I love it when they contradict themselves

[erktrek]

I would think (eventually) some model of HE would be a border-router in order to tap into the Thread mesh. It's just that other border-routers like TVs could do the same.

In a way it sounds like a potential mess with race conditions, infinite loops etc..

[ogiewon]

I am fine with 'smart' appliances and televisions, however I do not want those devices to be integral to my home automation system. They are just another 'device'. I see these devices simply becoming WiFi connected Matter devices, not Thread Border Routers. By being Matter compliant, they can work directly with Apple, Amazon, and Google systems without need for any special HomeKit software, Alexa Skills, or Google Home integrations. In theory, they should 'just work'. This is why Apple, Amazon, and Google are so supportive of Matter. It drastically simplifies the integration with third party devices for them. I do believe that what we are going to end up, especially early on, is just very basic functionality (i.e. lowest common denominator) out of any devices that are Matter compliant.

[erktrek]

I think the issue is separating "Matter" from "Thread".. a device can be thread compliant and work with the thread mesh but NOT be Matter compliant.. still trying to wrap my head around that one.

Why it MATTERs (see what i did there)

So Wemo released a thread enabled switch that only works with Apple Thread Border Router devices and not others. So much for device compatibility.. to be fair other border router support is/may be coming in an update or some such but interestingly the point remains - you can still have your walled garden with thread apparently. Matter support will be offered on a different model.

[ogiewon]

FWIW - This white paper does a pretty decent job explaining Thread Border Routers. It will be interesting to see just how many vendors decide to add both WiFi/Ethernet and a Thread radio to their devices/appliances/televisions.

Thread-Border-Router.pdf

After reading through that, the good thing about Thread Border Routers is that they appear to not be a single point of failure, as long as the user has more than one of them deployed. This reminds me a little bit of how Apple allows for multiple "HomeKit Hub" capable devices on one network, where they decide amongst themselves which one will fulfill that role. While Thread Border Routers will not be executing home automation logic, it will be nice to know that if one Thread Router fails, another can jump in and take over those roles without having to re-pair all of the Thread devices.

[Inge_Jones]

I kind of imagined that thread devices with permanent power would be border routers, and some battery powered ones, in the same way z-wave and zigbee powered devices tend to be repeaters. My battery powered Nest Protects are thread communicators with each other and each one of them can also connect to my wifi. I hadn't thought we'd have to provide for a specific border router.

[jtp10181]

@erktrek

I think the issue is separating "Matter" from "Thread".. a device can be thread compliant and work with the thread mesh but NOT be Matter compliant.. still trying to wrap my head around that one.

Thats why I was pointing out the different layers they work in. I tried to summarize in this post.

Matter

Good article. To try and summarize is still slightly difficult even with a degree in networking. To me it sounds like Thread itself is just a way to create a mesh network using IPv6 over the same frequencies as Zigbee. Where Zigbee (and Zwave) standard are for both the mesh itself (physical) and the communications standards (network/application), it seems like Thread is only about the mesh itself as the physical level and leaving the communication part open to whatever you can do with IPv6? Mat…

Not an expert or anything but I do have a networking degree so it is somewhat similar to me when they break it down like that.

[erktrek]

I think it's a specific type of Thread device. Also I'm slowly beginning to see where "Matter" fits into all this (thanks for the paper @ogiewon!) - Matter is a way of communicating to the Thread devices that are set up with the Matter Protocol. It appears that you can have thread devices that use OTHER protocols like HomeKit for example.

As @jtp10181 pointed out Thread is simply the networking protocol keeping thread devices connected (and addressable via IPv6) in an IOT network - similar to the way devices are connected on a WiFi network but maybe with more meshing and resiliency.

If this is true then you could have incompatible thread devices running on the same thread network apparently.. For example the HomeKit switch I mentioned - that could be on the same thread network along with a non-homekit thread device - that means that Apple Homepod Mini would see both I guess? Not sure what would happen if another border-router took control though. Would the Wemo switch stop working?