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We have lived in a connected world for decades, where we can call our friends and family anytime, anywhere. However, today’s technology transcends people-to-people connectivity. It enhances lives through the Internet of Things in the form of connected devices and Smart Home Solutions. All stakeholders benefit from sharing information on IoT devices. For a customer, it makes the experience seamless, while for an OEMs learn about improvements needed.
However, electronic devices vary massively in their shapes, sizes, capabilities, and power sources. Hence, OEMs widely use physical protocols including Wi-Fi, BLE, Zigbee, and Thread for inter-device communication. The protocol used depends on the type of device and overall infrastructure of the network. Matter on the other hand is a unified standard for smart home devices to bring secure interoperability.
There is a common misconception that Thread could be a replacement for Matter or vice-versa when they complement each other. Actually, Matter standard prefers Thread as the physical protocol against others. Thread is a light physical protocol suitable for battery-operated devices like smart lights, smart door locks, etc. Manufacturers prefer it over BLE because of its extended range, decentralized management, and mesh capability. It is also preferred over universally used Wi-Fi because of its low power consumption.
Devices running thread protocol have drastically longer battery life. The self-healing capability of Thread makes it even more suitable for implementing Matter standard in any smart home environment. All in all, Matter Vs Thread would be a flawed comparison, between an open-sourced connectivity standard and a physical protocol. A more suitable comparison would be “Thread vs Zigbee”.
Thread essentially succeeds another network protocol called Zigbee, offering the benefit of direct internet connectivity. Zigbee assigns 16-bit network addresses to each node, while Thread supports IPv6, allowing devices to have direct IP addresses. Ultimately, it simplifies the process of connecting devices to the internet.
In 2019, Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA) named the Project CHIP (Connected Homes Over IP), marking the origins of Matter standard. Eventually, CSA launched Matter in the year 2022. Today, CSA is a large consortium of 500+ companies including giants like Amazon, Google, and Apple. The smart home industry has been largely fragmented with OEMs dictating how their devices would work. OEMs have traditionally chosen physical protocols for devices and dictated how smart devices would work.
Hence, the industry needed standardization to enable secure interoperability between devices. Additionally, the transmission of information to cloud leads to privacy concerns among end consumers. Thus, the industry also needed a protocol to localize non-essential information to mitigate privacy concerns.
Localized operations on Matter protocol enables users to operate their IoT devices even without the internet. The consortium designed Matter to function smoothly over network protocols – Ethernet, Wi-Fi, and Thread. Moreover, a Thread Border Router can connect Thread devices and Wi-Fi devices to further enhance interoperability. Nonetheless, Thread remains a preferred choice for Matter standard considering its benefits over other protocols.
Matter over Thread currently faces multiple challenges despite offering interoperability, security, and improved user experience. In smart homes with vendor-locked and technologically rigid devices, interoperating Matter-compliant devices with old devices becomes a challenge.
One of the key characteristics of Matter over Thread is localization of control. However, this brings a challenge in remotely operating smart home devices and providing notifications to users in case of emergencies. Examples could be a fire situation or a user forgetting to turn her AC off. Transmitting this information to cloud could potentially solve this problem. Paradoxically, this hampers the localization of data, a key pillar of Matter over Thread.
Matter specification currently only outlines a limited number of functions for individual smart home devices. Additionally, no company leaves the internal features accessible to competitors, which leads to limited accessibility. Suppose you have a smart bulb at your home that changes the color and intensity of light. The bulb essentially follows prompts from a dedicated mobile application. Through a Matter application, you could only switch it on/off with limited access to other features.
Google Trends data displays a rise in the number of searches related to Matter standard between 2020 and 2022. However, the rise plateaued in 2023 and began to decline in early 2024. Clearly, the end consumer needs to be informed about the Matter standard and its benefits. Companies lacking any incentives to promote Matter protocol promote their own applications and features. Reviewers of the first Matter-Enabled AC in India, miss mentioning about Matter and its future-proof nature. An independent information site claims that smart assistant emblems currently gain more traction than Matter logo.
Manufacturers of IoT devices with physical protocols like BLE, Z-Wave, and Zigbee fragment the market to optimize individual devices. Investing in the Thread ecosystem for Matter compatibility presents a classic chicken or egg problem. All major OEMs wait for the expansion of Matter space before migrating, leading to stagnancy in adapting to Matter.
Despite the potential of Matter and Thread as futuristic protocols, consumers have a long way before fully adopting them. Awareness about Matter Vs Thread is essential to attract consumers towards Matter compliant devices.
Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA) must work on ways to increase consumer awareness in three steps. Firstly, showcase success stories of companies and consumers that adapted to Matter over Thread. Secondly, promotion of the standard in trade shows. Thirdly, regular updates to improve Matter standard democratically.
CSA should make certifications more affordable to facilitate the entry of small players into the space. The alliance should also work to increase the functionalities of devices that operate through a common application. Doing this would require concrete measures to safeguard internal details of each OEM.
Only through investing time and efforts to identify and promote mutual benefits to all the stakeholders, can the alliance bring out the best way forward for Matter over Thread.
