Wi-Fi and Smart Metering - The Ideal Smart Meter Wireless Protocols
The Internet of Things (IoT)is in the midst of a quiet revolution, and at the center of this shift is Matter. Developed by the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA) to streamline smart home integration, Matter has been one of the most rapidly evolving technologies in the IoT space.
What is Matter, and Why Does it Matter?
Matter is a unified application layer that abstracts the underlying transport technologies—like Wi-Fi, Thread, and Ethernet— so smart devices can communicate reliably, regardless of their network protocol. With it, developers and device makers can now build secure, interoperable products that work seamlessly across ecosystems.
In its short, lifespan, Matter has evolved from 1.0 to Matter 1.4, which now works with 54 device types including energy management devices, enhanced entertainment controls, and solar EV chargers.
Historically, HANs (home area networks) used proprietary or utility-specific protocols. But with Matter’s broad industry support and open standard approach, it's positioned to become the default protocol for future HAN deployments, allowing energy devices to talk natively to the meter and each other.
Matter is designed to solve the biggest problem in smart homes: devices that don’t talk to each other.
With Matter:
- Your thermostat can work with any assistant you like.
- Your EV charger can coordinate with your energy usage automatically.
- Your HVAC, lights, plugs, and solar inverter can finally act like a team.
- Your smart meter becomes a real energy orchestrator—not just a reader.
And it’s all local, secure, and fast. No cloud dependencies. No silos. Just devices that understand each other—no matter who made them.
Think of Matter as a USB for smart homes. You plug it in, and it just works. Now imagine every energy device in your home—the EV charger, heat pump, solar inverter, and your smart meter—are all speaking Matter. They don’t just coexist, but can collaborate to save you money, shift energy usage, and make your home smarter without lifting a finger.
The Evolving Role of Smart Meters
Smart meters are no longer just energy monitors. They're evolving into interactive nodes in the energy ecosystem, capable of:
- Reporting time-of-use (TOU) energy prices
- Communicating real-time consumption data to smart devices
- Acting as a HAN controller for Matter devices
- Enabling demand response by controlling or signaling to HVACs, EV chargers, and more
In the near future, a smart meter will not just passively measure usage—it will coordinate with local energy-consuming and generating devices to optimize for both cost and sustainability.
Imagine an EV charger seeing a high peak price signal from your meter and delaying charging by 30 minutes to save you money—or your solar inverter exporting more power because the meter detected a TOU bonus. With more responsibility on smart meters comes the need for better communication across devices.
Ecosystems are Rallying Around Matter
If your device doesn’t support Matter, it can’t communicate or operate with other Matter-enabled devices. It’s sidelined while everything else coordinates in real time—EV chargers, HVAC systems, solar inverters, and more. You could try retrofitting it later, but that would be like trying to learn a new language after you've already moved abroad — you're starting at a disadvantage.
Why Wi-Fi Is the Right Call for Smart Meters
Thread is great for things like motion sensors and door locks—low power, short bursts of communication. But smart meters are plugged in, always on, and live outside your house.
Here's why Wi-Fi wins:
- Always connected: Meters need reliable, IP-based, 24/7 communication.
- No extra gear: Virtually every home already has Wi-Fi. Thread requires a border router, necessitating another box and more setup.
- Range matters: 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi can reach the side of the house, backyard, or wherever the meter lives.
- Save money: Today, some meters have $5–10 app processors to detect devices like EV chargers. But soon, all those devices will announce themselves with Matter and will not require heavy processing inside the meter.
Future-Proof Your Meters with Matter Over Wi-Fi or Risk Falling Behind
We all agree that retrofitting meters in the field is a nightmare. It’s expensive, slow, and not always possible. Waiting until Matter over Wi-Fi is the new standard means you risk deploying devices that can’t speak the dominant smart home language. You’ll be stuck with meters that can’t connect to anything, and users who are stuck paying more for energy.
Silicon Labs’ SiWG917 Wi-Fi Modules are engineered specifically to deliver strong, industrial-grade, single-band 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi that is perfect for outdoor meters and built for Matter. Known for its ultra-low power performance, built-in AI/ML accelerator, robust security, and flexible architecture, the SiWG917 is the ideal choice. To learn more about the power saving features of the SiWx917, read our whitepaper, Achieve Ultimate Energy Efficiency for Low-Power Wi-Fi.
Don’t let your meter be an outsider.
Build it with Wi-Fi.
Build it with Matter.
Build it ready for the world it's about to enter.
Smart meters need to join in, not just watch from the sidelines. Wi-Fi gives them a seat at the table, and Matter makes sure they can talk to everyone.
So don’t play catch-up in two years. Get started today by visiting our Matter Developer Journey.