Elvis Wiki - User contributions [en]

WebAuthn

2024-01-25T16:50:14Z

MWieger: Added Codesnippets of the API integration. Explained the parameters needed to perform the call. Also explained the reply from the call.

[[File:webauthn_logo.PNG|500px|thumb|WebAuthn logo<ref name="webauthn" />]]

== Summary ==

WebAuthn is an Application created by the FIDO (Fast Identity Online) alliance and the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) to offer the possibility of passwordless authentication online. The latest recommendation is of March 2019 published by the W3C. Instead WebAuthn work either with the inbuild Authenticator of the device, such as fingerprint sensor or facial recognition, or with an extern media like an USB Stick for verification.

== Goal ==
Its purpose is to offer a more secure and easy possibility to log into your online accounts without storing or remembering huge amounts of passwords to prevent the possibility of passwords getting leaked or forgotten.

== Architecture <ref name="overview" /> ==

[[File:FIDO2-WebAuthn_Architecture.PNG|thumb|600px|FIDO2/WebAuthn Architecture<ref name="overview" />]]

;''' Authenticator '''
The authenticator creates credentials, generates cryptographic proof of user authentication and administrate the PIN.

There are two types of authenticators:

*external authenticator (e.g. security key) that is removable from the device
*internal authenticator (e.g. fingerprint reader) that is implemented on the device

;'''Client/Platform'''
The client implements CTAP2 and client-side WebAuthn API and proves the validity of the identity of the Relying Party to prevent phishing attacks.
The client could be a browser for web applications or an operating system subsystem that offers a platform-specific FIDO API for mobile or desktop apps.

;'''Relying Party (RP)'''
The Relying Party consists of at least one webserver, the server-side parts of the WebAuthn API and a WebAuthn Server, that has a trust store.
The trust store contains the public trust parts for the attestation of the authenticator.

== Functionality ==
WebAuthn works with two ceremonies:

'''The Registration:'''
The Registration involves a Relying Party, the server that hosts the Website, and the user client that must host at least one authenticator. To register, the user has to navigate to the website where he wishes to use Web Authentication and sign in using the method that was used to this point, which means for example a password. After that it is to choose to register this site from now an using Web Authentication, which leads to the request to submit the configures authorization gesture. When the provided gesture is accepted, the registrations is complete.

'''The Authentication:'''
For the user, the authentication using the Web Authenticator works seemingly as a normal login with just the difference that instead of typing a password to verify its identity, the user uses the same Authentication gesture that he used to register to the site.

== Examples ==
=== Login WebAuthn test website ===
[[File:webauthn_1.PNG|400px]]

First you have to navigate to the Website where you want to change the default login to WebAuthn, in this case it is the test website of WebAuthn, the link is provided below, so we create a new user and pick the option TPM for we are going to use the inbuilt fingerprint sensor of the laptop to verify our identity.
 
 

[[File:webauthn2.PNG|300px]]

The security feature now asks us to verify the identity with the same Authenticatior you want to use every time you log into the website. The choice will be stored with your ID and used every time you login.
 
 

[[File:webauthn3.PNG|600px]]

The login was a success and now we are able to login just using our fingerprint.
 
 

[[File:webauthn4.PNG|300px]]

You are ask to provide the same authentication which you used to login, in this case the fingerprint.
 
 

[[File:webauthn5.PNG|800px]]

If everything goes well, you are now logged in just using a fingerprint sensor!
 
 

Try it out for yourself!
[https://webauthn.io/ WebAuthn Demo]

----

=== Passwordless Login ===
This example shows how to add a security key to the Microsoft account and how to log in to the account without a username and password.

A passwordless login to the MS account was tested with the following in every possible combination (OS+Browser+Security Key):

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! scope="col"| Operating System
! scope="col"| Browser
! scope="col"| Security Key
! scope="col"| Successful
|-
| Windows 10
| Google Chrome Microsoft Edge Mozilla Firefox Opera
| [[Yubico Security Key]] [[Yubikey 5 C]] [[Yubikey 5 NFC]] [https://www.yubico.com/at/product/yubikey-5c-nfc/ Yubikey 5C NFC]
| Yes
|-
| Android 9
| Google Chrome Microsoft Edge Mozilla Firefox Opera
| Security Keys are not supported to login to the MS account
| No
|}

Assumption: one has a Microsoft account but has not yet added a security key

1. Sign in with your '''username''' and '''password'''.

2. Go to '''''Security>Advanced Security Options'''''.

3. Click on '''''Add a new way to sign in or verify'''''.
[[File:FIDO2-WebAuthn_pwless_1.PNG|none|800px|]]
 

4. The window shows the additional options to verify or sign in. Select '''''Use a security key'''''.
[[File:FIDO2-WebAuthn_pwless_2.PNG|none|300px]]
 

5. Read the instruction for your prefered method (USB or NFC) to register the security key. In this example USB was chosen.
[[File:FIDO2-WebAuthn_pwless_3.PNG|none|600px]]
 

6. Enter the PIN.
[[File:FIDO2-WebAuthn_pwless_pin.png|none|300px]]
 

7. Touch the button of the security key.
[[File:FIDO2-WebAuthn_pwless_touch.PNG|none|300px]]
 

8. Name the added security key. It is recommended to add more than one security key. Naming the security keys helps to distinguish them.
[[File:FIDO2-WebAuthn_pwless_keyname.PNG|none|300px]]
 

9. The key is now registered.
[[File:FIDO2-WebAuthn_pwless_finish.png|none|500px]]
 

No username and password are needed for the next login with the added key.
 

'''Login:''' 
1. Select '''''Sign in with a security key'''''.
[[File:FIDO2-WebAuthn_pwless_login.PNG|none|300px]]
 

2. Enter the PIN.
[[File:FIDO2-WebAuthn_pwless_login_pin.PNG|none|300px]]
 

3. Touch the button of the security key.
[[File:FIDO2-WebAuthn_pwless_login_touch.PNG|none|300px]]
 

If these steps were successful, the user is logged in.

----

=== Second Factor Login ===

This example shows how to add a security key to the Google account and how to log in to the account with the second factor method.

The second factor login to the Google account was tested with the following in every possible combination (OS+Browser+Security Key):

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! scope="col"| Operating System
! scope="col"| Browser
! scope="col"| Security Key
! scope="col"| Successful
|-
| Windows 10
| Google Chrome Microsoft Edge Mozilla Firefox Opera
| [[Yubico Security Key]] [[Yubikey 5 C]] [[Yubikey 5 NFC]] [https://www.yubico.com/at/product/yubikey-5c-nfc/ Yubikey 5C NFC]
| Yes
|-
| rowspan="3"|Android 9
| rowspan="2"|Google Chrome
| [[Yubico Security Key]] (USB A and no NFC)
| No
|-
|[[Yubikey 5 C]] [[Yubikey 5 NFC]] [https://www.yubico.com/at/product/yubikey-5c-nfc/ Yubikey 5C NFC]
| Yes
|-
| Microsoft Edge Mozilla Firefox Opera
| Security Keys are not supported on this device or in this browser
| No
|}

Assumption: one has a Google account but has not yet added a security key

1. Sign in with '''username''' and '''password'''.

2. Click on the profile on the top right and select '''''Manage your Google Account'''''.

3. Go to '''''Security'''''.

4. Select '''''2-Step Verification'''''.
[[File:FIDO2_2Step_1.PNG|none|500px]]
 

5. Enter your '''password'''.

6. Google shows the options that can be used for the 2-Step Verification. Choose '''''ADD SECURITY KEY'''''.
[[File:FIDO2_2Step_2.PNG|none|500px]]
 

7. Get your security key and select '''''Next''''' to continue the process.
[[File:FIDO2_2Step_3.PNG|none|300px]]
 

8. Insert the security key into the USB port.
[[File:FIDO2_2Step_4.PNG|none|300px]]
 

9. Tap on the button of the security key.
[[File:FIDO2_2Step_5.PNG|none|300px]]
 

10. Name the security key (optional)
[[File:FIDO2_2Step_6.PNG|none|300px]]
 

11. The key is registered now.
[[File:FIDO2_2Step_7.PNG|none|500px]]
 

'''Login:'''

1. Enter your '''username'''.

2. Enter your '''password'''.

3. Tap on the security key.
[[File:FIDO2_2Step_login_1.PNG|none|300px]]
 

4. Select '''''Next''''' to finish the process. Optionally, you can select if the security key on this device should no longer be used for logging in to the Google account.
[[File:FIDO2_2Step_login_2.PNG|none|300px]]
 

== Integrating the API ==

===Create Credentials ===

[[File:CreateWebauthn.jpg|500px|Codesnippet that shows API call to Create Credentials.]]

*'''challenge:''' The challenge is a buffer of cryptographically random bytes generated on the server, necessary to prevent "replay attacks."

*'''rp:''' Short for “relying party,” it describes the organization responsible for registering and authenticating the user. The id must be a subset of the domain currently in the browser. For example, a valid id for this page is webauthn.guide.

*'''user:''' This contains information about the user currently registering. The authenticator uses the id to associate a credential with the user. It is advisable not to use personally identifying information as the id, as it may be stored in an authenticator.

*'''pubKeyCredParams:''' An array of objects describing acceptable public key types to a server. The alg is a number described in the COSE registry; for example, -7 indicates that the server accepts Elliptic Curve public keys using a SHA-256 signature algorithm.

*'''authenticatorSelection:''' This optional object aids relying parties in imposing additional restrictions on the type of authenticators allowed for registration. In this example, we indicate a preference for registering a cross-platform authenticator (like a Yubikey) instead of a platform authenticator like Windows Hello or Touch ID.

*'''timeout:''' The time (in milliseconds) that the user has to respond to a prompt for registration before an error is returned.

*'''attestation:''' The attestation data returned from the authenticator contains information that could be used to track users. This option allows servers to indicate the importance of the attestation data to this registration event. A value of "none" indicates that the server does not prioritize attestation. A value of "indirect" means that the server will allow anonymized attestation data. "Direct" means that the server wishes to receive attestation data directly from the authenticator.

The object obtained from the create() call, representing the credential, includes the public key and additional attributes essential for validating the registration event.

[[File:CreateCredentialsResponseWebauthn.jpg|500px]]

*'''id:''' An identifier for the recently generated credential, serving as a means to identify the credential during user authentication. The ID is presented here as a base64-encoded string.

