Ikea has released its first Matter-enabled products, and in Europe models like Bilresa, Myggspray, Timmerflotte & Co. are already available. What makes them special – beyond their low price – is how they treat Zigbee and Thread as equal citizens. The new Bilresa remotes, for example, can be paired with Kajplats lamps in the same way as earlier Ikea Trådfri products. Zigbee’s Touchlink feature makes this possible: Turn on the lamp, put the remote into pairing mode using a button on the housing, and hold both devices close together. After a few seconds, the lamp flashes brightly twice and the link is established.
This lets beginners “smartify” their home without an app or Ikea’s Dirigera hub. Even easier: they buy a preconfigured set of lamps and remote control that can be easily integrated into a larger solution later on. Switching to Dirigera or another Matter-capable platform such as Amazon Alexa, Apple Home, or SmartThings is possible at any time. Because the new products support Zigbee and the Thread protocol, they can connect directly to an Ikea hub or any other Thread Border Router.
The Qorvo Chip Inside Ikea Devices Can Do Both
Unlike other dual-radio products from vendors such as Aqara or Bosch, these devices do not need a factory reset to move cleanly from Zigbee to Thread. They remain reachable for Matter systems even when they are already paired over Zigbee to a remote or sensor. That makes switching especially easy for Ikea customers.
A look inside the housing shows why. A radio chip from US manufacturer Qorvo (link) does the work, specifically the QPG6200L multi-protocol SoC. Qorvo bundles several capabilities under the name ConcurrentConnect, and one of them is Multi-Radio operation. The chip can continuously listen for incoming packets sent over Bluetooth Low Energy and over IEEE 802.15.4-based protocols such as Thread and Zigbee.
This allows the radio protocol to be switched on the fly. All the Ikea buyer has to do is scan the QR code printed on the product and also provided on paper using the app for their Matter ecosystem. The wireless chip then does the rest in the background.
Technically, even more would be possible
Right now, switching to the Thread protocol terminates an existing Zigbee connection. Conversely, Kajplats lamps that communicate via Thread can no longer be paired with an Ikea Zigbee remote control. This either-or approach is typical for current generations of devices. Even a border router like the Connect ZBT-2 for Home Assistant, which supports both wireless protocols, only uses one of them in operation.
But the Qorvo chip can do more. According to the QPG6200L datasheet (link), it can run up to three IEEE 802.15.4 networks in parallel. matter-smarthome.de spoke to Ubisys from Germany (link), a company that also uses Qorvo chips and is a licensor of the American company: “We have been partners with Qorvo since the introduction of Zigbee 3.0 in 2015,” Ubisys Managing Director Arasch Honarbacht explains. “All products with Qorvo chips that integrate Zigbee 3.0, or now also 4.0, have included our Zigbee stack since that time.”
He considers ConcurrentConnect technology to be a technical masterpiece: “It allows us and other manufacturers to support Zigbee, Thread, and Bluetooth – all at the same time, on one chip, with one antenna.” According to Honarbacht, Qorvo has succeeded in enabling parallel radio communication on different channels without any noticeable restrictions or loss of performance. This opens up new possibilities for product developers: “The same device can be part of a Matter-over-Thread network and operate in a Zigbee network at the same time.”
Zigbee And Thread In Mixed Operation
If the product is powered by the mains and forwards radio signals as a router, it can even be “on air” in both networks thanks to ConcurrentConnect. An LED lamp or an actuator then amplifies both Thread and Zigbee signals. “They behave in a ‘network-friendly’ manner in both mesh networks, which improves the user experience,” adds Honarbacht. This means that users don’t have to worry as much about the topology of their network. Dead spots are filled in virtually unnoticed.
Ubisys will use ConcurrentConnect in an upcoming new gateway platform. However, the provider also supports other companies in integrating such technically sophisticated solutions into their products. “Manufacturers no longer need different product variants to serve broad market segments. And users don’t have to worry about which of the two standards to choose.”
We do not know whether Multi-Channel operation will also be possible with the new Matter-certified products from Ikea. Currently, they only support one of the two protocols at a time, and the company has not yet responded to inquiries. But one thing is for sure: the Swedes have already mastered the smooth transition from Zigbee to Thread for their customers.
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