Design Considerations

While you are always granted the flexibility to define how you structure your resources, there are several considerations to be mindful of:

Geographical location

To ensure the best performance and reliability for your integration and your end users, SmartThings requires that your account resources are partitioned by region (North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific). SmartThings will provision account resources in all regions unless otherwise noted.

When creating your upstream resources (Location Groups, Locations, Devices, etc.), ensure that your integration does so within the correct regional account.

What is the structure of ownership?

If ownership differs between physical spaces, the ideal scenario is to create a new account to own the Location Groups, Locations, Devices, etc. This will add complexity to your integration. If you have unique legal constraints, it is possible to tie all physical spaces back to a single account.

What kind of space will your devices be installed in?

When wireless devices are involved (Zigbee, Z-Wave, Wi-Fi, etc.), consider the Radio Frequency (RF) space. Devices can only be onboarded to a Location, but a Location can support multiple SmartThings Hubs.

If the space is geographically large, with significant radio frequency interference (such as multiple walls), it is recommended to create multiple Locations and install one Hub per Location.

How will users access SmartThings resources?

If limiting user access to certain areas is key to your business model, these spaces should map to Locations. All user-based access is granted at this level.

How will users interact with your devices and features?

Consider the best user experience of SmartThings features. Will your users' access be long-term? Will they create and run Routines to their preferences? If yes, this area should map to a Location.

For other scenarios, including short-term user access, a less fine-grained structure may be preferable.