*'''rawId:''' Once again, the identifier, now in binary form.

*'''clientDataJSON:''' This signifies the data transmitted from the browser to the authenticator, facilitating the association of the new credential with the server and browser. The authenticator provides it as a UTF-8 byte array.

*'''attestationObject:''' Containing the credential public key, an optional attestation certificate, and additional metadata for validating the registration event, this object is encoded in CBOR as binary data.

=== Authenticate the User ===
[[File:Authenticatewebauthn.jpg|500px|Codesnippet that shows API call to authenticate a user.]]

The API call is made by calling the navigator.credentials.get() method
The API call has to meet a certain criteria. Some input parameters have to be set:
*'''challenge:''' This needs to be bytes generated cryptographically on the server.

*'''allowCredentials:''' This array informs the browser about the credentials the server wishes the user to authenticate with. The credentialId, obtained and stored during registration, is included here. Optionally, the server can specify preferred transports such as USB, NFC, and Bluetooth.

*'''timeout:''' Similar to the registration process, this can optionally specify the time (in milliseconds) allowed for the user to respond to an authentication prompt.

The object returned from the get() call is once more a PublicKeyCredential object. It differs slightly from the one received during registration; notably, it contains a signature member and omits the public key.

[[File:AssertionOutputWebauthn.jpg|500px|Assertion Object received from api call]]

*'''id:''' Identifies the credential used to generate the authentication assertion.

*'''rawId:''' Represents the identifier in binary form.

*'''authenticatorData:''' Similar to the authData received during registration, excluding the public key. It serves as source bytes for generating the assertion signature during authentication.

*'''clientDataJSON:''' Like during registration, clientDataJSON is a set of data transmitted from the browser to the authenticator. It contributes as source bytes for generating the signature during authentication.

*'''signature:''' Generated by the private key linked to this credential, the signature is verified on the server using the public key.

*'''userHandle:''' Optionally provided by the authenticator, userHandle represents the user.id from registration. Encoded as a UTF-8 byte array, it aids in associating this assertion with the user on the server.

== References ==

* https://webauthn.guide/#about-webauthn
* https://www.w3.org/TR/webauthn/

<references>
<ref name="webauthn">https://webauthn.io</ref>
<ref name="overview">https://developers.yubico.com/WebAuthn/WebAuthn_Developer_Guide/</ref>
</references>

[[Category:Documentation]]

File:CreateCredentialsResponseWebauthn.jpg

2024-01-25T16:44:31Z

MWieger:

File:AssertionOutputWebauthn.jpg

2024-01-25T16:29:21Z

MWieger: Output of Assertion Object

== Summary ==
Output of Assertion Object

File:Authenticatewebauthn.jpg

2024-01-25T15:54:40Z

MWieger: API call for the Webauthn Authentication

== Summary ==
API call for the Webauthn Authentication

File:CreateWebauthn.jpg

2024-01-25T15:54:10Z

MWieger: API call for the Webauthn Credential Creation

== Summary ==
API call for the Webauthn Credential Creation

WebThings vs. Matter: A Comparative Protocol Analysis

2023-07-07T12:14:06Z

MWieger:

== Requirements ==

* Operating system: WebThingsOS
* Packages: Webthings TP Link Kasa Add On
* Hardware: [https://wiki.elvis.science/index.php?title=Raspberry_Pi_3,_Model_B%2B,_WLAN,_BT Raspberry Pi 3 (with an microSD card)] ,[https://store.google.com/de/product/nest_hub_2nd_gen?hl=de&pli=1 Google Nest Hub (2.Gen)],[https://www.tp-link.com/de/home-networking/smart-bulb/lb110/ TP-Link LB 110 smart bulb]

== Project Process ==

=== Overview ===
At first, we did a lot of research regarding the hardware. Our intention was to create a Smart Home scenario using Webthings and Matter respectively. We soon realized that it wouldn't be that easy to find hardware that is supported by both protocols. The reason for this is, that the development of Webthings has been discontinued in 2020 and is now only supported through open source. Matter on the other hand is brand new and was launched in the winter of 2022. So not a lot of devices still support Webthings and not a lot of devices are already compatible with Matter. Especially because Matter utilizes a new protocol called thread build on the same stack as Zigbee using IEEE 802.15.4.

=== First Phase ===
Our first attempt was to set up the Webthings Gateway using a Raspberry Pi 3. The first batch of devices consisted of a Tradfri Zigbee lamp and an Amazon Echo Dot. We tried to connect to the Amazon Echo Dot via Wi-Fi and failed because of compatability issues. The Tradfri bulb also yielded no better results. Although there exists an add-on for Webthings to support Zigbee, we could not find/connect the smart bulb.

===Second Phase/Matter===
After a lot of reasearch we felt confident to try out the matter protocol. We found out that there is no such thing as an open source matter gateway but that it is build into the devices of big tech companies like Google, Apple or Samsung. That meant we had to get devices of those big players as a gateway. We decided on the Google Nest Hub. If we wanted to connect something using Zigbee with Matter we would have had to get another supported Gateway supporting the Zigbee Protocol. All of that made us reconsider testing Zigbee altogether and we decided that we would rather focus on Wi-Fi devices.

===Third Phase===
We then found devices that supposedly should work with Matter as well as Webthings. All our cards were on the EVE devices. The Smart Plug, Motion Sensor and Window Intrusion Sensor. But that also didn't work out. The problem was that altough all of those devices support both protocols, from the factory they are only usable via the Apple HomePod. In order to get them to work with other devices you first need to update the Firmware using an Apple HomePod. So that was also not an option in the little remaining time.

===Fourth Phase===
We finally found a device that worked with both Smart Home Protocols. The TP-Link LB110. We were reliefed to say the least. Finally we could start testing to find out the differences between the two protocols. But thats when things started to get a little bit weird. Our idea was to use a laptop as the router/gateway in order to sniff the packets being sent via wireshark. We used the Hotspot function of Windows. No problem there with the Webthings gateway. But as soon as we connected the bulb and the Google Nest Hub the Hotspot lost its connection to the internet. Because of that the bulb and the Nest Hub, which both need a connection to the internet did not work anymore. Also when removed from the network the connection did not come back. We tried it on 2 different laptops and both now do not have functioning hotspots anymore.

=== Fifth Phase ===
So there aren't any captures we can analyze for Matter. Also we are not quite sure if the Nest Hub even utilizes the Matter Protocol when not using Thread.

=== Conclusion ===
Unfortunately because ot the circumstances we were not able to get the wanted results. However considering that we are a team of IT students with some knowledge and that both protocols should unify existing smart homes within a single protocol, it is fair to say that there is at this point in time no best solution because both of them have great issues. Webthings appeals more to open source enthusiasts that want to tinker with their smart home devices whereas Matter is a more plug and play approach to the smart home ecosystem. It however lacks the customizability of its opponent.

== Description ==

=== WebThings ===

* Install the latest gateway Image [https://webthings.io/gateway/'''latest gateway Image'''] from WebThings. Flash the downloaded Image on the microSD card using [https://etcher.balena.io '''Etcher'''] for example.
* Boot your Raspberry Pi. After booting up the gateway, it will create an Wi-Fi hotspot with the name "WebThings Gateway XXXX". Use an personal computer to connect to the network.

[[File:wifi_ssid.png|500px|thumb|center|Connection of local device to the gateway]]

* After establishing a connection to the gateway, a page will appear which shows nearby WiFi networks. Connect to your home network.

[[File:connect_wifi.png|500px|thumb|center|Connection of gateway to local network]]

* Now you should be able to access the gateways UI via http://192.168.2.1 or http://gateway.local .
* After navigating to the local gateway page, you will be given the option to register a free subdomain

[[File:choose_subdomain.png|500px|thumb|center|Register Subdomain]]

* You will be led to an Page to create an user account

[[File:create_user_account.png|500px|thumb|center|Create user account]]

* After all the steps you will be redirected to an empty "Things" screen of the gateway where you can start to add devices.

[[File:things_screen.png|500px|thumb|center|List of all available devices]]

* When clicking on the "+" the WebThings Gateway will search for Smart Things that are in the same WLAN network and nearby. Here the bulb was immediately detected and so we added it to our WebThings network.

[[File:Screenshot_(3).png|500px|thumb|center|Connecting with the TP-Link bulb]]

* Here we can see that we added the bulb successfully to our network. That's the overview page of all Smart Things that are implemented. If we want to control a Smart Thing we need to click on it.

[[File:Screenshot_(4).png|500px|thumb|center|Overview page of all included Smart Things]]

* After we clicked on the bulb, we get options to change the brightness of the bulb, turn it on or off & view the power consumption.

[[File:Screenshot_(5).png|500px|thumb|center|Control panel of the bulb]]

===Wireshark Captures===

We also tried to sniff the traffic between the Control Panel device, the Smart Bulb & the WebThings Gateway, so we can analyze how the way of communication looks like. Actually we wanted to compare the packet sizes with the packets of Matter, but since this did not work, we simply analyzed them.

====IP-Table====

* Control Panel device: 192.168.137.193 /24
* TP-Link Smart Bulb: 192.168.137.92 /24
* WebThings Gateway: 192.168.137.219 /24

==== The Captures ====

* We filtered the messages by source & destination addresses to clearly show the handshakes and to show the sending of application data.

* In this first picture we can see how the bulb wants to establish a TCP connection with an Amazon server for cloud-based functionality. Such smart home devices, rely on cloud services for remote control and management. After Application Data is sent between the smart bulb and the Amazon server, the bulb wants to finish the connection.

[[File:Screen1.png|800px|thumb|center|Communication from the Smart Bulb to the Amazon Server]]

* This capture shows that the amazon server answers to the SYN from the bulb with an SYN ACK and then application data is exchanged.

[[File:Screen2.png|800px|thumb|center|Communication from WebThings Cloud back to the Smart Bulb]]

* Here we can see the communication initiated by the control panel device to the Google Network, where afterwards application data is exchanged. Afterwards the connection is getting closed by the google network which can be seen in the last capture.

[[File:Screen3.png|800px|thumb|center|Communication from the Control Panel Device to the Google Network]]

* Here we can see the opposite site, where the Google Network answers with an SYN ACK and since then messages are exchanged until the google network wants to finish the session.

