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Matter: In Between the Tech, Season 3 Episode 3, Part 3

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Transcript

Raymond Yin:
Welcome to In Between the Tech, today we’re rounding out Mouser’s look at Matter. Sujata Neidig, Director of Marketing for Wireless Connectivity at NXP Semiconductors, sits down with Mouser to share her thoughts on the Matter protocol. Sujata has been working on Matter from early days and has a unique perspective on what the protocol can do for the smart home.

Question: What is Matter?

Sujata Neidig:
Matter is a new protocol for the smart home - a new technology to enable smart home devices. It is a unified protocol. Think of it as a common language that all smart home devices can speak to each other with. It enables smart devices in the home to talk to each other using the same language regardless of what brand that device is from. Also, it works across all the major smart home platforms. Whether you're using Alexa or Siri and Home Kit or Google, it will work across all those platforms. Matter enables true interoperability of smart home devices for consumers. It enables consumers to choose the devices they want and have them just work across all of their other smart devices. To do that, it simplifies the decision-making process, the installation, and the use of smart home devices. For device manufacturers or IoT developers, Matter provides a standardized way to drive this interoperability with security also kept in mind. It simplifies the process for developers, and it increases the market size for companies because now they can build one SKU or one product line to service all of the smart home platforms.

Question: What is the hardware behind it and the software it needs to operate?

Sujata Neidig:
Matter, although it's a new protocol and a new technology, it leverages a lot of well-known and deployed technologies. From a hardware perspective, Matter is a protocol for wireless connectivity. It uses already available radios on how devices connect to each other. Matter defines the language and then how the devices connect to each other. It's using either Thread, Wi-Fi or Ethernet.

So Wi-Fi of course, is ubiquitous. Everybody knows Wi-Fi. It connects devices and allows for streaming high data rate, high bandwidth. Streaming video or audio Thread is a relatively new technology, but it's very similar to others, like ZigBee, that have been in the market for more than 15 years.

Thread is built on an IEEE 802.15.4 radio. That's a common radio that's been designed and deployed for low power mesh networks to enable devices doing low data rate up functions like control. So, you're not streaming audio video, but you need a reliable network so that the devices can communicate to each other reliably.

Ethernet is a wired way. It's similar to Wi-Fi, it's well known and deployed, but it provides a wired option.

The other technology from a wireless connectivity perspective that Matter leverages as Bluetooth low energy. Bluetooth, of course, is also very common in everybody's cell phones and tablets. Bluetooth is used as a way of commissioning or onboarding Matter devices to a network. A user or a consumer can use their smartphone and scan a QR code. Let's say they bring home a new smart light bulb, it'll come with a QR code for installation, you use your phone to scan it, and then Bluetooth is used, to deliver that information to the Matter device and be onboarded onto the network.

That's from a hardware perspective, it's using the 802.15.4 radio for Thread. It uses another 802.11 radio for Wi-Fi and then Ethernet from a software enablement. Again, the way the devices connect that already exists with Thread, Wi-Fi, Ethernet, the software enablement for that. What Matter does on top of that, is Matter provides the application. It defines a library of data models. It defines for a light bulb or smart blind or a door lock. What are the characteristics? Whenever a device is talking to another device, it knows how to control or operate that because a light bulb has on, off, dim - different characteristics. Matter defines a common set of models for all of these different device types. the software is implemented by Matter because Matter is more than a spec. Matter is a standard owned by the Connectivity Standards Alliance and they develop the specification as well as a certification program and a software development kit. Anybody can go look at it and see what the code is, the implementation. So for developers, they can leverage the devices they've already used in their smart home products and then they can leverage the open source community from the software enablement perspective for Matter.

Question: With so many smart home protocols available, what makes this one different from the others?

