Connected life: the path to a smarter ecosystem

Today, connectivity is still a TELCO-based business with limited growth in mature markets. But the bet is to go beyond it and to move up in the value chain. TELCOS aim to shift from communications service providers to technology service providers (i.e., TECHCO), seeking new sources of revenue. The mindset change must appeal to technological agility supported by new partnerships that bring innovative expertise.

Following this trend, Altice Labs presented the path to a more innovative ecosystem by developing a dynamic home environment for Altice Group’s product portfolio. Besides indoor connectivity, Altice Labs’ solution is easy to use and integrates security, health, entertainment, and energy seamlessly.

Keep reading to learn more about Altice connected home solution?or download the full white paper.

Matter: the unifying smart home standard

Matter is an emerging Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA) standard being adopted by all major players of the smart home ecosystem, including Amazon, Apple, Google, Comcast, Tuya, Samsung, etc. The Matter standard aims to be a seal of trust for end-users by ensuring that devices securely work seamlessly together and can be controlled by any Matter-enabled application and voice assistant/smart speaker.

The Matter protocol is designed on top of a universal IPv6-based network infrastructure. The first version supports Ethernet, Wi-Fi, and Thread networks, while Bluetooth low energy (BLE) is used to commission new devices. In Matter, Thread is the recommended protocol to be used by low-power devices. Like ZigBee, Thread operates in the 2.4 GHz band but can natively work on top of a Matter IPv6 network with an open application layer. A Thread border router network functionality is needed to interconnect Thread with Wi-Fi and Ethernet sub-networks, but multiple Ethernet sub-networks can co-exist in the Matter network.

Altice connected home

Altice Home aims to be a key solution to create new sources of revenues for TELCOS by providing not only the traditional smart home services (e.g., remote monitoring and management of connected devices and systems) but all services potentially delivered by TELCOS to residential customers, including smart connectivity and smart energy management. Although the solution targets residential households, it can also target smart office and smart building markets. Altice Home is designed to be agile and to evolve quickly according to market demand, new business opportunities, and breakthrough technologies. Despite the complex ecosystem of technologies and business goals, Altice Home is human-centric.

Considering the wide range of technologies and the level of complexity needed to implement and maintain a complete and innovative smart home solution such as Altice Home, it is critical to adopt a strategy to ensure the product’s self-sustainability in a market where big players, like Google and Amazon, are fighting to lead. Altice Home does not aim to compete with the big smart home ecosystems directly but to support as much as possible all major ecosystems and to integrate with some of its advanced features, like AI-powered voice assistants.

Altice Home features

The Altice Home solution is a turnkey connected home solution where the ease of use and integration turn customers’ houses into an extension of their way of life. Examples of included core features are:

On top of Altice Home’s core features, different types of user needs are supported by several kinds of devices, grouped into packs (addons).

The Comfort pack includes a comprehensive set of low costs devices that are easy to install and set up using the mobile app, including smart lights, smart plugs, and IP cameras.

The Smart Security pack provides key information about different types of physical threats and risks in the household, like intrusion, fire, gas leak, and carbon monoxide detection. When potential risks are detected, emergency alerts and warnings are triggered (e.g., smart sirens), and the user is notified through different channels, including push notifications, SMS, and voice calls.

The Smart Connectivity pack is a key differentiator between Altice Home solution and other connected home offers, by leveraging the full control of the home network with a set of functionalities, including zero-touch devices setup, prevention of connectivity issues, and a fully protected home network from cyberattacks. Furthermore, it allows the management of all kinds of connected devices at home, including non-IoT devices, and full internet access control.

The Smart Energy and Sustainability pack is designed to enable energy consumption savings at home and reduce, in general, the household carbon footprint. It includes an energy dashboard displaying the energy consumption and energy production information, and a set of advanced features to optimize energy management, such as automating the start and stop of highly energy-consuming activities (e.g., laundry, dishwashing, and electric vehicles chargers) according to the most convenient and cheaper time of the day.

The Entertainment pack allows the management of entertainment services in the home, including STB and associated remote control devices, as well as making it more fun with the playback of music or video in scenarios’ configuration.

The Wellbeing pack includes continuous and real-time care of all household members, notably elderly and children care. It sends alerts to the caregiver when some anomaly is detected about an elderly or sick person.

Discover more about the Altice Home architecture and applications on our website.

Authors

• Paulo Chaínho, Altice Labs
• Filipe Cabral Pinto, Altice Labs

Keywords: Connected home, Smart Home, Matter, IoT

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