[[File:Screen4.png|800px|thumb|center|Communication from WebThings Cloud back to the Control Panel Device]]

== References ==

* https://github.com/WebThingsIO/tplink-adapter
* https://matter-smarthome.de/en/overview-products-compatible-with-matter/
* https://github.com/WebThingsIO/wiki/wiki/Supported-Hardware
* https://webthings.io/docs/gateway-getting-started-guide.html

[[Category:Documentation]]

WebThings vs. Matter: A Comparative Protocol Analysis

2023-07-07T11:44:21Z

MWieger:

== Summary ==

This documentation compares the two latest IoT-Unify protocols for smart homes: Matter & WebThings. The response time, the data rates & the features of the two protocols will be compared.

== Requirements ==

* Operating system: WebThingsOS
* Packages: Webthings TP Link Kasa Add On
* Hardware: [https://wiki.elvis.science/index.php?title=Raspberry_Pi_3,_Model_B%2B,_WLAN,_BT Raspberry Pi 3 (with an microSD card)] ,[https://store.google.com/de/product/nest_hub_2nd_gen?hl=de&pli=1 Google Nest Hub (2.Gen)],[https://www.tp-link.com/de/home-networking/smart-bulb/lb110/ TP-Link LB 110 smart bulb]

== Project Process ==

=== Overview ===
At first, we did a lot of research regarding the hardware. Our intention was to create a Smart Home scenario using Webthings and Matter respectively. We soon realized that it wouldn't be that easy to find hardware that is supported by both protocols. The reason for this is, that the development of Webthings has been discontinued in 2020 and is now only supported through open source. Matter on the other hand is brand new and was launched in the winter of 2022. So not a lot of devices still support Webthings and not a lot of devices are already compatible with Matter. Especially because Matter utilizes a new protocol called thread build on the same stack as Zigbee using IEEE 802.15.4.

=== First Phase ===
Our first attempt was to set up the Webthings Gateway using a Raspberry Pi 3. The first batch of devices consisted of a Tradfri Zigbee lamp and an Amazon Echo Dot. We tried to connect to the Amazon Echo Dot via Wi-Fi and failed because of compatability issues. The Tradfri bulb also yielded no better results. Although there exists an add-on for Webthings to support Zigbee, we could not find/connect the smart bulb.

===Second Phase/Matter===
After a lot of reasearch we felt confident to try out the matter protocol. We found out that there is no such thing as an open source matter gateway but that it is build into the devices of big tech companies like Google, Apple or Samsung. That meant we had to get devices of those big players as a gateway. We decided on the Google Nest Hub. If we wanted to connect something using Zigbee with Matter we would have had to get another supported Gateway supporting the Zigbee Protocol. All of that made us reconsider testing Zigbee altogether and we decided that we would rather focus on Wi-Fi devices.

===Third Phase===
We then found devices that supposedly should work with Matter as well as Webthings. All our cards were on the EVE devices. The Smart Plug, Motion Sensor and Window Intrusion Sensor. But that also didn't work out. The problem was that altough all of those devices support both protocols, from the factory they are only usable via the Apple HomePod. In order to get them to work with other devices you first need to update the Firmware using an Apple HomePod. So that was also not an option in the little remaining time.

===Fourth Phase===
We finally found a device that worked with both Smart Home Protocols. The TP-Link LB110. We were reliefed to say the least. Finally we could start testing to find out the differences between the two protocols. But thats when things started to get a little bit weird. Our idea was to use a laptop as the router/gateway in order to sniff the packets being sent via wireshark. We used the Hotspot function of Windows. No problem there with the Webthings gateway. But as soon as we connected the bulb and the Google Nest Hub the Hotspot lost its connection to the internet. Because of that the bulb and the Nest Hub, which both need a connection to the internet did not work anymore. Also when removed from the network the connection did not come back. We tried it on 2 different laptops and both now do not have functioning hotspots anymore.

=== Fifth Phase ===
So there aren't any captures we can analyze for Matter. Also we are not quite sure if the Nest Hub even utilizes the Matter Protocol when not using Thread.

=== Conclusion ===
Unfortunately because ot the circumstances we were not able to get the wanted results. However considering that we are a team of IT students with some knowledge and that both protocols should unify existing smart homes within a single protocol, it is fair to say that there is at this point in time no best solution because both of them have great issues. Webthings appeals more to open source enthusiasts that want to tinker with their smart home devices whereas Matter is a more plug and play approach to the smart home ecosystem. It however lacks the customizability of its opponent.

== Description ==

=== WebThings ===

* Install the latest gateway Image [https://webthings.io/gateway/'''latest gateway Image'''] from WebThings. Flash the downloaded Image on the microSD card using [https://etcher.balena.io '''Etcher'''] for example.
* Boot your Raspberry Pi. After booting up the gateway, it will create an Wi-Fi hotspot with the name "WebThings Gateway XXXX". Use an personal computer to connect to the network.

[[File:wifi_ssid.png|500px|thumb|center|Connection of local device to the gateway]]

* After establishing a connection to the gateway, a page will appear which shows nearby WiFi networks. Connect to your home network.

[[File:connect_wifi.png|500px|thumb|center|Connection of gateway to local network]]

* Now you should be able to access the gateways UI via http://192.168.2.1 or http://gateway.local .
* After navigating to the local gateway page, you will be given the option to register a free subdomain

[[File:choose_subdomain.png|500px|thumb|center|Register Subdomain]]

* You will be led to an Page to create an user account

[[File:create_user_account.png|500px|thumb|center|Create user account]]

* After all the steps you will be redirected to an empty "Things" screen of the gateway where you can start to add devices.

[[File:things_screen.png|500px|thumb|center|List of all available devices]]

* When clicking on the "+" the WebThings Gateway will search for Smart Things that are in the same WLAN network and nearby. Here the bulb was immediately detected and so we added it to our WebThings network.

[[File:Screenshot_(3).png|500px|thumb|center|Connecting with the TP-Link bulb]]

* Here we can see that we added the bulb successfully to our network. That's the overview page of all Smart Things that are implemented. If we want to control a Smart Thing we need to click on it.

[[File:Screenshot_(4).png|500px|thumb|center|Overview page of all included Smart Things]]

* After we clicked on the bulb, we get options to change the brightness of the bulb, turn it on or off & view the power consumption.

[[File:Screenshot_(5).png|500px|thumb|center|Control panel of the bulb]]

===Wireshark Captures===

We also tried to sniff the traffic between the Control Panel device, the Smart Bulb & the WebThings Gateway, so we can analyze how the way of communication looks like. Actually we wanted to compare the packet sizes with the packets of Matter, but since this did not work, we simply analyzed them.

====IP-Table====

* Control Panel device: 192.168.137.193 /24
* TP-Link Smart Bulb: 192.168.137.92 /24
* WebThings Gateway: 192.168.137.219 /24

==== The Captures ====

* We filtered the messages by source & destination addresses to clearly show the handshakes and to show the sending of application data.

* In this first picture we can see how the bulb wants to establish a TCP connection with an Amazon server for cloud-based functionality. Such smart home devices, rely on cloud services for remote control and management. After Application Data is sent between the smart bulb and the Amazon server, the bulb wants to finish the connection.

[[File:Screen1.png|800px|thumb|center|Communication from the Smart Bulb to the Amazon Server]]

* This capture shows that the amazon server answers to the SYN from the bulb with an SYN ACK and then application data is exchanged.

[[File:Screen2.png|800px|thumb|center|Communication from WebThings Cloud back to the Smart Bulb]]

* Here we can see the communication initiated by the control panel device to the Google Network, where afterwards application data is exchanged. Afterwards the connection is getting closed by the google network which can be seen in the last capture.

[[File:Screen3.png|800px|thumb|center|Communication from the Control Panel Device to the Google Network]]

* Here we can see the opposite site, where the Google Network answers with an SYN ACK and since then messages are exchanged until the google network wants to finish the session.

[[File:Screen4.png|800px|thumb|center|Communication from WebThings Cloud back to the Control Panel Device]]

== References ==

* https://github.com/WebThingsIO/tplink-adapter
* https://matter-smarthome.de/en/overview-products-compatible-with-matter/
* https://github.com/WebThingsIO/wiki/wiki/Supported-Hardware
* https://webthings.io/docs/gateway-getting-started-guide.html

[[Category:Documentation]]

WebThings vs. Matter: A Comparative Protocol Analysis

2023-07-07T11:42:44Z

MWieger:

== Summary ==

This documentation compares the two latest IoT-Unify protocols for smart homes: Matter & WebThings. The response time, the data rates & the features of the two protocols will be compared.

== Requirements ==

* Operating system: WebThingsOS
* Packages: Webthings TP Link Kasa Add On
* Hardware: [https://wiki.elvis.science/index.php?title=Raspberry_Pi_3,_Model_B%2B,_WLAN,_BT Raspberry Pi 3 (with an microSD card)] , Google Nest Hub (2.Gen), TP-Link LB 110 smart bulb

== Project Process ==

=== Overview ===
At first, we did a lot of research regarding the hardware. Our intention was to create a Smart Home scenario using Webthings and Matter respectively. We soon realized that it wouldn't be that easy to find hardware that is supported by both protocols. The reason for this is, that the development of Webthings has been discontinued in 2020 and is now only supported through open source. Matter on the other hand is brand new and was launched in the winter of 2022. So not a lot of devices still support Webthings and not a lot of devices are already compatible with Matter. Especially because Matter utilizes a new protocol called thread build on the same stack as Zigbee using IEEE 802.15.4.

=== First Phase ===
Our first attempt was to set up the Webthings Gateway using a Raspberry Pi 3. The first batch of devices consisted of a Tradfri Zigbee lamp and an Amazon Echo Dot. We tried to connect to the Amazon Echo Dot via Wi-Fi and failed because of compatability issues. The Tradfri bulb also yielded no better results. Although there exists an add-on for Webthings to support Zigbee, we could not find/connect the smart bulb.

===Second Phase/Matter===
After a lot of reasearch we felt confident to try out the matter protocol. We found out that there is no such thing as an open source matter gateway but that it is build into the devices of big tech companies like Google, Apple or Samsung. That meant we had to get devices of those big players as a gateway. We decided on the Google Nest Hub. If we wanted to connect something using Zigbee with Matter we would have had to get another supported Gateway supporting the Zigbee Protocol. All of that made us reconsider testing Zigbee altogether and we decided that we would rather focus on Wi-Fi devices.

