program.
Matter is built around a shared belief that smart home devices should be secure, reliable and seamless to use. By building upon IP, Matter enables communication across smart home devices, mobile apps and cloud services, and defines a specific set of IP-based networking technologies for device certification. With Matter’s seal of approval that smart devices work together, light bulbs, door locks, TVs and even window shades will communicate with each other more reliably and seamlessly.
"What started as a mission to unravel the complexities of connectivity has resulted in Matter," said Tobin Richardson (News - Alert), president and CEO of the Connectivity Standards Alliance. "This release is the first step on a journey our community and the industry are taking to make the IoT more simple, secure and valuable no matter who you are or where you live.
With the release of the Matter 1.0 certification program, member companies now have a program for bringing the next generation of interoperable products that work across brands and platforms to market with greater privacy, security and simplicity for consumers.
Authorized test labs are open for product certification, test harnesses and tools are available, and the open-source reference design SDK is complete and ready to drive new, innovative products to market. Alliance members with devices already deployed and with plans to update their products to support Matter can now do so, once their products are certified.
The Matter 1.0 standard's global certification program includes eight authorized test labs for Alliance members primed to test not only Matter, but also Matter's underlying network technologies, Wi-Fi and Thread. Wi-Fi enables Matter devices to interact over a high-bandwidth local network and allows smart home devices to communicate with the cloud. Thread provides an energy efficient and highly reliable mesh network within the home.
The Wi-Fi Alliance (News - Alert) and Thread Group partnered with the Connectivity Standards Alliance to help realize the complete vision of Matter.
"We would not be where we are today without the strength and dedication of the Alliance members to accomplish what no single company could ever do on their own," said Bruno Vulcano, chair of the Alliance Board and R&D manager for Legrand Digital Infrastructure.
The initial release of Matter runs over Ethernet, Wi-Fi and Thread as well as Bluetooth Low Energy for device commissioning to support various common smart home products. With global support from various companies of all sizes, only time will tell to see what is actually possible with Matter.