Matter devices and multiple Thread platforms

[fresh spire]

Hey folks!

I've been running HA for years now, and have an extensive Zigbee network around the house, but I'm about to acquire my first Matter/Thread device and I'm trying to make sure I properly understand how it works when you have multiple platforms involved.

Specifically, I'm getting the tado wireless smart thermostat x, which is actually two units, the "Programmer" that is wired to the heating system, connects to WiFi and is a Thread Border Router, and a Wireless Temperature Sensor X which seems to communicate with the Programmer over Thread.

Obviously I also want to control the heating via HA, but I do not currently have any Thread hardware connected to my HAOS machine.

So, my question is, do I need a Thread radio on the HAOS machine to communicate directly with the Programmer, or would it be the case that once the Programmer is on my WiFi network, HA would the communication happen purely at the IP layer with Matter?

I'm looking at moving my ZigBee coordinator over to an SMLight PoE one, and if I do need a Thread radio, now would be the perfect time to do it, since they have units with dual radios 🙂

[slender finch]

You should not need a thread radio on your HAOS machine. Home Assistant should find available border routers on your network and route to your thread devices through them. As an example, many (not all) models of Apple TV work as Border Routers - I'm using Home Assistant with about 100+ Matter-over-thread devices all of which are connected via Apple TV border routers.

[fluid mist]

Can confirm, I onboarded a Nuki lock to my HomePod mini’s network, then shared it to HA Matter without a thread radio

[fresh spire]

nice, thanks both!

[willow terrace]

Curious how this works from a networking pov. Do you need IPv6 connectivity on the HA or is the thread traffic tunnelled over IPv4 by the Apple TV?