SiliconLabs provides a comprehensive look at the applications and technologies of various wireless protocols in the smart home

SiliconLabs

Mr. Rob Alexander, Chief Product Manager at Silicon Labs (also known as Silicon Labs), recently participated in a special interview with industry media Big-Bit to provide a comprehensive analysis of the features and application opportunities of various wireless connectivity protocols for smart home applications, as well as related technology and solution trends, to help industry developers move towards the ever-expanding smart home market.

The power of technology is gradually changing the way we live, and smart homes have become the standard of modern life. The market size of this industry has easily crossed the $100 billion mark and is expected to break the $150 billion skyline by 2024 in the near future. Smart home, with its unique charm and great potential, is leading a new chapter in the future of home life.

Smart home is building a trillion-dollar market

With the continuous improvement of consumers' acceptance of smart home products and the continuous progress of technology, the revenue scale of the smart home industry continues to expand. According to the data, the revenue scale of China's smart home industry has increased from 1.87 trillion yuan in 2018 to 2.33 trillion yuan in 2022, showing a strong growth momentum.

Globally, the number of households with smart home devices is also growing steadily, reaching 361 million in 2023, with a penetration rate of 16.38%, and is expected to reach 28.84% in four years. At the same time, the global smart home market sales revenue is also close to 140 billion US dollars, and the growth rate is expected to be as high as 60.01% in the next four years, and the market size will reach 222.9 billion US dollars in 2027.

Is the Matter protocol superior?

Technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Zigbee, Z-Wave, and Matter protocols all highlight different features and benefits in terms of connectivity in the smart home market. These technologies enable a variety of smart home devices to connect, communicate, and collaborate with each other to provide users with a more convenient and intelligent living experience.

Among them, the Internet of Things technology realizes remote monitoring and control of smart home devices by providing network connectivity capabilities. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth technologies are widely used for wireless connectivity and data transmission between smart home devices. Zigbee and Z-Wave are low-power and high-reliability wireless communication technologies designed for smart homes, which can establish a stable connection between devices and realize linkage and intelligent control between devices.

Among these mainstream technologies, the Matter protocol is a new trend worth paying attention to. We know that the Matter protocol aims to establish a unified, open application-layer standard that enables smart home devices from different brands and ecosystems to connect and collaborate seamlessly. By eliminating compatibility issues between different protocols, the Matter protocol is expected to greatly simplify the setup and use of smart home devices, driving further development and adoption of the market.

For example, by adopting the Matter protocol, users may no longer need to install and configure different applications or control systems for each smart home device. Instead, they can use a unified platform or application to manage and control all Matter-enabled devices. This will greatly improve the user's experience and convenience.

The Matter protocol has been updated to version 1.3, adding some new features and supporting device types that better reflect the operation of the product or its parts, thereby improving the debugging experience for users.

Rob Alexander, Chief Product Manager of Silicon Labs, believes that with the launch and continuous evolution of the Matter standard, the fragmentation problem that previously plagued smart homes will be gradually solved, and cross-ecosystem interconnection will soon be realized, which will also help smart homes move from the era of smart single products to the era of whole-house intelligence. Therefore, Matter will be an important driving force in the smart home market for a long time to come.

It can be said that the smart home market has made significant progress in terms of connectivity, but there is still huge room and potential for development in the future.

In the future, with the continuous improvement of security from chips to devices, as well as systems and the entire ecosystem, consumers will be provided with a more reassuring and calm smart home experience. If consumers' concerns about the security of smart home products and systems can be addressed, there will definitely be more consumers who were originally waiting to join the ranks of adopting smart homes.

We look forward to seeing the emergence of smart home solutions that pay more attention to stability and ease of use, more secure and intelligent, and more personalized, and welcome the arrival of a new smart home life.

Aim at the core needs of smart home products

Compared with traditional products, the design and function of smart products to increase intelligence and convenience are also the focus of consumers' attention. Products that can have a high level of intelligence and can independently learn, understand and meet individual needs are more in line with consumer expectations. At the same time, the operation of the product should be as simple and convenient as possible, so that everyone can enjoy the convenience brought by smart home.

