This week at Works With, Silicon Labs Sr. Product Manager of IoT Security, Mike Dow, discussed the ever-changing landscape of security attacks, legislation and our products’ preparedness for the modern security landscape. Additionally, Brad Ree, CTO of ioXt Alliance discussed how the organization is working to unify IoT security standards and build trust around end-product safety and security.

To begin, Mike discussed the stakes –  modern ransomware attacks are costing companies millions of dollars. Historically, these ransomware attacks have been remote attacks against individuals, such as vulnerable household families on their desktop computers, for around $200-$500 each. Today, however, “big game hunting” is more common, where organizations like hospitals or companies are targeted, for ransoms upwards of $10M-$15M. The exact price paid for these ransoms is hard to know, but it is safe to say these ransomware attacks include costly prices and downtime that companies cannot afford.

Additionally, the rise of “pivot attacks” have empowered the cyber-criminals behind these attacks. “Pivot attacks” refer to the phenomenon of using an IoT device (such as a thermostat) as an entry point to a victim’s network. A network’s security, after all, is only as strong as its most vulnerable connected device. This, of course, speaks to the importance of having strong security in these network end nodes.

Mike notes that this is leading to new legislation around cyber security. While the legislation varies from country to country (and state –to state within the U.S.), it generally provides that IoT devices like lightbulbs and thermostats must be “reasonably secure” against such threats, to prevent individuals and companies from falling victim to ransomware and the downtime that comes with it. He expects that we’ll continue to see IoT security-related legislation appear and evolve over time.

He then discusses how our Secure Vault technology that launched this year contains the exact features needed to help protect companies and individuals against the aforementioned modern attacks. From cryptography features like secure key management, to hardware features like Anti-Tamper and DPA Countermeasures, we’ve protected devices from network attacks, hardware attacks, and ensured integrity, authenticity, and confidentiality for end users.

Anti-tamper is one of the Secure Vault features that safeguard from modern attacks  

These features, along with others, exemplify our commitment to protecting devices during manufacturing, deployment, and end of life.

You can learn more about the Secure Vault features Mike mentioned by visiting the following links:

• Secure Boot
• Secure Debug
• DPA Countermeasures
• Anti-Tamper
• Secure Attestation
• Secure Key Management

View a full list of features here.

Next, Brad Ree spoke about the ioXt Alliance’s efforts to improve the global standard of IoT security and build confidence in IoT products. The alliance drives adoption of their security standards by harmonizing the security requirements of channel owners and suppliers and providing authorized test labs for devices that require a third-party test lab.

Their mission begins with the ioXt Security pledge which exemplifies the scope of their mission, and the wide variety of security measures that need to be in place for secure IoT products: 

Brad shares the ioXt Security Pledge

 Brad went on to discuss how different devices have different security needs, therefore requiring different threat models. By defining all the threats that can happen throughout the lifecycle of a device, effective tests can be defined and manufacturers can be empowered to thoroughly assess device security.

To preserve the integrity of tests and their self-certification program, ioXt Alliance offers a rewards program (similar to a bug bounty) to researchers who find that test integrity was compromised. Upon completion,  ioXt Alliance provides the following certification symbol, which is the same regardless of device type or testing rigor:

By using the same symbol across devices, the alliance hopes to strengthen the recognition of the symbol, eliminate confusion for customers that might come from a tiered system and ultimately build trust that certified products are protected.

Both Mike and Brad share the common hope that IoT products will continue to receive the security-related attention that they deserve. To watch the on-demand recording of the Works With security presentation, click here and register.

To learn more about securing your products and our Secure Vault technology, visit silabs.com/security. 

Wow, what a great event our first-ever Works With smart home developer conference was!  It was simply awesome to see so many companies and industry sectors all coming together under one virtual roof to learn and discuss all things smart home and IoT.

With more than 6,000 registered attendees, seven excellent keynote speakers, and a ton of high quality developer-oriented educational sessions, there was a LOT to take in at Works With.  Fortunately, anything you may have missed is available to see replayed on-demand via the Works With site so long as your register (which is free). In every session I visited, the live Q&A on Slack was very busy - a great sign that Works With attendees were fully engaged with the content.

