Matter?

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1

Hi All,

Sorry if my thinking about matter looks general
C8+ hub support Matter and im trying to understand why Matter is better then say Zigbee or Zwave etc ...

If i do understand correctly
Matter using my existing 2.4 Ghz Wifi Network "or LAN " to communicate with matter HUB
What they have done make one "matter " standard so data do not need to go to cloud to say sync with other platforms to opposite WIFI cloud base devices .

What about then Aqara Dual Relay Module T2 with Matter, Requires Aqara Zigbee 3.0 HUB ?
So this device have Matter and Zigbee
If i want to add this device to Hubitat I can do 2 ways via Matter or Via Zigbee , but for Zigbee i will need drivers to work correctly but for Matter it does not matter as it is standard ?

If do understand correctly matter all devices can talk to each other without need special drivers
So my question - because matter using my router 2.4Ghz why then we need Zigbee at all if all commands can be sent via Matter
They only good point from Matter I see that i do not need special driver to use device on any Hub platform smarthing or hubitat or homeasistant etc ....

Im just interesting what will happen when we have 100 Matter devices plus laptops and phones etc on same Wifi network ?

I know it is not relevant now for me but example

My Philips hue Hub have 46 Hue Bulbs and maybe 12 accessories So in totatl 58 Devices
These devices on Hue Zigbee hub do not interact to any other Zigbee network etc...

My Hubitat have another maybe 30 Devices Where it is seperate Zigbee Channel
Plus another 10 Zwave devices

If today I win lottery and change my all say smart devices to matter I will be adding nearly 100 devices to 2.4 Ghz wifi network

Where I see problem in future with Matter

1 Router is the main WIFI signal or say Matter Signal and if something happens to router bad update or else or ??? hacker hack router they can block all IP address exchange and all these smart Matter devices become UNSMART :slight_smile:
Point no WIFI router no more matter communication between devices
2 Zigbee power devices act as repeater where single router maybe will not cover all house
3 I do not trust 100 Percent one single platform to control everything Where my home router become Matter WIFI signal
This why I have Hue is for Lights , Hubitat for other things , and Security for security
If my Hue system fails it is only affects lighting but not Hubitat or security

2

Matter has two "native" protocols, Wi-Fi and Thread. Such devices can work directly with compatible Matter controllers (if they also support those physical layers; pretty much anyone is going to support Wi-Fi or Ethernet, but some do not have Thread). Zigbee devices, like your Hue and Aqara devices, "support" Matter via their hub/bridge that act as a Matter Bridge, which, as its name suggests, bridges their native protocol (in this case, Zigbee--but it it can be anything) to Matter.

Not necessarily, though that's probably the goal. But note that there are two sides to Matter, Matter devices (like a bulb or sensor) and Matter controllers (like a hub). Matter devices cannot talk directly to each other; you need a Matter controller to set them up in the first place.

This depends on the number of clients your AP supports. Some cheap home network equipment may not handle large numbers well. But not all Matter devices are Wi-Fi.

Thread works very similarly to this--in fact, even a bit smarter because multiple Thread Border Routers (TBR) can form a single Thread network, even if they aren't in wireless range of each other (as long as they have network connectivity), and one TBR can take over for another if one goes down.

For Wi-Fi, I think the idea is that you have control over your Wi-Fi network. You can add another Wi-Fi AP to extend range, for example--but, yes, of course, your Wi-Fi devices themselves are not going to do it for your network like Zigbee does, for example.

This may also answer some of your other questions:

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Too tired to answer all your questions, but I'll share my experience. Before you spend 1000's of dollars on all new matter devices, read thru the communities' experiences.
My experience is Matter is not at all ready for primetime...yet

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