Wi-Fi Alliance Launch New Certification for Smart Home and IoT Devices

The Wi-Fi Alliance has launched a new “Wi-Fi for Matter” certification for Smart Home and IoT (Internet of Things) products, which is intended to help consumers and manufacturers identify when a particular device supports a key set of features – delivering a stronger level of confidence in their capabilities.

Several existing Wi-Fi Alliance certifications have actually been combined to deliver the new Wi-Fi for Matter certification. These all meet the Connectivity Standards Alliance’s (CSA) baseline Wi-Fi requirements for Matter certification. The access point (AP) focused certification currently consists of the following elements:

Wi-Fi for Matter (Core Certification Requirements)

➤ Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6

➤ Extended Sleep

➤ IPv4 Proxy Address Resolution Protocol (ARP)

➤ IPv6 Proxy Neighbour Discovery Protocol (NDP)

The new device certification also adds WPA3 security, and supports the life of IoT devices with improved power management requirements. Wi-Fi Certified devices should be able to conserve energy and maintain a connection with the access point. In addition, Matter Network Infrastructure Managers (NIMs) are supported with extended sleep, ARP, and NDP features.

All of this is broadly intended to support the CSA’s new technical ‘Matter‘ standard for smart home and IoT devices. The goal of this is to improve interoperability and compatibility between different manufacturers and security, while always allowing local (off-line) control as an option. Spreading that to WiFi is thus of key importance, as this is often used for network connectivity. Credits to one of our readers (Steve) for spotting this development.