I was fortunate enough to be able to experience many different aspects of the Works With event, and three big themes stood out:

1. Ease of development
2. Interoperability
3. Security

Ease of Development

Being able to easily and efficiently reuse development effort on one project when starting the next project came up in many places during the conference, not least of which was in the Amazon keynote.  When companies develop scalable, versatile platforms that work on standards and incorporate common API's and/or data flows, this effectively enables developers to focus their valuable time on adding innovation in the areas that are most important to them and their products. That is how truly special products are made!

Project Connected Home over IP (CHIP) generated a lot of interest, as the Zigbee Alliance project is a big deal in making interoperability easier to achieve across smart home devices. The project now has 145 member companies and over 1,300 people around the globe participating and contributing to its mission. The project has an open approach to development - open project and open source (all on GitHub), so it's very easy to access and start to engage with. 

The first devices CHIP is focused on include smart lighting, HVAC controls, window covers/shades, gateways, and others to build momentum in both smart home and smart buildings. Sujata Neidig, who represented Project CHIP in a Works With panel discussion hosted by Stacey on IoT's Stacey Higginbotham, announced that we should expect to see the first products built on CHIP appear in the market this time next year. Be sure to check out our EFR Series 2 parts to get your CHIP development going! 

Interoperability

The standardized models in Project CHIP should make it much easier for device manufacturers to build connected products that can fit very well into a wide variety of use cases and ecosystems. This means it becomes so much easier for consumers to choose what to buy and to get their smart home devices up and running instantly. That's a big win-win for everyone! 

Another one of the sessions I joined on interoperability was on the Google technical track, called "Introduction to Google Ecosystem." It was great to see how easy it is now to create a door lock example running on our EFR32MG21 development platform using OpenWeave and seamlessly integrate that into the Google Ecosystem. It truly demonstrates how these initiatives, like Project CHIP, are revolutionary in terms of interoperability.  

We've now established that easy development and reuse of technology combined with interoperability leads to rapid growth in the IoT and to building things we can't even imagine yet. BUT - consumers must be confident IoT devices can be trusted to keep their personal information private and secure, which in turn means that the security embedded in these connected products has to be strong.

Security

Getting IoT security right is a big deal and doing so successfully is not an easy thing to achieve.  At Silicon Labs, we have been investing in IoT security for quite some years as we saw the need for this coming. In a keynote from our head of IoT, Matt Johnson, Works With attendees heard about our EFR32 Series 2 devices earning both Arm's PSA-2 and IoXt Alliance's SmartCert IoT security certifications. For PSA-2, the EFR32MG21 with Secure Vault is the first wireless SoC ever to achieve this level of certification!  We are committed to making security accessible and easy for developers to implement by embracing standards and leading the way for secure IoT connectivity. In doing so, we believe more and more IoT developers will include security by default into their products, thus making it easier for consumers to trust their data is safe in an IoT device.

Another highlight for me was the opening keynote on Works With Day 2 with Ring founder and CEO Jamie Siminoff. It was great listening to his story and the passion he has for advancing IoT and making a positive impact on the way we all live. Jamie shared the latest on Amazon's Sidewalk effort, which stands out as a great example of how IoT can improve the way we live. Jamie described Sidewalk as a 10+ year project for Amazon, which builds on the idea of neighborhood: sharing with neighbors but with an IoT tech twist: the more connected devices your neighbors have in the network, the more everyone benefits. I loved the 'Fetch' example Jamie shared, which is an Amazon ultra-low-power play to be able to track your dog throughout the neighborhood if it escapes! Nodes around the neighborhood track and help pet owners locate their lost dog. To me, this is a simple yet really tangible way of showing how IoT tech, such as 'roaming' within Sidewalk, helps to make the IoT super-valuable to us all.

These past two days have been jam-packed with a ton of great content, and I want to thank all the people and teams involved in preparing and presenting the material. From our internal marketing and apps teams, our design partners, and our customers - all have played a huge role in making this event such a great success! But I'd also be remiss if I didn't give a massive shout out to the Silicon Labs production team who worked tirelessly behind the scenes to evolve what was originally planned as a big 'in-person' event into a huge virtual one! We ended up connecting a much bigger audience than initially planned by going virtual. We did so in a very slick, easy to consume way - bringing together all parts of the IoT industry and fostering great collaboration and innovation in a space that's more relevant now than ever before.

What we are doing at Silicon Labs is striving to make everything work with everything and do so in a way that has a positive impact on everyone's quality of life. We are THE place to go if you want to enable IoT connectivity, and we'd love to talk with you about how we can help bring your next IoT products come to life. If you'd like to start that conversation, we are waiting to hear from you. Simply send us a note here, and we'll be in touch!