Sujata Neidig:
It's a unified approach and it really addresses the big challenge in today's smart home market, the interoperability or incompatibility that we see today. Today, all of these smart home platforms that I talked about, whether it's Apple, Amazon, Google, Samsung Smart Things, they tend to use different protocols and technologies. That means the devices that are developed to work with one platform don't work with another Matter provides this defragmentation so that there's a common language and it doesn't build everything from scratch. It leverages other technologies that are already available. Developers and manufacturers of smart home products don't have to create a whole new platform with all new hardware and software. That's what's unique about Matter. The other thing I would say that is very compelling with Matter is it's a market driven approach. It's defining the use cases and what the problem statements are and how to address them, and then building the technical solution. It's not about building the best technical solution, it takes into consideration what are the deployment concerns and issues, what are the usage concerns and issues, and how do we make something that works across the board? I think Matter is doing all that. It's providing this interoperability seal of approval for consumers, an easier way for developers who design smart home products while also taking into consideration emerging concerns or technologies like security. How do we make our devices more secure? How do we make installation seamless? That's what Matter is able to do.

Question: Will the average consumer need additional devices to make Matter work?

Sujata Neidig:
That's going to be very dependent on what different manufacturers do with their platforms, but the basic answer is no, because smart home devices in homes today, can be upgraded to support Matter. Many companies have already announced, especially from the smart speaker voice assistance, perspective, Amazon, Google, Apple have all either already made updates to their platforms to support Matter and it's a software download because again, it's leveraging existing hardware. Devices in homes today can be upgraded to support Matter. And the other thing that Matter does is in order to not, orphan devices that are already in consumers’ homes, Matter defines a bridge functionality. Companies can leverage that to bridge legacy platforms or technologies into the Matter network. For example, if you have a, a ZigBee light bulb, well that ZigBee light bulb has a hub of some sort to communicate to all of the ZigBee light bulbs, you can update that hub to support this function of translating from the ZigBee network to the Wi-Fi network. And then Wi-Fi is supported by Matter. So the light bulbs can be seen on the Matter network. With Matter, it's not obsoleting what's already in consumers’ homes. And I think that's another compelling reason why companies are converging and using Matter. It solves some problems in the market that's hindering growth without obsoleting and orphaning devices and leaving users frustrated.

Question: What would cause a segment of the manufacturer community to oppose Matter?

Sujata Neidig:
I would reframe that. Matter is opening new doors for companies to build new devices to work across all kinds of other devices and across platforms. And so I the way I see it is that IoT or smart home manufacturers have to re-look and reevaluate their business model and the experiences they want to deliver to their users and how do they want to differentiate? So not necessarily opposition, I think it's more that it might take time for some companies or industries to really evaluate how can they leverage Matter and build a business model that provides a way for them to differentiate. This a migration strategy because if they are using other technologies, how do they migrate their platforms and their customer base from the old technology to the new technology. Bridging is one way that can help, but at some point, all new products are only supporting Matter type things.
That's going to be specific to each company and how they build their go-to-market plans. I think Matter, like I said, works with other technologies and opposition typically it's always change can be difficult and so what is the investment cost that's needed to make this move? But I think the opportunity that Matter opens is far larger and looking at how to build a path towards that instead of just saying, I'm going to adopt it right away. There are companies who are early adopters and then there are going to be companies who are going to wait to make sure that there's a whole set of devices and companies out there that are supporting Matter before they bring their devices out. I would reframe it as at opposition, yes, but not opposition to change. It's more they need time to figure out how do they make that change.

Question: How is Matter poised to impact manufacturers?

Sujata Neidig:
I'll answer that in two ways. For manufacturers, the first aspect is the smart home market has grown over the last 15 years, maybe even more than 15 years. However, it has not grown at the rate that analysts and even the industry predicted. Some of the issues that are hindering that growth is this lack of interoperability or lack of compatibility. Matter addresses that and if you can address that key challenge for adoption of smart devices, then the market potential grows exponentially. For manufacturers, they have a much larger TAM. Think about all the major platform providers, Apple, Amazon, Google, Smart Things, Comcast, Ikea, they're all converging on Matter. Now as a manufacturer, I can build a product and service all of those markets. So that's one aspect.
The second aspect is the actual act of development and deployment. For manufacturers today, building smart devices is complicated. Wireless connectivity is complicated. Getting technologies to work with each other is complicating getting things certified and making sure the product works with other products in the market. It's complicated if you're building a smart home device, it has to work in a network with other devices. It's not just a standalone unit that a user or consumer interacts with. Matter is helping developers ease that experience and being able to really develop and bring to market and deploy easy to install, secure, and compatible devices.