===Third Phase===
We then found devices that supposedly should work with Matter as well as Webthings. All our cards were on the EVE devices. The Smart Plug, Motion Sensor and Window Intrusion Sensor. But that also didn't work out. The problem was that altough all of those devices support both protocols, from the factory they are only usable via the Apple HomePod. In order to get them to work with other devices you first need to update the Firmware using an Apple HomePod. So that was also not an option in the little remaining time.

===Fourth Phase===
We finally found a device that worked with both Smart Home Protocols. The TP-Link LB110. We were reliefed to say the least. Finally we could start testing to find out the differences between the two protocols. But thats when things started to get a little bit weird. Our idea was to use a laptop as the router/gateway in order to sniff the packets being sent via wireshark. We used the Hotspot function of Windows. No problem there with the Webthings gateway. But as soon as we connected the bulb and the Google Nest Hub the Hotspot lost its connection to the internet. Because of that the bulb and the Nest Hub, which both need a connection to the internet did not work anymore. Also when removed from the network the connection did not come back. We tried it on 2 different laptops and both now do not have functioning hotspots anymore.

=== Fifth Phase ===
So there aren't any captures we can analyze for Matter. Also we are not quite sure if the Nest Hub even utilizes the Matter Protocol when not using Thread.

=== Conclusion ===
Unfortunately because ot the circumstances we were not able to get the wanted results. However considering that we are a team of IT students with some knowledge and that both protocols should unify existing smart homes within a single protocol, it is fair to say that there is at this point in time no best solution because both of them have great issues. Webthings appeals more to open source enthusiasts that want to tinker with their smart home devices whereas Matter is a more plug and play approach to the smart home ecosystem. It however lacks the customizability of its opponent.

== Description ==

=== WebThings ===

* Install the latest gateway Image [https://webthings.io/gateway/'''latest gateway Image'''] from WebThings. Flash the downloaded Image on the microSD card using [https://etcher.balena.io '''Etcher'''] for example.
* Boot your Raspberry Pi. After booting up the gateway, it will create an Wi-Fi hotspot with the name "WebThings Gateway XXXX". Use an personal computer to connect to the network.

[[File:wifi_ssid.png|500px|thumb|center|Connection of local device to the gateway]]

* After establishing a connection to the gateway, a page will appear which shows nearby WiFi networks. Connect to your home network.

[[File:connect_wifi.png|500px|thumb|center|Connection of gateway to local network]]

* Now you should be able to access the gateways UI via http://192.168.2.1 or http://gateway.local .
* After navigating to the local gateway page, you will be given the option to register a free subdomain

[[File:choose_subdomain.png|500px|thumb|center|Register Subdomain]]

* You will be led to an Page to create an user account

[[File:create_user_account.png|500px|thumb|center|Create user account]]

* After all the steps you will be redirected to an empty "Things" screen of the gateway where you can start to add devices.

[[File:things_screen.png|500px|thumb|center|List of all available devices]]

* When clicking on the "+" the WebThings Gateway will search for Smart Things that are in the same WLAN network and nearby. Here the bulb was immediately detected and so we added it to our WebThings network.

[[File:Screenshot_(3).png|500px|thumb|center|Connecting with the TP-Link bulb]]

* Here we can see that we added the bulb successfully to our network. That's the overview page of all Smart Things that are implemented. If we want to control a Smart Thing we need to click on it.

[[File:Screenshot_(4).png|500px|thumb|center|Overview page of all included Smart Things]]

* After we clicked on the bulb, we get options to change the brightness of the bulb, turn it on or off & view the power consumption.

[[File:Screenshot_(5).png|500px|thumb|center|Control panel of the bulb]]

===Wireshark Captures===

We also tried to sniff the traffic between the Control Panel device, the Smart Bulb & the WebThings Gateway, so we can analyze how the way of communication looks like. Actually we wanted to compare the packet sizes with the packets of Matter, but since this did not work, we simply analyzed them.

====IP-Table====

* Control Panel device: 192.168.137.193 /24
* TP-Link Smart Bulb: 192.168.137.92 /24
* WebThings Gateway: 192.168.137.219 /24

==== The Captures ====

* We filtered the messages by source & destination addresses to clearly show the handshakes and to show the sending of application data.

* In this first picture we can see how the bulb wants to establish a TCP connection with an Amazon server for cloud-based functionality. Such smart home devices, rely on cloud services for remote control and management. After Application Data is sent between the smart bulb and the Amazon server, the bulb wants to finish the connection.

[[File:Screen1.png|800px|thumb|center|Communication from the Smart Bulb to the Amazon Server]]

* This capture shows that the amazon server answers to the SYN from the bulb with an SYN ACK and then application data is exchanged.

[[File:Screen2.png|800px|thumb|center|Communication from WebThings Cloud back to the Smart Bulb]]

* Here we can see the communication initiated by the control panel device to the Google Network, where afterwards application data is exchanged. Afterwards the connection is getting closed by the google network which can be seen in the last capture.

[[File:Screen3.png|800px|thumb|center|Communication from the Control Panel Device to the Google Network]]

* Here we can see the opposite site, where the Google Network answers with an SYN ACK and since then messages are exchanged until the google network wants to finish the session.

[[File:Screen4.png|800px|thumb|center|Communication from WebThings Cloud back to the Control Panel Device]]

== References ==

* https://github.com/WebThingsIO/tplink-adapter
* https://matter-smarthome.de/en/overview-products-compatible-with-matter/
* https://github.com/WebThingsIO/wiki/wiki/Supported-Hardware
* https://webthings.io/docs/gateway-getting-started-guide.html

[[Category:Documentation]]

WebThings vs. Matter: A Comparative Protocol Analysis

2023-07-07T11:41:38Z

MWieger:

== Summary ==

This documentation compares the two latest IoT-Unify protocols for smart homes: Matter & WebThings. The response time, the data rates & the features of the two protocols will be compared.

== Requirements ==

* Operating system: WebThingsOS
* Packages: Webthings TP Link Kasa Add On
* Hardware: Raspberry Pi 3 (with an microSD card)[https://wiki.elvis.science/index.php?title=Raspberry_Pi_3,_Model_B%2B,_WLAN,_BT] , Google Nest Hub (2.Gen), TP-Link LB 110 smart bulb

== Project Process ==

=== Overview ===
At first, we did a lot of research regarding the hardware. Our intention was to create a Smart Home scenario using Webthings and Matter respectively. We soon realized that it wouldn't be that easy to find hardware that is supported by both protocols. The reason for this is, that the development of Webthings has been discontinued in 2020 and is now only supported through open source. Matter on the other hand is brand new and was launched in the winter of 2022. So not a lot of devices still support Webthings and not a lot of devices are already compatible with Matter. Especially because Matter utilizes a new protocol called thread build on the same stack as Zigbee using IEEE 802.15.4.

=== First Phase ===
Our first attempt was to set up the Webthings Gateway using a Raspberry Pi 3. The first batch of devices consisted of a Tradfri Zigbee lamp and an Amazon Echo Dot. We tried to connect to the Amazon Echo Dot via Wi-Fi and failed because of compatability issues. The Tradfri bulb also yielded no better results. Although there exists an add-on for Webthings to support Zigbee, we could not find/connect the smart bulb.

===Second Phase/Matter===
After a lot of reasearch we felt confident to try out the matter protocol. We found out that there is no such thing as an open source matter gateway but that it is build into the devices of big tech companies like Google, Apple or Samsung. That meant we had to get devices of those big players as a gateway. We decided on the Google Nest Hub. If we wanted to connect something using Zigbee with Matter we would have had to get another supported Gateway supporting the Zigbee Protocol. All of that made us reconsider testing Zigbee altogether and we decided that we would rather focus on Wi-Fi devices.

===Third Phase===
We then found devices that supposedly should work with Matter as well as Webthings. All our cards were on the EVE devices. The Smart Plug, Motion Sensor and Window Intrusion Sensor. But that also didn't work out. The problem was that altough all of those devices support both protocols, from the factory they are only usable via the Apple HomePod. In order to get them to work with other devices you first need to update the Firmware using an Apple HomePod. So that was also not an option in the little remaining time.

===Fourth Phase===
We finally found a device that worked with both Smart Home Protocols. The TP-Link LB110. We were reliefed to say the least. Finally we could start testing to find out the differences between the two protocols. But thats when things started to get a little bit weird. Our idea was to use a laptop as the router/gateway in order to sniff the packets being sent via wireshark. We used the Hotspot function of Windows. No problem there with the Webthings gateway. But as soon as we connected the bulb and the Google Nest Hub the Hotspot lost its connection to the internet. Because of that the bulb and the Nest Hub, which both need a connection to the internet did not work anymore. Also when removed from the network the connection did not come back. We tried it on 2 different laptops and both now do not have functioning hotspots anymore.

=== Fifth Phase ===
So there aren't any captures we can analyze for Matter. Also we are not quite sure if the Nest Hub even utilizes the Matter Protocol when not using Thread.

=== Conclusion ===
Unfortunately because ot the circumstances we were not able to get the wanted results. However considering that we are a team of IT students with some knowledge and that both protocols should unify existing smart homes within a single protocol, it is fair to say that there is at this point in time no best solution because both of them have great issues. Webthings appeals more to open source enthusiasts that want to tinker with their smart home devices whereas Matter is a more plug and play approach to the smart home ecosystem. It however lacks the customizability of its opponent.

== Description ==

=== WebThings ===

* Install the latest gateway Image [https://webthings.io/gateway/'''latest gateway Image'''] from WebThings. Flash the downloaded Image on the microSD card using [https://etcher.balena.io '''Etcher'''] for example.
* Boot your Raspberry Pi. After booting up the gateway, it will create an Wi-Fi hotspot with the name "WebThings Gateway XXXX". Use an personal computer to connect to the network.

[[File:wifi_ssid.png|500px|thumb|center|Connection of local device to the gateway]]

* After establishing a connection to the gateway, a page will appear which shows nearby WiFi networks. Connect to your home network.

