NFC’s increasing popularity for Matter commissioning enables new use cases and boosts its adoption by circumventing numerous constraints. ST is, therefore, working with the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA), the consortium behind Matter, to ensure developers can more easily support commissioning over NFC as an alternative to existing solutions relying on QR codes. The aim is to guarantee our device’s interoperability with the rest of the ecosystem while allowing integrators to adopt Matter commissioning over NFC rapidly. ST is also working on optimizing performance, reliability, and security. In fact, engineers can already experiment with Thread commissioning over NFC by using an ST25 Dynamic Tag.
Limitations of QR Codes
In a nutshell, commissioning is the process that securely adds an end device to a network. As a result, it requires communication with the gateway and an exchange of keys to guarantee the network’s integrity. In the case of Matter, most end devices use a QR Code or a passcode that the user must enter on a mobile device. That smartphone or tablet must then use a Bluetooth LE connection to talk to the end node to verify that code, check credentials, install a certificate on that end device, and then share connection information to enable it to connect to the gateway.
While this process serves many use cases well, it is not without potential issues, chief among them being the impracticality of using a QR code or passcode. In many instances, that code is at the back of the device, making it difficult or even impossible to access in certain situations, like a switch installed in a wall fixture. Codes are also easily scratched or hard to read. Even worse, a code residing on a box instead of the device itself is not only notoriously easy to lose but may be challenging to match to a specific device when installing hundreds or thousands of devices in a building, for instance.
Solutions enabled by Matter commissioning with NFC
It’s precisely for those reasons that the Matter protocol has supported NFC commissioning since launch and that every major new version brings updates that make it even more practical. For instance, an NFC device can do away with the QR code or passcode since it stores that code in its memory. That means no more reaching behind a device with a smartphone to read a set of numbers. Besides the practical applications, it bolsters security since that code is no longer public. An end node could even use a dynamic passcode, thanks to NFC’s capabilities, for even greater security.
And this is just the beginning. In 2021, the CSA announced partnering with the NFC Forum to “[improve] experiences in areas like commissioning and proof of possession.” We can, therefore, expect NFC to take on a vastly more significant role going forward as the consortium behind Matter admitted looking at “tap to commission” and other ways to make the process more straightforward and intuitive. It also indicates that the CSA genuinely focuses on the user experience. While using NFC to improve interactions with technology is not new, very few take advantage of it. Many are, therefore, looking at how Matter will benefit from its partnership with the NFC Forum to offer a novel approach to commissioning.