The second and final day of Works With wrapped up this afternoon with an agenda packed with how-to developer sessions and expert takes on the future of the smart home. Let’s take a look at some of the highlights. 

Opening Keynote with Ring Inventor Jamie Siminoff 

Matt Johnson, Silicon Labs Senior Vice President and General Manager of IoT, kicked off the day with a keynote featuring Jamie Siminoff, Founder and Chief Inventor of Ring. Jamie talked about inventing what has become one of the most popular Wi-Fi-enabled video doorbells and went over some of the challenges facing developers as the industry scales to billions of connected devices. He shared how to use data in a way that helps us build things with trust and security in mind and discussed how the decreasing cost of IoT components is allowing developers to think bigger.  

Matt asked Jamie about Amazon Sidewalk and why developers should care about it. Jamie emphasized the long-term vision of Sidewalk, which he described as the neighborhood version of network sharing, and how it will unlock even more opportunities for smart home developers by providing cellular-like connectivity to devices. He went on to say it is not just another protocol – it's connectivity, and it’s about just connecting your device to the internet and then controlling it from there. He envisions connectivity being similar to electricity – we don’t talk about how to get electricity to the house anymore – it's a utility that everyone should have, and imagine what humanity can achieve if we give the world unlimited connectivity! 

The keynote was full of insights  from Jamie’s experience starting Ring, which included his share of challenges. He even said that people used to tell him that the doorbell was an ugly product! He told the audience that their passions will drive their inventions. “Linear inputs will achieve linear outputs...” he said, “We survey our products into mediocrity. If you want to do something great, you typically get friction early on.” But he encouraged listeners to keep on going and pushing the envelope. He said he’s excited to see what ideas come out of Works With. (We are, too!) 

Announcements and Developer Tools 

After his discussion with Jamie, Matt shared some of the recent announcements from Silicon Labs that are moving the IoT industry forward, including the recent announcement about our expanded portfolio of industry-leading RF performance Bluetooth® Low Energy solutions for IoT developers with best-in-class power, size and security solutions for Bluetooth Low Energy:  

• BGM220S – At just 6x6 mm, BGM220S is one of the world's smallest Bluetooth SiPs  an ultra-compact, low-cost, long battery life SiP module that adds turnkey Bluetooth connectivity to extremely small products.  

• BGM220P – a slightly larger PCB variant optimized for wireless performance along with a better link budget for greater range and among the first Bluetooth modules to support Bluetooth Direction Finding, all while delivering up to ten-year battery life from a single coin cell.   

• Bluetooth Xpress BGX220 – pre-certified PCB and SiP modules. Launching by the end of September, BGX220 UART to Bluetooth Low Energy bridge modules are expected to offer the fastest path to deliver secure, Bluetooth Low Energy connected products to market. 

• Secure Vault – The line of Bluetooth Low Energy products is infused with our new suite of state-of-the-art security features, Secure Vault. As the most advanced suite of hardware and software security protections available today for IoT devices, Secure Vault makes it easier for device manufacturers to protect their brand, product designs and consumer data. 

We also recently announced the latest version of our Integrated Developer Environment (IDE), Simplicity Studio 5. Engineered to simplify the development of wireless System-on-Chips (SoCs) and modules, microcontrollers, and other embedded products for IoT devices,  Simplicity Studio 5 provides developers with the same access, security configuration, and code portability across IoT SoCs and modules, significantly reducing device development time. 

Developer Sessions 

Matt’s presentation was followed by 14 different sessions, including practical, real-world discussions and demos.  

• The “From Chip to Cloud: Building the Whole Product” session featured a discussion with David Ewing and Donnie Pitts from Firia, Inc. about some of the questions developers need to answer when planning an IoT device.  

• Fritz Werder, Tuya’s North American GM, hosted the “IoT Product Development Made Easy” session in which he outlined how his company’s IoT developer platform can improve time-to-market, profitability and customer experience.  

• Mike Dow, our Sr. Product Manager of IoT Security, and Brad Ree, CTO of IoT Solutions at ioXt Alliance led a session on the importance of IoT security, covering everything from modern ransomware and unifying security standards to cyber security legislation and “pivot attacks.”  

• There were also sessions on home automation and environmental sensing and hands-on  tutorials on building an LED bulbs, touchless temperature monitors, door locks, sensors and more.  

