Glimpse into Tomorrow

From the recent energy crisis to rising energy consumption, smart home solutions have become significantly popular among households. 

These tools reduce energy by cutting wasteful expenses. Plus, a smart home system may link all of the gadgets in a home and control them all at once. Over the years, many protocols and standards have been introduced to guarantee security across the entire smart home system. 

In this article, we’ll look at the recent smart home news, and real-life applications of these standards, and introduce Matter.

What is a Smart Home Standard?

There’s a very simple definition for a smart home standard: A smart home standard is a collection of protocols that determine the communication structure of all IoT devices in your home. It serves as a device's language, allowing it to communicate and engage with different connected home systems.

Smart Home Standards & Interoperability

A smart home standard's major goal is to guarantee interoperability and connection amongst devices from various providers. Devices supplied by multiple vendors will not interact without a defined protocol, limiting the value of the connected home ecosystem. Data transfer verification, error detection, and resolution are all supported by communication protocols. They also guarantee a safe and reliable flow of data between devices.

It is impossible to overestimate the significance of smart home safety. Smart home appliances can gather and store private information about us, such as our daily activities. If this information ends up in the wrong hands, it may be exploited maliciously for things like fraud or online stalking. Plus, hacked devices are often used to perform attacks like Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS), which are designed for shutting down the whole system.

Growing Challenges in Smart Home Device Fragmentation

Consumer IoT home devices are widely available in many different brands. While competition typically increases consumer options, it also creates a market that is quite fragmented and has an inconsistent user experience. The promised paradise of complete automation still eludes the majority of consumers despite the wide range of devices advertising interoperability with Alexa, Google Assistant, and other voice assistant solutions.

So far, it looks like a great deal of talk about interoperability has been limited to connectivity standards and the adoption of hubs that allow a mix of such protocols. From that standpoint, ecosystem suppliers like Samsung's Wink have done a tremendous job by consistently growing the list of compatible third-party devices and offering solutions to connect them, giving customers more options.

But this is limited in scope. Interoperability covers a lot more than only simple connection and device management. The convenience, automation, and security that homeowners demand from a smart home interface—whether it is an app or a speaker—is not always possible in a heterogeneous platform that can use and gather useful data from devices and extract insights.

Some of the Top Smart Home IoT Standards

There are many options available on the IoT market, so it all depends on the features you need for your smart home. We can explain each procedure to you and explain what it does and doesn't do well.

Knowing the various protocols can help you decide which gadgets, hubs, or applications to use when building your smart home, as well as ensure that you can scale if needed. Here are five popular standards, along with some older ones.

Wi-Fi

Due to its widespread use in various common applications, WiFi—possibly the most well-known of the bunch—offers the simplest and most reliable communication system for smart home systems. 

Since the majority of homes have WiFi routers, it is simpler and cheaper to use WiFi for device connection. In comparison to other standards, its substantial bandwidth makes it ideal for cases that need high data capacity, and its IP-based design implements IoT-based apps relatively simple and uncomplicated.

But the substantial power consumption, limited range, and high sensitivity to noise are the downsides that make WiFi unfit for the majority of rechargeable smart home applications. Still, there have been many advancements throughout time, with WiFi 6 being the latest version providing outstanding efficiency and range performance.

Z-Wave

There is a far smaller possibility of interference with Z-Wave since it operates on a low-frequency range. For anybody marketing its product as "Z-Wave Certified," Z-Wave also mandates robust encryption, making the technology far more hack-proof. Z-Wave can link devices together from as far away as 550 ft.

While Z-Wave can only link 232 devices, it is more than enough for the majority of smart home systems. High-quality sound and pictures may probably lower transmission speed. (This is why Z-Wave security cameras are not available.)

Zigbee

Zigbee is a new IoT standard that is well-received by customers. A 2.4GHz frequency is often used by the economical, lightweight Zigbee wireless network, which has a maximum indoor range of 100 meters. 

