On our most recent IoT Podcast episode, Ian called in to the podcast hotline with a curious question. He wants to know if future mobile devices might include Thread radios to assist with local control of Thread products in the smart home. Ian wonders if Thread will replace Bluetooth for device provisioning.
In theory, it sounds like a good idea to include Thread radios in phones and tablets, but we’re not sure they’re really needed. Last week, we heard about the new Matter specification which will be used as a seamless platform for devices that support Bluetooth, Thread, WiFi, and (possibly) Zigbee.
Currently, the Matter (previously known as Project CHIP) documentation uses Bluetooth for device provisioning and there are no signs of that changing anytime soon. And that makes sense: Bluetooth is already quite ubiquitous in mobile devices.
When you add a device to your smart home, it’s very likely that the first connection to that device during the setup process is over Bluetooth. That’s just for the device’s mobile app to get the initial connection and start the setup process. After that, the connected device can use Thread, Wi-Fi, or some other radio protocol to get connected to a Thread router or smart home hub.
Put another way, adding Thread as a Bluetooth replacement here doesn’t gain you much. And the inclusion of a Thread radio to a phone or tablet wouldn’t truly replace Bluetooth which is also used for wireless audio, wearable device connectivity, and other purposes. So the cost to produce phones or tablets would increase if a Thread radio were added to the mobile device.
As we noted last week, we don’t think Thread is a pure replacement for Bluetooth. Thread is specifically for device-to-device communication in the IoT while Bluetooth is more of a wired replacement.
Bluetooth still has a purpose; many other purposes, in fact. So Bluetooth isn’t going away anytime soon, if ever. And the addition of a Thread radio to a phone or tablet doesn’t really gain you much if anything.
Our take? The two radios and their respective protocols will happily coexist together, at least in the near future. Might more smart devices include Thread radios? Absolutely! But they’ll very likely still have Bluetooth radios for provisioning and include local control support through Wi-Fi to a WiFi-enabled Thread router.
To hear Ian’s question in full, as well as our discussion on the topic, tune in to the IoT Podcast below.
What about *outside* the home though? That’s what I don’t see anyone talking about. I am working on a set of scenarios where some devices (that could be Thread-based, using Matter) could be removed from the home and used “in the field” where there is no hub/border router, just the user’s phone. And they still need to interact with those devices just like they would when they’re at home.
Today, with Thread and Matter, that doesn’t seem to be possible. There’s no Thread radio in the phone, and Matter only works over Bluetooth for commissioning (setup). This leaves anyone who wants to control/interopt with IoT devices in the field out in the cold.
This has always been true for outdoor sensornets, most of which were Zigbee. For security reasons, you needed to secure the network, so you had to bring your own coordinators.
There are three alternatives, typically used for lost item tracking.
The first are Bluetooth trackers. tile, AirTags, etc. these Connect by Bluetooth to any phone with that app, but for security reasons, the location information is only displayed to the owner. These work fine, and are popular for this purpose.
GPS trackers are also available for both vehicles and pets. But that’s very specific each case, as they only work well outdoors.
The newer device class is the LoRaWAN networks like Helium. There are some of these currently used in commercial tracking. Stacey has written quite a bit about them. There has to be a hotspot nearby, so deployment has always been an issue as they just haven’t really caught on the way people thought they might.
Amazon recently moved into this class with their Sidewalk initiative, which is intended to leverage echo devices throughout the region. Reaction has been mixed, with fewer people opting in than was initially predicted. So I’m not sure this is going to succeed or not. But it’s an interesting project. Stacey has written some about it, or you can read more here.
https://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Sidewalk/b?ie=UTF8&node=21328123011
As the CSA said, matter is not intended to solve all IOT problems for all use cases. It’s aimed at inside the home applications to make it easier for consumers to buy IOT devices and know if they will work with their app and smart speaker of choice. That’s really all it’s intended for. For other use cases you need to look to other solutions.