[[File:connect_wifi.png|500px|thumb|center|Connection of gateway to local network]]

* Now you should be able to access the gateways UI via http://192.168.2.1 or http://gateway.local .
* After navigating to the local gateway page, you will be given the option to register a free subdomain

[[File:choose_subdomain.png|500px|thumb|center|Register Subdomain]]

* You will be led to an Page to create an user account

[[File:create_user_account.png|500px|thumb|center|Create user account]]

* After all the steps you will be redirected to an empty "Things" screen of the gateway where you can start to add devices.

[[File:things_screen.png|500px|thumb|center|List of all available devices]]

* When clicking on the "+" the WebThings Gateway will search for Smart Things that are in the same WLAN network and nearby. Here the bulb was immediately detected and so we added it to our WebThings network.

[[File:Screenshot_(3).png|500px|thumb|center|Connecting with the TP-Link bulb]]

* Here we can see that we added the bulb successfully to our network. That's the overview page of all Smart Things that are implemented. If we want to control a Smart Thing we need to click on it.

[[File:Screenshot_(4).png|500px|thumb|center|Overview page of all included Smart Things]]

* After we clicked on the bulb, we get options to change the brightness of the bulb, turn it on or off & view the power consumption.

[[File:Screenshot_(5).png|500px|thumb|center|Control panel of the bulb]]

===Wireshark Captures===

We also tried to sniff the traffic between the Control Panel device, the Smart Bulb & the WebThings Gateway, so we can analyze how the way of communication looks like. Actually we wanted to compare the packet sizes with the packets of Matter, but since this did not work, we simply analyzed them.

====IP-Table====

* Control Panel device: 192.168.137.193 /24
* TP-Link Smart Bulb: 192.168.137.92 /24
* WebThings Gateway: 192.168.137.219 /24

==== The Captures ====

* We filtered the messages by source & destination addresses to clearly show the handshakes and to show the sending of application data.

* In this first picture we can see how the bulb wants to establish a TCP connection with an Amazon server for cloud-based functionality. Such smart home devices, rely on cloud services for remote control and management. After Application Data is sent between the smart bulb and the Amazon server, the bulb wants to finish the connection.

[[File:Screen1.png|800px|thumb|center|Communication from the Smart Bulb to the Amazon Server]]

* This capture shows that the amazon server answers to the SYN from the bulb with an SYN ACK and then application data is exchanged.

[[File:Screen2.png|800px|thumb|center|Communication from WebThings Cloud back to the Smart Bulb]]

* Here we can see the communication initiated by the control panel device to the Google Network, where afterwards application data is exchanged. Afterwards the connection is getting closed by the google network which can be seen in the last capture.

[[File:Screen3.png|800px|thumb|center|Communication from the Control Panel Device to the Google Network]]

* Here we can see the opposite site, where the Google Network answers with an SYN ACK and since then messages are exchanged until the google network wants to finish the session.

[[File:Screen4.png|800px|thumb|center|Communication from WebThings Cloud back to the Control Panel Device]]

== References ==

* https://github.com/WebThingsIO/tplink-adapter
* https://matter-smarthome.de/en/overview-products-compatible-with-matter/
* https://github.com/WebThingsIO/wiki/wiki/Supported-Hardware
* https://webthings.io/docs/gateway-getting-started-guide.html

[[Category:Documentation]]

WebThings vs. Matter: A Comparative Protocol Analysis

2023-07-07T11:41:05Z

MWieger:

== Summary ==

This documentation compares the two latest IoT-Unify protocols for smart homes: Matter & WebThings. The response time, the data rates & the features of the two protocols will be compared.

== Requirements ==

* Operating system: WebThingsOS
* Packages: Webthings TP Link Kasa Add On
* Hardware: Raspberry Pi 3 (with an microSD card) [https://wiki.elvis.science/index.php?title=Raspberry_Pi_3,_Model_B%2B,_WLAN,_BT] , Google Nest Hub (2.Gen), TP-Link LB 110 smart bulb

== Project Process ==

=== Overview ===
At first, we did a lot of research regarding the hardware. Our intention was to create a Smart Home scenario using Webthings and Matter respectively. We soon realized that it wouldn't be that easy to find hardware that is supported by both protocols. The reason for this is, that the development of Webthings has been discontinued in 2020 and is now only supported through open source. Matter on the other hand is brand new and was launched in the winter of 2022. So not a lot of devices still support Webthings and not a lot of devices are already compatible with Matter. Especially because Matter utilizes a new protocol called thread build on the same stack as Zigbee using IEEE 802.15.4.

=== First Phase ===
Our first attempt was to set up the Webthings Gateway using a Raspberry Pi 3. The first batch of devices consisted of a Tradfri Zigbee lamp and an Amazon Echo Dot. We tried to connect to the Amazon Echo Dot via Wi-Fi and failed because of compatability issues. The Tradfri bulb also yielded no better results. Although there exists an add-on for Webthings to support Zigbee, we could not find/connect the smart bulb.

===Second Phase/Matter===
After a lot of reasearch we felt confident to try out the matter protocol. We found out that there is no such thing as an open source matter gateway but that it is build into the devices of big tech companies like Google, Apple or Samsung. That meant we had to get devices of those big players as a gateway. We decided on the Google Nest Hub. If we wanted to connect something using Zigbee with Matter we would have had to get another supported Gateway supporting the Zigbee Protocol. All of that made us reconsider testing Zigbee altogether and we decided that we would rather focus on Wi-Fi devices.

===Third Phase===
We then found devices that supposedly should work with Matter as well as Webthings. All our cards were on the EVE devices. The Smart Plug, Motion Sensor and Window Intrusion Sensor. But that also didn't work out. The problem was that altough all of those devices support both protocols, from the factory they are only usable via the Apple HomePod. In order to get them to work with other devices you first need to update the Firmware using an Apple HomePod. So that was also not an option in the little remaining time.

===Fourth Phase===
We finally found a device that worked with both Smart Home Protocols. The TP-Link LB110. We were reliefed to say the least. Finally we could start testing to find out the differences between the two protocols. But thats when things started to get a little bit weird. Our idea was to use a laptop as the router/gateway in order to sniff the packets being sent via wireshark. We used the Hotspot function of Windows. No problem there with the Webthings gateway. But as soon as we connected the bulb and the Google Nest Hub the Hotspot lost its connection to the internet. Because of that the bulb and the Nest Hub, which both need a connection to the internet did not work anymore. Also when removed from the network the connection did not come back. We tried it on 2 different laptops and both now do not have functioning hotspots anymore.

=== Fifth Phase ===
So there aren't any captures we can analyze for Matter. Also we are not quite sure if the Nest Hub even utilizes the Matter Protocol when not using Thread.

=== Conclusion ===
Unfortunately because ot the circumstances we were not able to get the wanted results. However considering that we are a team of IT students with some knowledge and that both protocols should unify existing smart homes within a single protocol, it is fair to say that there is at this point in time no best solution because both of them have great issues. Webthings appeals more to open source enthusiasts that want to tinker with their smart home devices whereas Matter is a more plug and play approach to the smart home ecosystem. It however lacks the customizability of its opponent.

== Description ==

=== WebThings ===

* Install the latest gateway Image [https://webthings.io/gateway/'''latest gateway Image'''] from WebThings. Flash the downloaded Image on the microSD card using [https://etcher.balena.io '''Etcher'''] for example.
* Boot your Raspberry Pi. After booting up the gateway, it will create an Wi-Fi hotspot with the name "WebThings Gateway XXXX". Use an personal computer to connect to the network.

[[File:wifi_ssid.png|500px|thumb|center|Connection of local device to the gateway]]

* After establishing a connection to the gateway, a page will appear which shows nearby WiFi networks. Connect to your home network.

[[File:connect_wifi.png|500px|thumb|center|Connection of gateway to local network]]

* Now you should be able to access the gateways UI via http://192.168.2.1 or http://gateway.local .
* After navigating to the local gateway page, you will be given the option to register a free subdomain

[[File:choose_subdomain.png|500px|thumb|center|Register Subdomain]]

* You will be led to an Page to create an user account

[[File:create_user_account.png|500px|thumb|center|Create user account]]

* After all the steps you will be redirected to an empty "Things" screen of the gateway where you can start to add devices.

[[File:things_screen.png|500px|thumb|center|List of all available devices]]

* When clicking on the "+" the WebThings Gateway will search for Smart Things that are in the same WLAN network and nearby. Here the bulb was immediately detected and so we added it to our WebThings network.

[[File:Screenshot_(3).png|500px|thumb|center|Connecting with the TP-Link bulb]]

* Here we can see that we added the bulb successfully to our network. That's the overview page of all Smart Things that are implemented. If we want to control a Smart Thing we need to click on it.

[[File:Screenshot_(4).png|500px|thumb|center|Overview page of all included Smart Things]]

* After we clicked on the bulb, we get options to change the brightness of the bulb, turn it on or off & view the power consumption.

[[File:Screenshot_(5).png|500px|thumb|center|Control panel of the bulb]]

===Wireshark Captures===

We also tried to sniff the traffic between the Control Panel device, the Smart Bulb & the WebThings Gateway, so we can analyze how the way of communication looks like. Actually we wanted to compare the packet sizes with the packets of Matter, but since this did not work, we simply analyzed them.

====IP-Table====

* Control Panel device: 192.168.137.193 /24
* TP-Link Smart Bulb: 192.168.137.92 /24
* WebThings Gateway: 192.168.137.219 /24

==== The Captures ====

* We filtered the messages by source & destination addresses to clearly show the handshakes and to show the sending of application data.

* In this first picture we can see how the bulb wants to establish a TCP connection with an Amazon server for cloud-based functionality. Such smart home devices, rely on cloud services for remote control and management. After Application Data is sent between the smart bulb and the Amazon server, the bulb wants to finish the connection.

[[File:Screen1.png|800px|thumb|center|Communication from the Smart Bulb to the Amazon Server]]

* This capture shows that the amazon server answers to the SYN from the bulb with an SYN ACK and then application data is exchanged.

[[File:Screen2.png|800px|thumb|center|Communication from WebThings Cloud back to the Smart Bulb]]

* Here we can see the communication initiated by the control panel device to the Google Network, where afterwards application data is exchanged. Afterwards the connection is getting closed by the google network which can be seen in the last capture.

[[File:Screen3.png|800px|thumb|center|Communication from the Control Panel Device to the Google Network]]

* Here we can see the opposite site, where the Google Network answers with an SYN ACK and since then messages are exchanged until the google network wants to finish the session.

