New Interface Simplifies Management of Matter-Powered Smart Homes

New services that enhance smart home experiences can now be developed and deployed faster, thanks to a new interface launched by the Broadband Forum.

The “Matter Service API” is the first-ever standardized solution that gives the service provider a complete view of all Matter-powered devices on a smart home network regardless of the manufacturer. Instead of building new services to manage each individual Matter ecosystem broadband service providers and application developers now only need to develop and launch them once.

“Industry efforts around Matter have successfully made smart home devices work together, but access to those devices is still frequently controlled through proprietary ecosystems,” said Jason Walls, Connected User Work Area Co-Director at the Broadband Forum and Director of Technical Marketing at QA Cafe. “This means that customer experience services, such as diagnostics, automation services, energy management solutions, and customer support tools can be deployed at scale to fix Matter-related smart home issues before customers even notice them,” Walls continued.

Matter is a universal connectivity standard that allows devices from different manufacturers (like Apple, Google, Amazon, and Samsung) to communicate with each other on a network. As the number of devices that use the Matter standard increases, the need for a common service layer is growing. The latest Matter releases have added support for cameras, energy management devices, appliances, sensors, shading systems, and other categories that increasingly form the foundation of connected home experiences.

“Many Matter-enabled smart home deployments remain tied to proprietary cloud platforms, mobile applications, and vendor-specific integrations. As a result, service providers and third-party developers often face a fragmented landscape when attempting to build services that work across devices from different manufacturers,” said Xavier Roubaud, Connected Home Product Line Director at Orange Innovation. “Thanks to the Matter Service API, gateways and smart home hubs can now become stable platforms for innovation, making it easier for service providers to launch new monetizable services.”

The MatterService Data Model for USP Enabled Devices (TR-517) combines Broadband Forum’s User Services Platform (USP/TR-369) with the Matter protocol, establishing a consistent API and unified platform to manage customer experience in smart homes through broadband gateways, routers and smart home hubs. Because the model is automatically aligned with Matter’s evolving device definitions, service providers gain a future-ready framework that can adapt as new device types enter the ecosystem.

About the Broadband Forum

The Broadband Forum is an industry-driven global standards development organization helping operators, application providers, and vendors deliver better, services-led broadband.

As the industry-recognized center of competence, the Broadband Forum provides an accessible, efficient, and effective community where all broadband stakeholders can collaborate on, develop, and promote open standards and open software. This provides the basis for deployable solutions for the global broadband industry.

The Broadband Forum publishes interoperable standards and open software, has launched certification programs, and promotes industry education. These best practices and models can be adopted to help realize an effective broadband ecosystem that drives a thriving, services-led broadband industry based on global collaboration, open standards, and open source, maximizing value for all stakeholders.

For more information, visit https://www.broadband-forum.org/. For the latest updates, follow Broadband Forum on LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube.

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