If you were unable to attend any of the sessions, you can watch the on-demand recordings by registering here and selecting the appropriate session on the agenda.  

What’s Next?  

Works WIth 2020 may have ended, but we know the conversations and creative ideas are just beginning. We look forward to continuing to work with you to make IoT solutions that will build a smarter, more connected world. And we can’t wait to see you again at Works With 2021!  

Today, Silicon Labs kicked off its first-ever smart home developer event, Works With 2020, featuring industry experts and leading engineers sharing the latest in smart home technology development. Works With is the first of its kind to host developers and ecosystem partners, delivering 40 engineering-led session and 15 workshops to aid developers with designing, prototyping, and getting their products to market. When Silicon Labs imagined Works With, it wasn’t envisioned as a livestreamed event, but shifting to virtual allowed more than 5,000 developers from all over the world to participate.

Day 1 Recap - It’s All About Connections

Opening Keynote

Silicon Labs CEO, Tyson Tuttle, kicked off the event by diving into Silicon Labs’ vision to build a smarter, more connected world. With the current global pandemic, now more than ever, people are depending on IoT technology to stay connected – to work, to fun, and to each other. The creative ideas of developers are key to the success of the smart home industry.

Tyson went on to speak about Works With being the “Smart Home Hub” – a place where major platform players, protocol experts, and alliance partners unite to help developers navigate smart home technology. The event is designed to bring together all developers, no matter their level of expertise, and provide the know-how and best practices to get certified smart home products to market quicker. Tyson welcomed Silicon Labs IoT SVP and GM Matt Johnson to the keynote stage where he spoke to Grant Erickson, Jim Kitchen, and Joshua Danovitz, who are leading efforts at their respective companies, Google, Comcast, and Amazon, to pioneer a smoother development journey and break through the standards fragmentation in order to bring new and differentiated features to consumers.

Technical Sessions

After the keynote, attendees broke out into a variety of technical sessions, including workshops on designing products that work with Amazon, Google, HomeKit, and Samsung SmartThings ecosystems. During the sessions, developers had the opportunity to hear directly from engineering experts about the latest and greatest in smart home development. The sessions also gave developers the opportunity to learn how to acquire industry-recognized certifications for their products.

Panel – Building an Ecosystem IoT Developers Will Love

During lunch, technology journalist and IoT thought-leader Stacey Higginbotham (of Stacey on IoT) hosted a panel with leaders from NXP, ADT, Philips Hue, Ikea and Assa Abloy where they discussed how the smart home industry is coming together and how it will continue to evolve.

The panel discussed at length the emphasis on matters related to security and user experience, and one of the main points was the focus on leveraging the IP investment companies have already made. Being able to use existing IP bearing networks and shifting development resources to focus on actually innovating on new features that add value and simplify adoption for consumers.

Panelists also touched on some of the biggest obstacles developers face in bringing their products to market, including the effort required to support so many different protocols and delivering consistent user experiences across brands. Answering these challenges will provide developers with the confidence to build new, more sophisticated feature sets that create better experiences and simplify adoption.

Works With 2020 Announcements

In the midst of all of the Works With buzz and excitement, we made two major announcements – the launch of a new Simplicity Studio and BGM220.

Simplicity Studio 5 is a major upgrade to our Integrated Developer Environment (IDE), leveraging our industry leading IoT wireless expertise. Simplicity Studio 5 offers the same access and developer experience across a wide range of wireless protocols, all within a central web-style user interface. The software platform is scalable to multiple protocols including OpenThread, making it simpler to develop IPv6 based mesh applications and paving the way for future development of Project Connected Home over IP-based devices running on our EFR32 Wireless Gecko. Learn more about Simplicity Studio 5.

BGM220, combines our award-winning BG22 Bluetooth system-on-chip (SoC) devices, a pre-certified module and production-ready firmware with an on-board Bluetooth stack, application layer, and secure boot-loading functionality. Bluetooth Xpress BGX220P/S provides complete IoT solutions with framework libraries, making it easier and faster for developers to create new apps, with no Bluetooth expertise necessary. Click here for more information about BGM220.

What’s On Deck for Day 2

After a full day of learning and great conversations, we’re excited to give you a sneak peak of what to expect tomorrow. Join Silicon Labs Senior Vice President and General Manager for IoT, Matt Johnson, as he sits down with Jamie Siminoff, Founder and Chief Inventor of Ring. Jamie will share his story of creating what is now a dominant name in Wi-Fi-enabled video doorbells. His story is one of tenacity and patience, and his vision for Ring’s future after being acquired by Amazon is as ambitious as it is promising. You can catch the Day 2 Keynote on Thursday, September 10, at 9:00 a.m. CDT. Click here to register.