[[File:Screen4.png|800px|thumb|center|Communication from WebThings Cloud back to the Control Panel Device]]

== References ==

* https://github.com/WebThingsIO/tplink-adapter
* https://matter-smarthome.de/en/overview-products-compatible-with-matter/
* https://github.com/WebThingsIO/wiki/wiki/Supported-Hardware
* https://webthings.io/docs/gateway-getting-started-guide.html

[[Category:Documentation]]

WebThings vs. Matter: A Comparative Protocol Analysis

2023-07-07T11:39:54Z

MWieger:

== Summary ==

This documentation compares the two latest IoT-Unify protocols for smart homes: Matter & WebThings. The response time, the data rates & the features of the two protocols will be compared.

== Requirements ==

* Operating system: WebThingsOS
* Packages: Webthings TP Link Kasa Add On
* Hardware: Raspberry Pi 3 (with an microSD card) https://wiki.elvis.science/index.php?title=Raspberry_Pi_3,_Model_B%2B,_WLAN,_BT , Google Nest Hub (2.Gen), TP-Link LB 110 smart bulb

== Project Process ==

=== Overview ===
At first, we did a lot of research regarding the hardware. Our intention was to create a Smart Home scenario using Webthings and Matter respectively. We soon realized that it wouldn't be that easy to find hardware that is supported by both protocols. The reason for this is, that the development of Webthings has been discontinued in 2020 and is now only supported through open source. Matter on the other hand is brand new and was launched in the winter of 2022. So not a lot of devices still support Webthings and not a lot of devices are already compatible with Matter. Especially because Matter utilizes a new protocol called thread build on the same stack as Zigbee using IEEE 802.15.4.

=== First Phase ===
Our first attempt was to set up the Webthings Gateway using a Raspberry Pi 3. The first batch of devices consisted of a Tradfri Zigbee lamp and an Amazon Echo Dot. We tried to connect to the Amazon Echo Dot via Wi-Fi and failed because of compatability issues. The Tradfri bulb also yielded no better results. Although there exists an add-on for Webthings to support Zigbee, we could not find/connect the smart bulb.

===Second Phase/Matter===
After a lot of reasearch we felt confident to try out the matter protocol. We found out that there is no such thing as an open source matter gateway but that it is build into the devices of big tech companies like Google, Apple or Samsung. That meant we had to get devices of those big players as a gateway. We decided on the Google Nest Hub. If we wanted to connect something using Zigbee with Matter we would have had to get another supported Gateway supporting the Zigbee Protocol. All of that made us reconsider testing Zigbee altogether and we decided that we would rather focus on Wi-Fi devices.

===Third Phase===
We then found devices that supposedly should work with Matter as well as Webthings. All our cards were on the EVE devices. The Smart Plug, Motion Sensor and Window Intrusion Sensor. But that also didn't work out. The problem was that altough all of those devices support both protocols, from the factory they are only usable via the Apple HomePod. In order to get them to work with other devices you first need to update the Firmware using an Apple HomePod. So that was also not an option in the little remaining time.

===Fourth Phase===
We finally found a device that worked with both Smart Home Protocols. The TP-Link LB110. We were reliefed to say the least. Finally we could start testing to find out the differences between the two protocols. But thats when things started to get a little bit weird. Our idea was to use a laptop as the router/gateway in order to sniff the packets being sent via wireshark. We used the Hotspot function of Windows. No problem there with the Webthings gateway. But as soon as we connected the bulb and the Google Nest Hub the Hotspot lost its connection to the internet. Because of that the bulb and the Nest Hub, which both need a connection to the internet did not work anymore. Also when removed from the network the connection did not come back. We tried it on 2 different laptops and both now do not have functioning hotspots anymore.

=== Fifth Phase ===
So there aren't any captures we can analyze for Matter. Also we are not quite sure if the Nest Hub even utilizes the Matter Protocol when not using Thread.

=== Conclusion ===
Unfortunately because ot the circumstances we were not able to get the wanted results. However considering that we are a team of IT students with some knowledge and that both protocols should unify existing smart homes within a single protocol, it is fair to say that there is at this point in time no best solution because both of them have great issues. Webthings appeals more to open source enthusiasts that want to tinker with their smart home devices whereas Matter is a more plug and play approach to the smart home ecosystem. It however lacks the customizability of its opponent.

== Description ==

=== WebThings ===

* Install the latest gateway Image [https://webthings.io/gateway/'''latest gateway Image'''] from WebThings. Flash the downloaded Image on the microSD card using [https://etcher.balena.io '''Etcher'''] for example.
* Boot your Raspberry Pi. After booting up the gateway, it will create an Wi-Fi hotspot with the name "WebThings Gateway XXXX". Use an personal computer to connect to the network.

[[File:wifi_ssid.png|500px|thumb|center|Connection of local device to the gateway]]

* After establishing a connection to the gateway, a page will appear which shows nearby WiFi networks. Connect to your home network.

[[File:connect_wifi.png|500px|thumb|center|Connection of gateway to local network]]

* Now you should be able to access the gateways UI via http://192.168.2.1 or http://gateway.local .
* After navigating to the local gateway page, you will be given the option to register a free subdomain

[[File:choose_subdomain.png|500px|thumb|center|Register Subdomain]]

* You will be led to an Page to create an user account

[[File:create_user_account.png|500px|thumb|center|Create user account]]

* After all the steps you will be redirected to an empty "Things" screen of the gateway where you can start to add devices.

[[File:things_screen.png|500px|thumb|center|List of all available devices]]

* When clicking on the "+" the WebThings Gateway will search for Smart Things that are in the same WLAN network and nearby. Here the bulb was immediately detected and so we added it to our WebThings network.

[[File:Screenshot_(3).png|500px|thumb|center|Connecting with the TP-Link bulb]]

* Here we can see that we added the bulb successfully to our network. That's the overview page of all Smart Things that are implemented. If we want to control a Smart Thing we need to click on it.

[[File:Screenshot_(4).png|500px|thumb|center|Overview page of all included Smart Things]]

* After we clicked on the bulb, we get options to change the brightness of the bulb, turn it on or off & view the power consumption.

[[File:Screenshot_(5).png|500px|thumb|center|Control panel of the bulb]]

===Wireshark Captures===

We also tried to sniff the traffic between the Control Panel device, the Smart Bulb & the WebThings Gateway, so we can analyze how the way of communication looks like. Actually we wanted to compare the packet sizes with the packets of Matter, but since this did not work, we simply analyzed them.

====IP-Table====

* Control Panel device: 192.168.137.193 /24
* TP-Link Smart Bulb: 192.168.137.92 /24
* WebThings Gateway: 192.168.137.219 /24

==== The Captures ====

* We filtered the messages by source & destination addresses to clearly show the handshakes and to show the sending of application data.

* In this first picture we can see how the bulb wants to establish a TCP connection with an Amazon server for cloud-based functionality. Such smart home devices, rely on cloud services for remote control and management. After Application Data is sent between the smart bulb and the Amazon server, the bulb wants to finish the connection.

[[File:Screen1.png|800px|thumb|center|Communication from the Smart Bulb to the Amazon Server]]

* This capture shows that the amazon server answers to the SYN from the bulb with an SYN ACK and then application data is exchanged.

[[File:Screen2.png|800px|thumb|center|Communication from WebThings Cloud back to the Smart Bulb]]

* Here we can see the communication initiated by the control panel device to the Google Network, where afterwards application data is exchanged. Afterwards the connection is getting closed by the google network which can be seen in the last capture.

[[File:Screen3.png|800px|thumb|center|Communication from the Control Panel Device to the Google Network]]

* Here we can see the opposite site, where the Google Network answers with an SYN ACK and since then messages are exchanged until the google network wants to finish the session.

[[File:Screen4.png|800px|thumb|center|Communication from WebThings Cloud back to the Control Panel Device]]

== References ==

* https://github.com/WebThingsIO/tplink-adapter
* https://matter-smarthome.de/en/overview-products-compatible-with-matter/
* https://github.com/WebThingsIO/wiki/wiki/Supported-Hardware
* https://webthings.io/docs/gateway-getting-started-guide.html

[[Category:Documentation]]

WebThings vs. Matter: A Comparative Protocol Analysis

2023-07-07T11:35:17Z

MWieger: /* Conclusion */

== Summary ==

This documentation compares the two latest IoT-Unify protocols for smart homes: Matter & WebThings. The response time, the data rates & the features of the two protocols will be compared.

== Requirements ==

* Operating system: WebThingsOS
* Packages: Webthings TP Link Kasa Add On
* Hardware: Raspberry Pi 3 (with an microSD card), Google Nest Hub (2.Gen), TP-Link LB 110 smart bulb

== Project Process ==

=== Overview ===
At first, we did a lot of research regarding the hardware. Our intention was to create a Smart Home scenario using Webthings and Matter respectively. We soon realized that it wouldn't be that easy to find hardware that is supported by both protocols. The reason for this is, that the development of Webthings has been discontinued in 2020 and is now only supported through open source. Matter on the other hand is brand new and was launched in the winter of 2022. So not a lot of devices still support Webthings and not a lot of devices are already compatible with Matter. Especially because Matter utilizes a new protocol called thread build on the same stack as Zigbee using IEEE 802.15.4.

=== First Phase ===
Our first attempt was to set up the Webthings Gateway using a Raspberry Pi 3. The first batch of devices consisted of a Tradfri Zigbee lamp and an Amazon Echo Dot. We tried to connect to the Amazon Echo Dot via Wi-Fi and failed because of compatability issues. The Tradfri bulb also yielded no better results. Although there exists an add-on for Webthings to support Zigbee, we could not find/connect the smart bulb.

===Second Phase/Matter===
After a lot of reasearch we felt confident to try out the matter protocol. We found out that there is no such thing as an open source matter gateway but that it is build into the devices of big tech companies like Google, Apple or Samsung. That meant we had to get devices of those big players as a gateway. We decided on the Google Nest Hub. If we wanted to connect something using Zigbee with Matter we would have had to get another supported Gateway supporting the Zigbee Protocol. All of that made us reconsider testing Zigbee altogether and we decided that we would rather focus on Wi-Fi devices.