The high-level security protections that this protocol has built-in can provide users peace of mind. Plus, compared to its top rivals, Zigbee is safer in exchanging data between various devices. Zigbee and Z-Wave are comparable to one another in some aspects, such as providing 128-bit AES encryption, a superior safety function you can utilize.

Zigbee is capable of connecting with a maximum of 65,000 devices. However, not all Zigbee devices will be compatible with all Zigbee hubs. It's because the devices don't follow the same criteria established by Zigbee. So, make sure to check for compatibility before you buy any product.

Overall, Zigbee is affordable and reliable, but the 2.4GHz frequency may raise power consumption and cause interference issues.

Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)

BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy), commonly known as Bluetooth Smart, is a tweak to the standard Bluetooth system based on minimal energy use.

It is the result of a need to limit the volume of power used by devices, both when sending data and when inactive, to extend battery life. Yet, despite its easy setup and minimal latency, it is greatly limited by its narrow range.

Because of its energy efficiency, BLE is a popular communication standard for battery-operated smart home devices. It facilitates quick data exchange and direct device-to-device connection. It should be noted that Bluetooth has more functionality but uses more power. BLE may be used on smart lock systems and light bulbs.

Because of its limited range, BLE has a smaller reception area inside the home. It works great for lightweight applications, but it can't handle devices that need a lot of coverage or fast data transfers.

Thread

With Thread, a large bandwidth is not necessary because Thread is designed for IOT devices and attachments to exchange instructions and information. The average data transfer speed for smart home devices is 250 Mbps. While Thread is not great for streaming movies, it isn't really built for that purpose.

Just like some of the items on the list, Thread can save you a lot of energy and support mesh communications. These two are superb options for home automation devices. The key advantage, according to the Thread Group, is a connection via the IP protocol.

Because our computers, tablets, and cellphones all utilize IP, Thread can easily connect to already-existing hardware. This indicates that you can create a Thread network using your current hardware, saving you the cost of a new hub. Plus, IP has safety protocols that have been tried and proven over many years, so you can be sure it is secure.

The main issue with Thread is that it hasn't quite taken root in the Smart home IoT sector. But given that the company is supported by several well-known figures in the home automation software industry, we believe that a change is imminent. But, for now, other options are more promising than Thread.

Older Protocols: X10, Insteon, and Universal Powerline Bus (UPB)

We talked about five different smart home standards that are currently popular. But, besides these, there are three other protocols that were common before and still have merit in some cases. They are:

• X10: The earliest home automation technology was called X10, and it was created in the 1970s. Many electrical controls still use this wired protocol, although it has mostly lost popularity to rapid wireless protocols.
• Insteon: Insteon attempts to combine wired and wireless technologies. It produces a mesh network, just like Zigbee and Z-Wave. The distinction is that Insteon utilizes two frequencies on top of its wired system to boost speed and reliability. However, compared with a few of the other standards, Insteon operates in a few home automation verticals.
• Universal Powerline Bus (UPB): Though less prevalent than X10, Universal Powerline Bus is more up-to-date and trusted. With the help of this technology, your home's wiring may serve as a network for signal transmission. While X10 devices are more functional than UPB ones, UPB is far behind competing protocols and solutions in terms of efficiency, safety, and compatibility.

What is Matter IoT?

Amazon, Google, and a handful of other partners developed the Matter home automation standard in 2019. The Zigbee Alliance, currently known as the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA), is responsible for maintaining Matter. The standard promotes system and device interoperability with no royalties. November 2022 saw the formal debut of the Matter IoT standard.

Matter fixes a problem with existing IoT devices that is common: The devices need a steady online connection. IoT devices used to be completely reliant on the cloud, making them worthless when you were cut off from the web.

Without constant connectivity to the cloud and other cloud services, Matter enables your devices to function offline. Matter is even more helpful since it reduces your dependency on the cloud and increases device security, which is necessary for critical devices like smart door locks and CCTV systems. To provide you with every advantage in a smart home, it combines every element.