After the keynote, we have a cornucopia of how-to sessions including workshops on LED-bulb , door lock and sensor product development, energy harvesting, home automation, environmental sensing and more. Our From Chip to Cloud: Building the Whole Product session will answer questions about commissioning, security and authentication to front-end and back-end application interfaces. You can also join our sessions on IoT security, covering the need for the development of security requirements tailored to each vertical device type. Build out your Day 2 agenda here. We look forward to seeing you there! If you can’t make the live stream you can watch replays here.

Day 1 of Works With got off to a fast start today with the launch of Z-Wave Long Range (LR), which extends wireless range by 4 times, and brings the Z-Wave technology beyond the home. The new specification not only improves wireless range for products such as door locks, garage door sensors, gate access solutions, security sensors and other applications, but also increases scalability to more than 2,000 nodes on a single wireless network.

Coverage, Scalability, and Battery Life

The Z-Wave Long Range specification is just the first development planned within the new Z-Wave Alliance Standards Development Organization and it brings big improvements to the features IoT developers care about most – more coverage, extended scaleability, and longer battery life. One of the big advantages of subGHz today is that it is already longer range than 2.4GHz due to better peneration; now Z-Wave Long Range further extends this benefit by increasing the range with 4X (using the Silicon Labs Z-Wave 700 platform), removing the need for mesh/repeaters, thus saving on the system cost. Z-Wave Long Range also increases scalability on a single smart home network to over 2000 nodes – a 10x increase – and a big step in supporting the massive growth in adoption. Finally, dynamic power control optimizes operation of devices so Z-Wave Long Range enables sensor lifetimes up to ten years on a coin cell battery.

Security and Compatibility

The Z-Wave Long Range specification will be managed and certified under the Z-Wave Plus V2 certification program, which currently mandates the inclusion of the enhanced S2 security framework as well as SmartStart, a setup feature that enables true plug and play for the consumer smart home. As with all certified Z-Wave devices, Z-Wave Long Range devices can be installed within any Z-Wave network and features interoperability and backwards compatibility with any previously installed Z-Wave device. 

What’s Next for Z-Wave Long Range?

There are currently three alpha customers testing the standard, and we’re looking forward to pushing this specification as far as possible. Want to learn more? Register for Works With to get access to the recording from the Z-Wave Technical Track, including an introduction to the specification and a step-by-step guide to building a Z-Wave product.

Just as wireless devices are connecting millions all over the world to work, do home tasks, and play through smart home electronics, today is Silicon Labs' first day to connect the IoT developer community with the smart home platform and protocol leaders moving this exciting space forward.  

Silicon Labs Works With virtual smart home developer conference starts today, and we welcome the thousands of developers and smart home IoT fans who have registered to immerse themselves in our keynotes, workshops, and technical tracks - most likely from the comfort of your own smart home.  

"It's exciting to see our vision of building a smarter, more connected world come alive at the industry's first Works With smart home developer conference," said Silicon Labs CEO Tyson Tuttle. "With our decades of wireless experience, a solid investment in IoT, and proven leadership in the smart home component market, Silicon Labs is uniquely positioned to educate developers and accelerate industry collaboration across protocols, smart home ecosystems, design houses, distributors and developers." 

Silicon Labs plays a key connector role in IoT through our broad portfolio of wireless multiprotocol hardware and software solutions. We are proud to connect you to smart home industry leaders, technical training sessions, one-on-one developer meetings, and more. Speakers from companies like Amazon, Comcast, Google, Tuya, Silicon Labs, and others will train attendees to design and deliver certified IoT solutions that "work with" any smart home ecosystem or wireless protocol. 

Here's what to expect from Works With 2020, kicking off today at 10:00 AM EDT|7:00 AM PDT and running through tomorrow, September 10. 

Hear from Smart Home Leaders 

Be the first to hear the latest announcements and innovations from industry leaders shaping the future of IoT development. Our president and CEO, Tyson Tuttle, and our SVP of IoT, Matt Johnson, get things started today with a welcome keynote and panel session featuring some of the world's most influential smart home leaders, including Grant Erickson, Principal Software Engineer at Google; Jim Kitchen, Vice President of Connected Home Devices and Platforms at Comcast; and Joshua Danovitz, General Manager of Amazon Common Software (ACS). Each representative will share their company's vision for the smart home and discuss how IoT developers can better design new products for each of their established and growing ecosystems. 