===Third Phase===
We then found devices that supposedly should work with Matter as well as Webthings. All our cards were on the EVE devices. The Smart Plug, Motion Sensor and Window Intrusion Sensor. But that also didn't work out. The problem was that altough all of those devices support both protocols, from the factory they are only usable via the Apple HomePod. In Order to get them to work with other devices you first need to update the Firmware using an Apple HomePod. So that was also not an option.

===Fourth Phase===
We finally found a device that worked with both Smart Home Protocols. The TP-Link LB110. We were reliefed to say the least. Finally we could start testing to find out the differences between the two protocols. But thats when things started to get a little bit weird. Our idea was to use a laptop as the router/gateway in order to sniff the packets being sent via wireshark. We used the Hotspot function of Windows. No problem there with the Webthings gateway. But as soon as we connected the bulb and the Google Nest Hub the Hotspot lost its connection to the internet. Because of that the bulb and the Nest Hub, which both need a connection to the internet did not work anymore. Also when removed from the network the connection did not come back. We tried it on 2 different laptops and both now do not have functioning hotspots anymore.

=== Fifth Phase ===
So there aren't any captures we can analyze for Matter. Also we are not quite sure if the Nest Hub even utilizes the Matter Protocol when not using Thread.

=== Conclusion ===
Unfortunately because ot the circumstances we were not able to get the wanted results. However considering that we are a team of IT students with some knowledge and that both protocols should unify existing smart homes within a single protocol, it is fair to say that there is at this point in time no best solution because both of them have great issues. Webthings appeals more to open source enthusiasts that want to tinker with their smart home devices whereas Matter is a more plug and play approach to the smart home ecosystem. It however lacks the customizability of its opponent.

== Description ==

=== WebThings ===

* Install the latest gateway Image [https://webthings.io/gateway/'''latest gateway Image'''] from WebThings. Flash the downloaded Image on the microSD card using [https://etcher.balena.io '''Etcher'''] for example.
* Boot your Raspberry Pi. After booting up the gateway, it will create an Wi-Fi hotspot with the name "WebThings Gateway XXXX". Use an personal computer to connect to the network.

[[File:wifi_ssid.png|500px|thumb|center|Connection of local device to the gateway]]

* After establishing a connection to the gateway, a page will appear which shows nearby WiFi networks. Connect to your home network.

[[File:connect_wifi.png|500px|thumb|center|Connection of gateway to local network]]

* Now you should be able to access the gateways UI via http://192.168.2.1 or http://gateway.local .
* After navigating to the local gateway page, you will be given the option to register a free subdomain

[[File:choose_subdomain.png|500px|thumb|center|Register Subdomain]]

* You will be led to an Page to create an user account

[[File:create_user_account.png|500px|thumb|center|Create user account]]

* After all the steps you will be redirected to an empty "Things" screen of the gateway where you can start to add devices.

[[File:things_screen.png|500px|thumb|center|List of all available devices]]

* When clicking on the "+" the WebThings Gateway will search for Smart Things that are in the same WLAN network and nearby. Here the bulb was immediately detected and so we added it to our WebThings network.

[[File:Screenshot_(3).png|500px|thumb|center|Connecting with the TP-Link bulb]]

* Here we can see that we added the bulb successfully to our network. That's the overview page of all Smart Things that are implemented. If we want to control a Smart Thing we need to click on it.

[[File:Screenshot_(4).png|500px|thumb|center|Overview page of all included Smart Things]]

* After we clicked on the bulb, we get options to change the brightness of the bulb, turn it on or off & view the power consumption.

[[File:Screenshot_(5).png|500px|thumb|center|Control panel of the bulb]]

===Wireshark Captures===

We also tried to sniff the traffic between the Control Panel device, the Smart Bulb & the WebThings Gateway, so we can analyze how the way of communication looks like. Actually we wanted to compare the packet sizes with the packets of Matter, but since this did not work, we simply analyzed them.

====IP-Table====

* Control Panel device: 192.168.137.193 /24
* TP-Link Smart Bulb: 192.168.137.92 /24
* WebThings Gateway: 192.168.137.219 /24

==== The Captures ====

* We filtered the messages by source & destination addresses to clearly show the handshakes and to show the sending of application data.

* In this first picture we can see how the bulb wants to establish a TCP connection with an Amazon server for cloud-based functionality. Such smart home devices, rely on cloud services for remote control and management. After Application Data is sent between the smart bulb and the Amazon server, the bulb wants to finish the connection.

[[File:Screen1.png|800px|thumb|center|Communication from the Smart Bulb to the Amazon Server]]

* This capture shows that the amazon server answers to the SYN from the bulb with an SYN ACK and then application data is exchanged.

[[File:Screen2.png|800px|thumb|center|Communication from WebThings Cloud back to the Smart Bulb]]

* Here we can see the communication initiated by the control panel device to the Google Network, where afterwards application data is exchanged. Afterwards the connection is getting closed by the google network which can be seen in the last capture.

[[File:Screen3.png|800px|thumb|center|Communication from the Control Panel Device to the Google Network]]

* Here we can see the opposite site, where the Google Network answers with an SYN ACK and since then messages are exchanged until the google network wants to finish the session.

[[File:Screen4.png|800px|thumb|center|Communication from WebThings Cloud back to the Control Panel Device]]

== Matter ==

Make sure to read

* War and Peace
* Lord of the Rings
* The Baroque Cycle

== References ==

* https://github.com/WebThingsIO/tplink-adapter
* https://matter-smarthome.de/en/overview-products-compatible-with-matter/
* https://github.com/WebThingsIO/wiki/wiki/Supported-Hardware
* https://webthings.io/docs/gateway-getting-started-guide.html

[[Category:Documentation]]

WebThings vs. Matter: A Comparative Protocol Analysis

2023-07-07T11:32:21Z

MWieger:

== Summary ==

This documentation compares the two latest IoT-Unify protocols for smart homes: Matter & WebThings. The response time, the data rates & the features of the two protocols will be compared.

== Requirements ==

* Operating system: WebThingsOS
* Packages: Webthings TP Link Kasa Add On
* Hardware: Raspberry Pi 3 (with an microSD card), Google Nest Hub (2.Gen), TP-Link LB 110 smart bulb

== Project Process ==

=== Overview ===
At first, we did a lot of research regarding the hardware. Our intention was to create a Smart Home scenario using Webthings and Matter respectively. We soon realized that it wouldn't be that easy to find hardware that is supported by both protocols. The reason for this is, that the development of Webthings has been discontinued in 2020 and is now only supported through open source. Matter on the other hand is brand new and was launched in the winter of 2022. So not a lot of devices still support Webthings and not a lot of devices are already compatible with Matter. Especially because Matter utilizes a new protocol called thread build on the same stack as Zigbee using IEEE 802.15.4.

=== First Phase ===
Our first attempt was to set up the Webthings Gateway using a Raspberry Pi 3. The first batch of devices consisted of a Tradfri Zigbee lamp and an Amazon Echo Dot. We tried to connect to the Amazon Echo Dot via Wi-Fi and failed because of compatability issues. The Tradfri bulb also yielded no better results. Although there exists an add-on for Webthings to support Zigbee, we could not find/connect the smart bulb.

===Second Phase/Matter===
After a lot of reasearch we felt confident to try out the matter protocol. We found out that there is no such thing as an open source matter gateway but that it is build into the devices of big tech companies like Google, Apple or Samsung. That meant we had to get devices of those big players as a gateway. We decided on the Google Nest Hub. If we wanted to connect something using Zigbee with Matter we would have had to get another supported Gateway supporting the Zigbee Protocol. All of that made us reconsider testing Zigbee altogether and we decided that we would rather focus on Wi-Fi devices.

===Third Phase===
We then found devices that supposedly should work with Matter as well as Webthings. All our cards were on the EVE devices. The Smart Plug, Motion Sensor and Window Intrusion Sensor. But that also didn't work out. The problem was that altough all of those devices support both protocols, from the factory they are only usable via the Apple HomePod. In Order to get them to work with other devices you first need to update the Firmware using an Apple HomePod. So that was also not an option.

===Fourth Phase===
We finally found a device that worked with both Smart Home Protocols. The TP-Link LB110. We were reliefed to say the least. Finally we could start testing to find out the differences between the two protocols. But thats when things started to get a little bit weird. Our idea was to use a laptop as the router/gateway in order to sniff the packets being sent via wireshark. We used the Hotspot function of Windows. No problem there with the Webthings gateway. But as soon as we connected the bulb and the Google Nest Hub the Hotspot lost its connection to the internet. Because of that the bulb and the Nest Hub, which both need a connection to the internet did not work anymore. Also when removed from the network the connection did not come back. We tried it on 2 different laptops and both now do not have functioning hotspots anymore.

=== Fifth Phase ===
So there aren't any captures we can analyze for Matter. Also we are not quite sure if the Nest Hub even utilizes the Matter Protocol when not using Thread.

=== Conclusion ===
Unfortunately because ot the circumstances we were not able to get the wanted results. However considering that we are a team of IT students with some knowledge and that both protocols should unify existing smart homes within a single protocol, it is fair to say that there is at this point in time no one best solutions because both of them have great issues. Webthings appeals more to open source enthusiasts that want to tinker with their smart home devices whereas Matter is a more plug and play approach to the smart home ecosystem. It however lacks the customizability of its opponent.

== Description ==

=== WebThings ===

* Install the latest gateway Image [https://webthings.io/gateway/'''latest gateway Image'''] from WebThings. Flash the downloaded Image on the microSD card using [https://etcher.balena.io '''Etcher'''] for example.
* Boot your Raspberry Pi. After booting up the gateway, it will create an Wi-Fi hotspot with the name "WebThings Gateway XXXX". Use an personal computer to connect to the network.

[[File:wifi_ssid.png|500px|thumb|center|Connection of local device to the gateway]]

* After establishing a connection to the gateway, a page will appear which shows nearby WiFi networks. Connect to your home network.

[[File:connect_wifi.png|500px|thumb|center|Connection of gateway to local network]]

* Now you should be able to access the gateways UI via http://192.168.2.1 or http://gateway.local .
* After navigating to the local gateway page, you will be given the option to register a free subdomain

[[File:choose_subdomain.png|500px|thumb|center|Register Subdomain]]

* You will be led to an Page to create an user account

[[File:create_user_account.png|500px|thumb|center|Create user account]]

* After all the steps you will be redirected to an empty "Things" screen of the gateway where you can start to add devices.

