The COVID-19 pandemic has more people working from home, and this has accelerated the adoption of the new Wi-Fi standard (Wi-Fi 6). Consumers are upgrading home networks with this new, higher speed Wi-Fi 6, and they are enjoying the additional key benefits of its distributed architecture – ease of setup for coverage all over the house and high capacity that serves the needs of all family members – from video conferencing in the home office, to binge watching a favorite show in the living room, to hours of online gaming in an upstairs bedroom.
Until now, smart homes have been serviced by multiple, competing standards – Wi-Fi, Zigbee, Bluetooth Low Energy, Thread, etc. This fragmentation, split over multiple standards, has kept smart homes – and the IoT itself – from living up to its potential. Matter (formerly Project CHIP) brings Zigbee, Thread, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi into one overarching standard. This paper addresses why this will enable truly smart homes.