When it comes to wireless connectivity, Silicon Labs has the industry's most comprehensive wireless portfolio, supporting the most diverse wireless communication protocols, including Bluetooth, Matter, proprietary protocols, Thread, Wi-SUN, Wi-Fi, Zigbee, and Z-Wave, many of which can be used in the smart home space. In addition, Silicon Labs has integrated dedicated artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) accelerators into its MG24, BG24, FG28, SiWx917 and other products, achieving significant performance and energy efficiency enhancements that can further enhance the intelligence of smart home devices.

For smart home products, consumers not only have requirements for intelligence and convenience of operation, but also pay more and more attention to the energy efficiency and safety protection capabilities of products.

As a semiconductor company focusing on the Internet of Things, Silicon Labs has been committed to providing high-performance, ultra-low-power, high-security, and intelligent wireless connectivity solutions for the smart home market, which can help smart home device manufacturers meet the needs of consumers and improve the awareness and acceptance of their products.

Since the development of our wireless connectivity products, Silicon Labs has focused on reducing power consumption, achieving ultra-low power consumption in many of our products to support long battery life for battery-powered applications. This is a very valuable feature for many smart home products.

In addition, safety is also a need that consumers cannot ignore. For smart home products involving home security, privacy protection, etc., consumers have particularly strict requirements for their security performance. They want these products to have strong security features to keep their home life safe.

Multi-party promotion to release the smart home market space

With the integration of cutting-edge technologies such as 5G, Internet of Things, and AI, its application will bring infinite possibilities to the smart home market. These technologies will further promote the interconnection of smart home devices, improve the level of intelligence, and bring consumers a more convenient, efficient and comfortable home experience.

In particular, with the outline of users' requirements for home life comfort and the stand-in of technology maturity, AI technology will penetrate more into various categories of products. It is predicted that the overall penetration rate of AI technology in smart homes will be close to 50% in 2025, further serving users' daily lives.

However, while promoting the rapid development of the market, we also need to pay attention to the security and privacy protection of smart home control systems, and take effective measures to protect the rights and interests of users and security. Therefore, how to protect the security and personal privacy of consumers in the process of using smart home systems through continuously strengthened security technologies and functions has become one of the important issues that need to be faced by the current smart home development.

Rob Alexander believes that Matter may provide a leading solution for smart home device manufacturers and developers in terms of security. Matter's foundational security design is based on decades of research and experience building IoT devices, based on modern security and privacy best practice principles.

This means that Matter can even easily expand from the home market, which is currently focused on other industry segments where wireless security is more demanding. For example, medical devices or commercial premises, where there is a higher chance of security attacks.

To ensure security and privacy, Matter employs a range of specific technologies, including authenticating smart home devices that join the network, encrypting messages arriving at their destination, using validated standard encryption algorithms, and over-the-air (OTA) upgrades. Among them, secure over-the-air upgrades are a future-proof security method in the Matter protocol.

If a Matter device has enough storage space to support OTA, it is very convenient to upgrade the new firmware according to the Matter OTA policy to prevent hijacking of the device and harm to the network.

Looking forward to the future, in addition to the popularization of cutting-edge technology, with the improvement of consumers' awareness of smart home, the market demand for smart home will be further released. More and more consumers will also begin to accept and buy smart home products, driving the market size to continue to expand. At the same time, the cross-border integration of the smart home industry will also bring new growth points to the market. For example, the deep integration of smart home and real estate, decoration, home appliances and other industries will create more new business models and service forms to further expand the market space.

Epilogue:

Today's smart home is no longer just at the level of smart products, but continues to advance more to systematization and networking. The increasing popularity of technologies such as 5G, the Internet of Things and AI is bound to have a strong driving effect on the development of the smart home market. With the release of consumer demand and cross-border integration between industries, the future development space of the smart home market is expected to continue to maintain a strong growth momentum.

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