[[File:things_screen.png|500px|thumb|center|List of all available devices]]

* When clicking on the "+" the WebThings Gateway will search for Smart Things that are in the same WLAN network and nearby. Here the bulb was immediately detected and so we added it to our WebThings network.

[[File:Screenshot_(3).png|500px|thumb|center|Connecting with the TP-Link bulb]]

* Here we can see that we added the bulb successfully to our network. That's the overview page of all Smart Things that are implemented. If we want to control a Smart Thing we need to click on it.

[[File:Screenshot_(4).png|500px|thumb|center|Overview page of all included Smart Things]]

* After we clicked on the bulb, we get options to change the brightness of the bulb, turn it on or off & view the power consumption.

[[File:Screenshot_(5).png|500px|thumb|center|Control panel of the bulb]]

===Wireshark Captures===

We also tried to sniff the traffic between the Control Panel device, the Smart Bulb & the WebThings Gateway, so we can analyze how the way of communication looks like. Actually we wanted to compare the packet sizes with the packets of Matter, but since this did not work, we simply analyzed them.

====IP-Table====

* Control Panel device: 192.168.137.193 /24
* TP-Link Smart Bulb: 192.168.137.92 /24
* WebThings Gateway: 192.168.137.219 /24

==== The Captures ====

* We filtered the messages by source & destination addresses to clearly show the handshakes and to show the sending of application data.

* In this first picture we can see how the bulb wants to establish a TCP connection with an Amazon server for cloud-based functionality. Such smart home devices, rely on cloud services for remote control and management. After Application Data is sent between the smart bulb and the Amazon server, the bulb wants to finish the connection.

[[File:Screen1.png|800px|thumb|center|Communication from the Smart Bulb to the Amazon Server]]

* This capture shows that the amazon server answers to the SYN from the bulb with an SYN ACK and then application data is exchanged.

[[File:Screen2.png|800px|thumb|center|Communication from WebThings Cloud back to the Smart Bulb]]

* Here we can see the communication initiated by the control panel device to the Google Network, where afterwards application data is exchanged. Afterwards the connection is getting closed by the google network which can be seen in the last capture.

[[File:Screen3.png|800px|thumb|center|Communication from the Control Panel Device to the Google Network]]

* Here we can see the opposite site, where the Google Network answers with an SYN ACK and since then messages are exchanged until the google network wants to finish the session.

[[File:Screen4.png|800px|thumb|center|Communication from WebThings Cloud back to the Control Panel Device]]

== Matter ==

Make sure to read

* War and Peace
* Lord of the Rings
* The Baroque Cycle

== References ==

* https://github.com/WebThingsIO/tplink-adapter
* https://matter-smarthome.de/en/overview-products-compatible-with-matter/
* https://github.com/WebThingsIO/wiki/wiki/Supported-Hardware
* https://webthings.io/docs/gateway-getting-started-guide.html

[[Category:Documentation]]

WebThings vs. Matter: A Comparative Protocol Analysis

2023-07-07T11:21:39Z

MWieger:

== Summary ==

This documentation compares the two latest IoT-Unify protocols for smart homes: Matter & WebThings. The response time, the data rates & the features of the two protocols will be compared.

== Requirements ==

* Operating system: WebThingsOS
* Packages: Webthings TP Link Kasa Add On
* Hardware: Raspberry Pi 3 (with an microSD card), Google Nest Hub (2.Gen), TP-Link LB 110 smart bulb

== Project Process ==

=== Overview ===
At first, we did a lot of research regarding the hardware. Our intention was to create a Smart Home scenario using Webthings and Matter respectively. We soon realized that it wouldn't be that easy to find hardware that is supported by both protocols. The reason for this is, that the development of Webthings has been discontinued in 2020 and is now only supported through open source. Matter on the other hand is brand new and launched in the winter of 2022. So not a lot of devices still support webthings and not a lot of devices are already compatible with Matter. Especially because Matter utilizes a new protocol build on the same stack as Zigbee using IEEE 802.15.4.

=== First Phase ===
Our first attempt was to set up the Webthings Gateway using a Raspberry Pi 3. The first batch of devices consisted of a Tradfri Zigbee lamp and an Amazon Echo Dot. We tried to connect to the Amazon Echo Dot via Wi-Fi and failed because of compatability issues. The Tradfri bulb also yielded no better results. Although there exists an add-on for Webthings to support Zigbee, we could not find/connect the smart bulb.

===Second Phase/Matter===
After a lot of reasearch we felt confident to try out the matter protocol. We found out that there is no such thing as an open source matter gateway but that it is build into the devices of big tech companies like Google, Apple or Samsung. That meant we had to get devices of those big players as a gateway. If we wanted to connect something using Zigbee with Matter we would have had to get another supported Gateway supporting the Zigbee Protocol. All of that made us reconsider testing Zigbee altogether and we decided that we would rather focus on Wi-Fi devices.

===Third Phase===
We then found devices that supposedly should work with Matter as well as Webthings. All our cards were on the EVE devices. The Smart Plug, Motion Sensor and Window Intrusion Sensor. But that also didn't work out. The problem was that, altough all of those devices support both protocols, from the factory they are only usable via the Apple HomePod. In Order to get them to work with other devices you first need to update the Firmware using an Apple HomePod. So that was also not an option.

===Fourth Phase===
We finally found a device that worked with both Smart Home Protocols. Namely the TP-Link LB110 we were reliefed to say the least. Finally we could start testing to find out the differences between the two protocols. But thats when things started to get a little bit weird. Our idea was to use a laptop as the router/gateway in order to sniff the packets being sent via wireshark. We used the Hotspot function of Windows. No problem there with the Webthings gateway. But as soon as we connected the bulb and the Google Nest Hub the Hotspot lost its connection to the internet. Because of that the bulb and the Nest Hub, which both need a connection to the internet did not work anymore. Also when removed from the network the connection did not come back. We tried it on 2 different laptops and both now do not have functioning hotspots anymore.

=== Fifth Phase ===
So there aren't any captures we can analyzed for Matter. Also we are not quite sure if the Nest Hub even utilizes the Matter Protocol when not using Thread.

== Description ==

=== WebThings ===

* Install the latest gateway Image [https://webthings.io/gateway/'''latest gateway Image'''] from WebThings. Flash the downloaded Image on the microSD card using [https://etcher.balena.io '''Etcher'''] for example.
* Boot your Raspberry Pi. After booting up the gateway, it will create an Wi-Fi hotspot with the name "WebThings Gateway XXXX". Use an personal computer to connect to the network.

[[File:wifi_ssid.png|500px|thumb|center|Connection of local device to the gateway]]

* After establishing a connection to the gateway, a page will appear which shows nearby WiFi networks. Connect to your home network.

[[File:connect_wifi.png|500px|thumb|center|Connection of gateway to local network]]

* Now you should be able to access the gateways UI via http://192.168.2.1 or http://gateway.local .
* After navigating to the local gateway page, you will be given the option to register a free subdomain

[[File:choose_subdomain.png|500px|thumb|center|Register Subdomain]]

* You will be led to an Page to create an user account

[[File:create_user_account.png|500px|thumb|center|Create user account]]

* After all the steps you will be redirected to an empty "Things" screen of the gateway where you can start to add devices.

[[File:things_screen.png|500px|thumb|center|List of all available devices]]

* When clicking on the "+" the WebThings Gateway will search for Smart Things that are in the same WLAN network and nearby. Here the bulb was immediately detected and so we added it to our WebThings network.

[[File:Screenshot_(3).png|500px|thumb|center|Connecting with the TP-Link bulb]]

* Here we can see that we added the bulb successfully to our network. That's the overview page of all Smart Things that are implemented. If we want to control a Smart Thing we need to click on it.

[[File:Screenshot_(4).png|500px|thumb|center|Overview page of all included Smart Things]]

* After we clicked on the bulb, we get options to change the brightness of the bulb, turn it on or off & view the power consumption.

[[File:Screenshot_(5).png|500px|thumb|center|Control panel of the bulb]]

===Wireshark Captures===

We also tried to sniff the traffic between the Control Panel device, the Smart Bulb & the WebThings Gateway, so we can analyze how the way of communication looks like. Actually we wanted to compare the packet sizes with the packets of Matter, but since this did not work, we simply analyzed them.

====IP-Table====

* Control Panel device: 192.168.137.193 /24
* TP-Link Smart Bulb: 192.168.137.92 /24
* WebThings Gateway: 192.168.137.219 /24

==== The Captures ====

* We filtered the messages by source & destination addresses to clearly show the handshakes and to show the sending of application data.

* In this first picture we can see how the bulb wants to establish a TCP connection with an Amazon server for cloud-based functionality. Such smart home devices, rely on cloud services for remote control and management. After Application Data is sent between the smart bulb and the Amazon server, the bulb wants to finish the connection.

[[File:Screen1.png|800px|thumb|center|Communication from the Smart Bulb to the Amazon Server]]

* This capture shows that the amazon server answers to the SYN from the bulb with an SYN ACK and then application data is exchanged.

[[File:Screen2.png|800px|thumb|center|Communication from WebThings Cloud back to the Smart Bulb]]

* Here we can see the communication initiated by the control panel device to the Google Network, where afterwards application data is exchanged. Afterwards the connection is getting closed by the google network which can be seen in the last capture.

[[File:Screen3.png|800px|thumb|center|Communication from the Control Panel Device to the Google Network]]

* Here we can see the opposite site, where the Google Network answers with an SYN ACK and since then messages are exchanged until the google network wants to finish the session.

[[File:Screen4.png|800px|thumb|center|Communication from WebThings Cloud back to the Control Panel Device]]

== Matter ==

Make sure to read

* War and Peace
* Lord of the Rings
* The Baroque Cycle

== References ==

* https://github.com/WebThingsIO/tplink-adapter
* https://matter-smarthome.de/en/overview-products-compatible-with-matter/
* https://github.com/WebThingsIO/wiki/wiki/Supported-Hardware
* https://webthings.io/docs/gateway-getting-started-guide.html

[[Category:Documentation]]

WebThings vs. Matter: A Comparative Protocol Analysis

2023-07-05T15:22:12Z

MWieger:

WebThings vs. Matter: A Comparative Protocol Analysis

2023-07-02T16:42:45Z

MWieger: