Understanding the Matter standard - AWS Prescriptive Guidance
Matter protocolOverview of how Matter works

Understanding the Matter standard

Matter administrators managing Matter-compatible devices

Matter protocol

Matter is an open, smart-home connectivity protocol that enables communication between devices, mobile apps, and cloud services. Developed by the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA), Matter simplifies connectivity and interoperability for consumers and manufacturers. Matter supports a wide range of smart-home categories. For consumers, Matter provides onboarding, unified management, and control across ecosystems. For manufacturers, Matter reduces development and support costs through a single certification and through app development. Many large companies, such as Amazon, Apple, and Google, are promoting Matter adoption. CSA offers four membership levels depending on the organization involvement - Promoters, Participants, Adopters, and Associates. With strong industry support, Matter aims to provide seamless connectivity across brands for consumers and streamline development for manufacturers.

Overview of how Matter works

Matter is an IP-based, application-level protocol for smart-home devices across vendor ecosystems. It works on devices that use IPv6. Conceptually, Matter is organized as a collection of network nodes, which are Matter endpoints. The following is a brief summary of the Matter terminology:

  • Matter devices are smart-home products, such as light bulbs, switches, thermostats, or locks.

  • A Matter fabric is the virtual network on which all of the devices are connected. All of the devices share the same trusted root. The fabric forms a star network topology.

  • A Matter administrator creates, maintains, and manages security and privileges for all devices on the fabric. An administrator can be a hub or an application. Matter has a multi-admin feature, where a Matter device can be part of multiple fabrics simultaneously. For example, a single Matter device can be managed both by an Amazon Alexa device and a Google Home device, both of which could be Matter administrators on the same physical network.

  • A Matter commissioner is a device that commissions (or onboards) a new Matter device into the fabric. This could be an app on a phone, a smart-home gateway, or a Matter administrator.

  • A Matter bridge connects non-IP protocol devices to a Matter fabric.

For information about the different roles that hardware and software can assume in Matter, see Peeking Under the Hood of Your Matter Smart Home (CSA blog post).