This section provides an overview of the Matter 15.4 setup and operation. A typical simple Matter 15.4 (Thread) network setup is shown in the following image.
The setup consists of the following four elements:
- A Controller such as an app running on a phone or the chip-tool running on a Linux box or Raspberry Pi.
- An Open Thread Border Router (OTBR) running on a Linux box or Raspberry Pi.
- A Radio Co-Processor (RCP), which the OTBR uses to communicate with the Thread network (not shown). This is attached to the Raspberry Pi.
- An End Device such as a light or switch, which is the Matter Accessory Device (MAD).
The flow of the setup described above is as follows:
- The controller commissions the End Device directly over Bluetooth – this makes the End Device join the Thread network and the Matter "Fabric".
- After commissioning, the Bluetooth connection is terminated and all further communication is done over Matter.
- The controller sends ZCL commands, such as the OnOff Toggle, and the End Device performs the corresponding action, such as turning the End Device's LED on or off
A Matter network can be built in a number of ways using a combination of Silicon Labs hardware, a Raspberry Pi, and any external controller (Macbook, Ubuntu, Android, etc.)
The suggested method involves using a Raspberry Pi to function as both the controller and the OTBR, with a Silicon Labs device as the MAD.
An alternate configuration is to use a Macbook as the controller, a Raspberry Pi as the OTBR, and a Silicon Labs Device as the MAD. This requires additional routing between the controller and OTBR.