The Promise of Matter

Here are several ways that Matter might make life easier for those who use these connected IoT devices and those who offer IoT and IIoT development services:

Ease of Use

If someone's smart home automation works with Matter, they get an added layer of convenience. The standard integrates every device in a user's house, leading to fewer technical issues. A user doesn't need a lot of applications to control their home management system, either. With Matter, a user can quickly and easily control their IoT devices from one app.

Access For the Whole Family

Another benefit of Matter for families is offering simple, multi-admin access. Irrespective of the number of people in the family, any person may use the applications on their smartphone to access devices. This indicates that many apps can be used to control Matter items. Each user may also set the devices they want to stay linked to.

Rich Variety

Users no longer have to select items with certain connectivity standards to work with the smart home system. They may choose any devices they want having no worry about whether they'll work with other gadgets. They can buy Apple lightbulbs and Amazon smart speakers with confidence because everything will work as it should.

Affordable & Innovative

Manufacturers of smart home products won't have to pay any royalties to utilize Matter because it is an open-source protocol. Plus, Matter gives the smart home industry different development opportunities. Tech firms increase the number of customers who may buy their items for their smart home systems by developing Matter products. By doing this, Matter helps startups compete with industry titans like Apple and Amazon in the field of smart home technology.

Matter & Compatibility across Different Platforms and Ecosystems

As more people use IoT devices for automating their homes, the smart home industry is expanding quickly. But because IoT devices often use multiple communication standards, interoperability within a smart home network can become a problem.

Matter was developed to address this issue by offering an open-source, all-encompassing solution that allows smart home devices of any brand to connect with one another. The protocol simplifies the initial setup for consumers by allowing them to simply connect Matter-compatible products to their system instead of going through a tedious configuration procedure.

Matter promotes connectivity, allowing various kinds of devices to operate together easily under the supervision of a single app. Matter also offers great data security because it utilizes end-to-end encryption to safeguard device interactions. This integration allows various companies to minimize time-to-market and increases device choices for end customers.

Availability and Supported Categories

With such benefits, it’s no surprise to see small and large companies using Matter to develop cutting-edge IoT devices that can serve their main purpose: Interoperability. In just a short period, many tech giants have rolled out products with Matter. Some of them are:

Google

By the end of the year 2022, Google included Matter compatibility in several of its Nest and Android products. Matter devices are supported by the Google Home app, and many Google Assistant devices could function as Matter centers.

Apple

In the final stages of 2022, Apple put Matter compatibility into its iPhone and iPad products featuring iOS/iPadOS 16.1. Users can gain access through Siri.

You can go to Settings > General > Matter Accessories to access and adjust the Matter devices that are now linked to your iPhone or iPad. You can check out every one of your Matter-supported devices from a single spot, no matter what app you utilized to configure them. 

To utilize the updated menu, you must possess at least one Matter device linked to your smartphone. In essence, if you already have a lot of smart home gadgets, you cannot access this option in the iOS Settings until those devices have Matter compatibility or you install another Matter-supported device.

Samsung

Samsung has also had a part in the development of Matter. It introduced Matter features through its SmartThings devices and Android app in October. Such hubs serve as Thread border routing devices and Matter controls. Users can link Smart Samsung refrigerators, TVs, and displays that use Matter.

As with always, the CSA intends to integrate Matter more into smart CCTV cameras, smoke alarms, vacuums, dishwashers, and air quality monitors. Vendors of smart home devices will have a wider range of items to offer their clients.

The Future of Smart Home Standards

Smart home systems have a wide range of uses, and as technology develops—especially now that the Metaverse is here—those applications and features will get more sophisticated. Therefore, only more people will be waiting in line to buy IoT Matter devices.

Plus, with the growing demand for a truly connected smart home experience, people will have many more IoT devices on their hands that could turn into more security holes and leave them exposed to hacker attacks. So, the market share will belong to those who can provide Matter-supported devices with ultimate privacy and easy setup. We at Lanars have done that for many companies and we can do that for you as well. Just get in touch and let us help.