The Connectivity Standards Alliance, an international community of more than 550 technology companies committed to fostering open standards for the internet of things (IoT), this month announced the release of the Matter 1.0 specification, and the opening of the Matter certification program. The consortium's member companies, which make up all facets of the IoT community, now have a complete 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.
As part of the Matter 1.0 standard release, authorized test labs are open for product certification; test harnesses and tools are available; and an open-source reference design software development kit (SDK) is complete—all the better to bring innovative IoT products to market. Further, 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.
More than 280 member companies—including Amazon, Apple, Comcast, Google, Samsung SmartThings, and Signify—have brought their technologies, experience, and innovations together to ensure Matter meets the needs of all stakeholders, including users, product makers, and platforms. Collectively, these companies led the way through requirements and specification development, reference design, multiple test events and final specification validation to reach this industry milestone.
More than just a specification, the Matter 1.0 standard launches with test cases and comprehensive test tools for Alliance members and a global certification program including eight authorized test labs that are 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 smart home devices to communicate with the cloud. Thread provides an energy-efficient and highly reliable mesh network within the home. Both the Wi-Fi Alliance and Thread Group partnered with the Connectivity Standards Alliance to help realize the vision of Matter.
Matter is also striking new ground with security policies and processes using distributed ledger technology and Public Key Infrastructure to validate device certification and provenance. This will help to ensure users are connecting authentic, certified, and up-to-date devices to their homes and networks.
This initial release of Matter, running over Ethernet, Wi-Fi, and Thread, and using Bluetooth Low Energy for device commissioning, will support a variety of common smart home products, including lighting and electrical, HVAC controls, window coverings and shades, safety and security sensors, door locks, media devices including TVs, controllers as both devices and applications, and bridges.
Testing products for Matter specification compliance is conducted at authorized test labs including: Allion Labs, Bureau Veritas, Dekra, Element, Eurofins Digital Testing, Granite River Labs, TUV Rheinland, and UL Solutions.
QUOTES
“What started as a mission to unravel the complexities of connectivity has resulted in Matter, a single, global IP-based protocol that will fundamentally change the IoT. 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 global support from companies large and small, today’s Matter 1.0 release is more than a milestone for our organization and our members; it is a celebration of what is possible.” —Tobin Richardson, president and CEO, Connectivity Standards Alliance
“We would not be where we are today without the strength and dedication of the Alliance members who have provided thousands of engineers, intellectual property, software accelerators, security protocols, and the financial resources to accomplish what no single company could ever do on their own. With members equally distributed throughout the world, Matter is the realization of a truly global effort that will benefit manufacturers, customers and consumers alike, not just in a single region or continent.” —Bruno Vulcano, chair of the Alliance Board and R&D manager for Legrand Digital Infrastructure
“Matter and Thread resolve interoperability and connectivity issues in smart homes so manufacturers can focus on other value-adding innovations. Thread creates a self-healing mesh network which grows more responsive and reliable with each added device, and its ultra-lower power architecture extends battery life. Combined, Thread with Matter is a powerful choice for product companies and a great value for consumers.” —Vividh Siddha, Thread Group president
“Matter leverages Wi-Fi’s sophisticated network efficiency, global pervasiveness of more than 18 billion devices in use today, and robust standards-based foundation to help deliver the IoT vision. Together, Wi-Fi CERTIFIED and Matter bring simple and secure interoperability for a better user experience with a wide range of IoT devices.” —Edgar Figueroa, president and CEO, Wi-Fi Alliance