IoT devotees and developers will also want to tune-in today at 2:00 PM EDT|11:00 AM PDT for a panel discussion led by Stacey Higginbotham, veteran technology journalist and host of the popular Stacey on IoT podcast. Stacey will be joined by Mark Reimer, Vice President of Product Engineering at ADT; Martin Huddart, Head of Smart Residential Solutions at ASSA ABLOY; Per Sigurdson, Development Leader - Home Smart at IKEA; Sujata Neidig, Marketing Director at NXP; and George Yianni, Head of Technology at Philips Hue. The group will discuss topics such as the highly anticipated Project Connected Home over IP (CHIP), as well as the smart home industry's overall efforts to give developers the hardware and software interoperability they need to meet consumers' expectations. The opportunities to grow the smart home market are great, but so are some of the challenges. This group will cover that ground.  

Tomorrow, our flagship keynote features none other than Jamie Siminoff, Founder and Chief Inventor of Ring. Matt Johnson will join Jamie, and the two will discuss Jamie's experience inventing Ring, what's happening across the growing Ring ecosystem, and Amazon's promising Sidewalk effort. 

You can see the full list of today's and tomorrow's speakers here: workswith.silabs.com/agenda. 

Expand Your Technical Skills 

Join developers from around the world at more than 40 industry breakout sessions over the next two days. Experienced designers will lead you through technical deep dives and advanced training on topics like security, energy harvesting, battery life, cloud computing, and environmental sensing. Smart home engineers are teaching hands-on workshop sessions using the latest technologies to build real-world devices, including smart locks, sensors, lightbulbs, and switches. To really hone in on your specific product goals, Amazon, Google, Apple HomeKit, Samsung, and Z-Wave are all leading specialized technology tracks and hosting one-on-one developer meetings to share best practices on building certified products. 

Meet with Experts All in One Place  

Works With is a hub for all parts of the smart home ecosystem to connect. 

• Platform Partners: Amazon, Apple HomeKit, Google, Tuya 

• Protocol Experts: Bluetooth, ioXt, Project CHIP, Thread, Wi-Fi, Zigbee, Z-Wave 

• Enablement Partners: Darwin Tech, Connected Development, eInfochips, JASCO and Paragon Innovations 

• Global Channel Partners: Arrow, Mouser Electronics, Symmetry Electronics, TTI 

• Device Developers: thousands of engineers from leading companies across the IoT ecosystem, 

including Qolsys – a Johnson Controls company 

See the Industry Come Together 

The comprehensive IoT hardware, software and development tools, and platforms we are demonstrating at Works With simplify connected product design and enable IoT device makers to get their products to market quickly. These products are competitively advantaged with cutting-edge wireless features that consume minimal energy, include state-of-the-art security, and easily scale across any smart home ecosystem, including Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit, Google Home, Samsung SmartThings, and Tuya Smart, as well as across multiple wireless protocols such as Bluetooth, Project Connected Home over IP (CHIP), Thread, Wi-Fi, Zigbee, Z-Wave, and proprietary. 

Access Industry News 

Be sure to check the Works With Newsroom to stay on top of breaking IoT smart home news from Silicon Labs and the company's sponsors, partners, and customers.  

Log On To access the Works With sessions live or on-demand, register here.  

If already registered, simply login to Works With and navigate to the agenda. Locate the desired sessions and click "Join Broadcast."  

We’re so excited about the Home Automation & Environmental Sensing Made Easy session being presented by our friends at Arrow Thursday, September 10th at 10 AM and 12PM CDT at Works With. Presenters Peter Foy, principal engineer at Arrow, and Paul Butler, partner solutions architect of IoT at Amazon Web Services, will define the current state of the smart home IoT ecosystem and provide and an overview of Arrow Engineering Services, as well as Amazon AWS IoT.

The session will conclude with a demonstration of the Works With controller solution, powered by Silicon Labs, and information on how attendees can leverage the AWS IoT Cloud Platform to monitor and take action from environmental sensor data. Developed through collaboration with Arrow, Silicon Labs and AWS, the Works With controller allows developers to simplify design and deliver the ease of use with home automation that customers expect.