Question: How will consumers distinguish between compliant and non-compliant Matter devices? Will devices receive a labeling symbol like those seen on energy-efficient appliances?

Sujata Neidig:
Matter has a logo that's attached to it. Every Matter device goes through a certification process through the Connectivity Standards Alliance and Matter, as I had previously mentioned, uses other technologies like Thread and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Matter requires certification, you have to have proof that you've certified these underlying technologies too. Once you pass these certifications and basically, certification means that there's test plans that have been developed to ensure that the device is implementing the spec properly. Once you finish those, all those tests and go through the certification process, you're approved to use the Matter logo on your device. Every Matter device will have the logo on it so consumers will know that this will work with my other devices that have the Matter logo. And I think from a consumer perspective, that's all that's really needed for developers.

There's also certified Product listing, so they can go to the Connectivity Standards Alliance webpage and see what's certified. Certifications for Matter are managed by the Connectivity Standards Alliance. When it is certified, it is entered into the distributed compliance ledger. And one aspect of Matter that I didn't go into a lot of detail about that I said that it's secure. One thing that Matter does that's very unique is when a Matter device is added to the Matter network, it has to authenticate itself and prove that it's authorized to join the network. What that means is it has to show that it is the thing that it says it is. That it is from vendor A and that it is a light bulb. It has to prove that and then it has to prove that it's certified. It looks at the distributed compliance ledger and checks that that's listed in there. Once those are approved, then it can join the network and that's all built into the Matter protocol and how you implement it. From a developer perspective, they ensure that the device is Mattered certified and can join the network. From a user perspective, just look for the seal of approval, the Matter logo.

Question: What considerations would you recommend to engineers as they design with Matter in mind?

Sujata Neidig:
For engineers developing smart home devices that they want to implement Matter on, the first step I would say is to really define the user experience and use case of what you're building. That will dictate or give you guidance on how to develop the architecture implementation because Matter is not a one size fits all device. Your light bulb or a smart plug is very different from building a Wi-Fi access point or a smart speaker. What you need to implement Matter might be similar, but you also have other things that your application is doing. What are all the requirements, not just the Matter piece, and then engaging with Connectivity Standards Alliance, but also all the silicon software providers because all silicon software companies that support Matter have implementations and platforms.
I'm with NXP so of course I'm going to explain for NXP, but we have four different platforms that we are building Matter solutions to support Matter over Thread, Matter over Wi-Fi, Matter over Thread and Wi-Fi…more complex applications where you need a host processor. We have hosted architecture, we have standalone architecture, and I think that's what developers need to look at and understand. A developer doesn't have to get into the details of Matter because that spec is 1700 pages long. Partnering with the right implementation partners and getting engaged in the open-source community, while also getting engaged in Connectivity Standards Alliance. There's a lot to learn when you're working in groups where people are from hundreds of different companies and sharing best practices or lessons learned. Working with the right silicon provider, engaging in Connectivity Standards Alliance, and really looking and defining what you're trying to accomplish with your design, what are the use cases you're addressing?

Question: Any final thoughts to wrap up our discussion on Matter?

Sujata Neidig:
In closing Matter is an inflection point in the smart home industry. It's really creating this growth vector for the smart home and that opens opportunities for device manufacturers and platform providers to build new business models and new ways to engage with their end consumer or user. And it's backed by companies across the industry. So, investing and learning about Matter and how it can fit into your product roadmaps and then working with your silicon and software and service partners to implement the Matter ecosystem as it rolls out.

Raymond Yin:
We hope you enjoyed this episode of In Between the Tech. This podcast is part of Mouser’s in-depth look at the Matter protocol and what it will bring to our smart homes, smart industries and beyond. You can explore the entire Empowering Innovation Together offering on this subject, with articles, videos and more at mouser.com/empowering-innovation.

Commercial:
NXP provides scalable, flexible, and secure platforms for various use cases Matter addresses, from end nodes to gateways, so that device manufacturers can focus on product innovation. NXP Matter Development Platforms go beyond just the connectivity with comprehensive capabilities for the compute and security requirements for IoT devices. Learn more by visiting mouser.com/nxp-matter.