Espressif Systems today announced its Aliro solution, enabling developers and device makers to build interoperable smart locks and access control products using Espressif’s wireless SoCs, ESP-IDF, and Matter development ecosystem.

What is Aliro

Aliro, developed by the Connectivity Standards Alliance, is a new open standard for mobile access credentials. It is designed to unify digital access across smartphones, wearables, smart locks, and access readers, enabling a consistent digital key experience across residential, enterprise, hospitality, campus, and other access control scenarios. Matter and Aliro are complementary standards: Matter enables interoperable smart-home device control, while Aliro focuses on interoperable digital access credentials and unlock experiences. Aliro supports NFC for tap-to-unlock, Bluetooth LE for user-initiated access, and Bluetooth LE + UWB for secure hands-free access.

Enabling Aliro for Smart Locks and Access Control

Aliro addresses one of the key challenges in digital access: fragmentation across devices, access readers, credential systems, and mobile wallet ecosystems. By defining a common credential and communication framework, Aliro enables device makers to build products that can work more consistently across major mobile platforms and wallet ecosystems.

Espressif’s initial Aliro solution supports Aliro NFC for tap-to-unlock applications, with Bluetooth LE and Bluetooth LE + UWB support planned for future releases. The solution can be used with Espressif’s Matter software ecosystem to build smart lock products using either Matter over Wi-Fi or Matter over Thread.

Available for Developers

Developers can combine Espressif Wi-Fi or Thread SoCs with an NFC module to quickly prototype and productize Aliro-enabled smart locks and access control devices. For ultra-low-power Matter over Thread products, Espressif’s next-generation SoCs--ESP32-H21 and ESP32-H4, integrate Bluetooth LE and IEEE 802.15.4 connectivity, providing a highly competitive platform for battery-powered Thread, Zigbee, Matter, and Bluetooth LE devices: 

• ESP32-H21 features a single-core RISC-V architecture with an integrated DC-DC converter. Its streamlined architecture enables a more cost-effective solution, making it an ideal choice for access control, sensing, and other applications where both power consumption and cost are critical considerations.
  

• ESP32-H4 features a dual-core RISC-V architecture and supports external PSRAM, providing greater memory capacity and processing performance for applications with complex protocol stacks and demanding buffer requirements.
  

Espressif has also developed a reference demo for an Aliro-enabled Matter door lock using the M5Stack NanoH2 Dev Kit, powered by ESP32-H2, and the M5Stack NFC Universal Unit based on ST25R3916. The demo showcases Matter over Thread connectivity, Aliro NFC tap-to-unlock, and integration with Espressif’s Thread SoC platform.

Aliro represents an important step toward a more interoperable access control ecosystem. With Espressif’s Aliro solution, developers and device makers can build smart access products that combine digital key access, Matter ecosystem compatibility, and Espressif’s proven wireless connectivity platforms.

For more information about Espressif’s Aliro solution, please refer to the blog post, or contact Espressif’s customer support team at sales@espressif.com.