If you’re not already signed up for Works With, you can register here (for free!) to attend the event during its scheduled time. You can also access the Works With on-demand library and watch it at your convenience.

Network connected devices are growing rapidly. Homes will continue to get smarter and capable of sensing more and more inputs, generating more and more data, and carrying out more and more tasks. And the more homes can do, the more consumers expect. The need to minimize or reduce batteries used in IoT edge devices is critical for developers and smart home engineers who want to reduce maintenance costs and who seek alternative approaches to energy management. In addition, smart home products are fragmented in technology and requirements. Consumers are expecting more features but still demand ease of use. This never-ending cycle of adding new functionality drives the need for green energy and low powered wireless control and sensing.

Zigbee® Green Power helps address some of these challenges in smart home technology development. A global wireless standard featuring energy-harvesting technology within the Zigbee stack, Green Power is critical for applications where devices are hard to wire/access is difficult. Zigbee® Green Power also provides:

• Ultimate flexibility and convenience through eco-friendly, energy-harvested methods
• A solution to the problem of the time/cost of replacing batteries for installers or end consumers
• A common standard that reinforces interoperability and seamless integration across IoT platforms and devices

If you’re a smart home developer, you don’t want to miss the “How to Build an Energy Harvesting Switch” session at Works With. Sunthoshi Tejaswi Kothapalli, Silicon Labs product manager, and Amdom Giday, Arrow Electronics business applications engineer, will show an example of a Zigbee® Green Power energy harvesting light switch reference design and its implementation. A live Q&A will follow the event. If you’re not already signed up for Works With, register now to reserve your spot.

How to Build an Energy Harvesting Switch

Session 1 - Wednesday September 9th, 2 PM CDT 

Session 2 - Thursday, September 10th, 11 AM CDT

One of the most popular sessions during Work With promises to be How to Build a Gateway, presented by David Ewing and Donnie Pitts, from Firia, Inc. As adoption of IoT devices and edge computing continue to expand as fast as they can be built, the importance of IoT gateways continues to increase. This session arms developers with up-to-date information and practical knowledge to help make connected products successful. During the session, David and Donnie will explore what makes edge gateways so critical to the success of an IoT product’s success and how applications rely on gateways for:

Connectivity

• Infrastructure Internet access – Ethernet, Wi-Fi, Cellular
• Wireless multi-protocol support – BLE, Wi-Fi, Thread, Z-Wave, Zigbee
• Cloud back-end messaging – MQTT/TLS on AWS, Google, Azure
• Authentication, secure provisioning, and key storage

Edge Intelligence

• On-premise smarts, to reduce latency and Internet data requirements.
• Aggregation of outbound data and inbound configuration / software updates.

Come prepared to learn practical information including an examination of use cases and drivers for edge devices, the anatomy of a gateway – including a tear down of the Horizon XG1, and cloud support.

This presentation will be shared twice, with a live Q&A following each event. If you’re not already signed up for Works With, you can register here for free to attend the event during its scheduled time or you can access the Works With on-demand library and watch it at your convenience.

How to Build a Gateway

Session 1 - Wednesday September 09, 12 PM CDT 

Session 2 - Thursday, September 10, 2 PM CDT

Works With,the defining smart home developer event kicks off this week! One of the first sessions is the Google Technical Track (Wednesday, Sept. 9 at 10 AM CDT), where leaders from Google’s Smart Home team will introduce engineers to developing IoT products that connect to the Google ecosystem. Google has built one of the most visible brands in the world based on helping users get things done – from how we get directions to how we interact with smart devices in our homes. The user is at the heart of Google’s approach to the smart home, and in the two-part Works With session, Googlers E John Feig and Shashank Goel will provide developers with a holistic overview of the ecosystem and how it will use the Project Connected Home over IP standard to connect devices. 

We’ve spent the majority of 2020 under various stages of quarantine due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and one way it's affected everyone is that we’re all spending more time in our homes. Suddenly we’re much more aware of how we interact with our surroundings, and we're taking advantage of technology to keep us connected, from streaming movies and TV to working remotely. In the Google Technical Track, learn how Google creates a seamless experience for users of smart home technology, helping people stay connected, productive and safe. 

Registration for Works With is free. To sign up and start building your agenda, click here. The Google Technical Track sessions will be shared twice, with a live Q&A following each event:

Session 1 - Wednesday September 09, 10 AM CDT 

Session 2 - Wedsday, September 9, 2 PM CDT