By John Osborne, COO, LEXI / Vice-Chairman of the Board, Z-Wave Alliance/Chairman Emeritus, Connectivity Standards Alliance
It is 2AM and a motion sensor at the far side of your property detects and reports movement via LoRa and you are given an “FYI” notice via your ecosystem. Your camera picks up motion close to the back door and reports a “caution’ alert via WIFI to your ecosystem, which in turn sends commands to turn on all outside lights via Zigbee and a confirmation ‘door lock’ command via Z-Wave. A glass break sensor and a door/window sensor detect and report an intrusion via Zigbee to the ecosystem, which in turn sends commands to turn on all inside lights via Zigbee, sound a siren to a Bluetooth Siren/Speaker and sound an alarm on your phone through Matter protocol.
THIS is interoperability.
How do we get there? Again, imagine….
You’re a homeowner who has an older smart home solution in your home or a commercial building company that has implemented a solution throughout our building project(s), but the company from which you purchased the solution has now sunset the product(s). You have a significant investment in sensors and lights that you do not want to lose. Ripping and replacing everything you have spent time and money investing in would be cost prohibitive.
Or…
You’re a small company that has a great idea for a special sensor or device, but you don’t have the ability to build an ecosystem to support it. Developing a device, let alone an entire ecosystem, can take significant funding and time. Devices need to be designed, refined, firmware written, tested and certified. Cloud and applications have to be written, refined, tested and maintained. The entire ecosystem must be maintained with enhancements, bug fixes and security updates. All of which require people, time and funding.
The answer is (you guessed it)…Interoperability
Interoperability enables innovation and growth by removing or easing the ongoing burden on companies and giving consumers (business or individuals) flexibility.
Interoperability gives the user more freedom of choice as technology continuously evolves. An ecosystem may go away but the devices could be repurposed without the user having to purchase an entirely new system. Users can migrate over time from one technology to another without having to ‘fork lift’ their solution.
As long as your hardware is built upon a best in breed protocol you can migrate those devices to LEXI. You can also then expand your smart home with new devices that fit YOUR needs from a brand name YOU prefer. Your lights may be Zigbee. The security devices may be Z-Wave, cameras WIFI, health and wellness Bluetooth, door locks are Matter and long range devices LoRa. You can integrate all those disparate systems under one ecosystem and tie them together with rules and triggers. Otherwise you have to use individual applications for each and none will work well, if at all, together.
You need the right device and the right protocol for the right purpose…
Interoperability enables this world by allowing for greater choices, flexibility on deployments, maintenance and ongoing support while flattening expenses, and making it possible to devote spend to expanding rather than replacing a device ecosystem.
The future is Interoperable and multi-protocol and as the first of its kind, LEXI’s Universal IoT Gateway enables customers to be wireless protocol agnostic when they select their devices and is interoperable with leading 3rd-party brands so they can truly focus on the right device and the right protocol for the right purpose.
Learn more about LEXI’s Universal IoT Platform at lexi.tech.
Be a part of the Future of IoT and the realization of true interoperability: https://rep.pub/lexi-devices
