What is Matter?

Matter was launched by the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA or “the Alliance”) on October 2022, backed by major companies in the residential IoT space: including Samsung Electronics, Amazon, Apple, Google, and others.

The Matter program encompasses a full protocol specification, built on IPv6, which supports device discovery, provisioning, and control, all over secure interfaces. Additionally, there is an open-source SDK that supports all of the functions necessary to certify a Matter device, and a certification program with an automated test harness and test cases.

By adopting Matter, manufacturers can create devices that work together effortlessly, providing users with a more intuitive and cohesive smart home experience.

Matter release history

Since its launch, Matter specifications have been implemented, certified, and commercialized in over a thousand products from Alliance member companies. The major ecosystems (including Samsung SmartThings) provide the ability to commission (or “onboard”) and control Matter devices via their apps and controllers (e.g., IoT Hub device, TV, etc.), all of which are also subject to certification and other testing to ensure interoperability.

Figure 1. List of major devices per Matter Release version

Examples of Matter-enabled products in the marketplace include the Essentials lighting range from Nanoleaf, Philips Hue lighting, smart plugs and sensors from Eve, bridges from Aqara, and many more.

Key New Features in Matter 1.5

Support for Cameras

The latest iteration of Matter, release 1.5, introduces a significant advancement in smart home interoperability: support for Cameras. This update marks a pivotal step forward in enabling seamless integration of cameras into Matter supporting ecosystems, allowing SmartThings users for example, to monitor their homes, both indoors and outdoors, with enhanced ease and security via Matter enabled cameras.

The support covers not only "traditional" cameras, but also consumer devices such as video doorbells, intercoms, and so forth, providing consumers with the flexibility to enable a personal experience appropriate to their needs.

The capabilities enabled in this release include:

Given the fact that many of the capabilities entail large amounts of data, or fundamental transport requirements for TCP and TLS; Matter 1.5 also adds full support for operation over TCP.

The above all provides an excellent platform that enables new and interesting user experiences via Matter devices. Look for further enhancements to the capabilities of Matter cameras in future releases.

Enhancing Support for Closures

Previous Matter releases provided support for closure style devices such as Window Coverings. Matter 1.5 has improved the approach to how such devices are represented in Matter, and provided a unified approach to closures, enabling a broader range of devices such as gates or barriers (which can be complex), coverings, windows, cabinets, and garage doors.

The improved approach exhibits a more modular design approach enabling devices that have complex motion or configurations to be represented using a small set of defined clusters.

With the new design pattern, we expect that this will enabled more consistency of experience across the different closure products that make up the Smart Home, be they simple, or complex.

Energy Management Advancement

Further enhancements are also provided in the area of Energy Management, which builds on the extensive capabilities provided in earlier Matter releases. These new capabilities include providing cluster definitions for energy pricing, tariffs, metering, and grid carbon intensity.

With the new electrical energy tariff information, along with extensive electrical power/energy measurement data, a Matter energy management device can now perform complex real-time energy consumption and dynamic cost analysis, thus rendering energy efficient Matter device operations, according to both user preferences and utility grid demand management. Matter energy management enhancement will continue in the next Matter release, aiming to connect the grid to the home for true smart energy coordination.

Other Features in Matter 1.5

Matter 1.5 in addition to the major enhancements noted above also extends the range of device types supported to include Soil Sensors, thus adding to the set of device types already applicable for connected landscaping and irrigation.

Conclusion and Next Steps

The release of Matter 1.5 represents a significant milestone in the evolution of smart home technology. By standardizing Cameras, Matter continues to break down barriers between devices, fostering a more connected and secure living environment.

Moving forwards, Matter will continue to provide enhancements to the current feature set, improving the user's personal experience, and broadening support for additional value-added services on devices such as Cameras, and services such as Smart Energy. As for all of the releases to date, we expect to see such enhancements on a roughly 6-month cadence.

Samsung Research is an active participant in the development of the Matter specifications in this exciting time for the IoT. The continued evolution and adoption of Matter will further enrich user experience for IoT "things", with the ability to access those "things" from their ecosystem(s) of choice, including most importantly, SmartThings.

Stay tuned for more updates as we continue to shape the future of smart living with Matter!