Fibocom collaborated with with Swiss electronics company ST Microelectronics to debut smart home technology at this week’s Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona.

The partnership sees the integration of the STM32WB55 microcontroller (MCU) with Fibocom’s FG370 Matter-compatible 5G module into one 5G CPE to realise the intelligent management of smart home devices such as light bulbs, speakers, tablets and switchers.

This simplifies the access of smart home devices with centralisd, interoperable support for easy control of devices from the Matter-enabled platform. It ensures the centralised control of smart home devices across different protocols, allowing them to interact smoothly.

In today’s landscape of smart home connectivity, one of the most difficult pain points is to connect devices made by different manufacturers without protocol barriers and enable these devices to communicate via the same language seamlessly. The Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA), the organisation that maintains and publishes Zigbee and Matter standards, plays a role in ensuring the interoperability of various smart home devices. Likewise, the implementation of the 5G network rollout has popularised the adoption of 5G FWA devices for flexible, reliable and gigabit in-home connectivity.

The STM32WB55 supports Bluetooth, Thread and Zigbee technologies, which is crucial for bridging the smart home devices as well as ensuring the interconnections between the devices in the application layer, providing flexible approaches for Bluetooth+Thread and Bluetooth+Zigbee. By enabling 5G communications in the CPE, the FG370 offers the docking of STM32WB55 through a uart peripheral, enabling the device commissioning on the CPE. The alignment can improve and open up the imagination of future smart home automation and let end users control smart home devices in a 5G CPE without redundant setups.

“Focusing on semiconductor technology innovation, STM is committed to providing customers with high-quality IoT connectivity,” said Yin Yu, marketing manager at ST Microelectronics (www.st.com). “We are glad to see the STM32WB55 being integrated in Fibocom’s 5G FG370 module, which enables our customers to build smart-home ecosystems on 5G CPE.”

Chris LaPré, head of technology at the CSA (csa-iot.org), added: “The alliance is committed to enabling the simplified, secure and seamless interconnection of all objects, paving the way for a connected future. Through collaboration of our members ST Microelectronics and Fibocom, this goal is made simpler with 5G fixed wireless access. By launching this Matter-compatible smart home option, which uses both companies’ integrated hardware design, they will soon bring this benefit to providers.”

And Simon Tao, vice president at Fibocom, said: “Fibocom joined the CSA as an adopter member last year, and we are committed to enabling and implementing superior in-home connectivity with a highly compatible wireless module. And we are glad that the collaboration with ST Microelectronics and the CSA will be well-addressed to scaling and accommodating a great number of smart home devices seamlessly and efficiently. In the future of smart homes, we believe that the 5G FWA devices will emerge as the central hub for superior in-home connectivity, and we see the huge potential to empower the FWA devices with Matter-compatible hardware. Looking forward, the partnership with the ecosystem will strengthen and tighten the acceleration of smart homes in a unified platform.”

Fibocom (www.fibocom.com) is a provider of wireless communication modules as well as the first wireless communication module provider listed on China A-shares stock market. It offers a one-stop for industry by integrating wireless communication modules and IoT.