29-06-2012, 01:14 PM
Embedding Internet Technology for Home Automation
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Abstract
As more and more digital appliances populate our homes, networking them to form a home automation (HA) system not only becomes an option, but almost a necessity. While comfort, security, and energy efficiency can be provided by many existing systems, they all remain complex islands that are difficult to expand and customize. We propose Internet technology to remedy the situation and to become the future solution for HA. For this, we analyze the feasibility of today’s Internet technology with regard to traditional HA solutions. Furthermore, we present two case studies that substantiate the benefits of our proposal. As we will show, with IPv6 and 6LoWPAN, a single network serves the classical as well as emerging aspects of HA while concepts from the Web provide benefits for both, developers and users.
Introduction
Today’s homes are populated by a plethora of appliances to support and entertain ourselves. Home automation (HA) aims for the orchestration of all these devices to provide users with real comfort but also security and the ability to monitor multiple dwellings. For this, HA systems traditionally cover heating, lighting, shading, and door/window control. However, computers and IT networks entered the home entailing modern entertainment systems that for example consist of network-attached storage (NAS) and Ethernet-enabled TVs. With information and communication technology (ICT) having incessantly become cheaper, this trend is expected to continue leading to smart appliances that enrich their primary functionality with additional services as well as context-sensitive behavior, e.g. the stereo reducing volume when the telephone rings or the freezer cooling down at a time when electricity is cheap. The latter also presents an example for a new objective and challenge of HA, namely taking care of energy efficiency. This is currently not only a hot topic in industry, transportation, and commercial services, but also has become central in the residential area.
Internet technologies for the home
Today’s Internet technology, in particular IPv6 and the Web application layer, is to our belief well-suited for home automation. In this section, we first evaluate the particular features and requirements of HA systems. We then justify that our belief is well-founded by briefly explaining the relevant technological issues and by arguing that the mentioned requirements can essentially be met.
Home automation requirements
HA systems consist of networked components that cooperate and that need to be coordinated somehow. Hence, they basically form a distributed system that, compared to typical distributed computing systems, has a number of particular features and requirements.
IPv6 for home automation
To our belief, IPv6 is a well-suited solution for future home automation systems. Thus, after having elaborated on the requirements of HA systems, we next evaluate how Internet technology performs regarding each criterion. We argue that it is ready for HA considering the ongoing trend of ever decreasing cost and increasing level of ICT in home environments, as well as the features of IPv6 and today’s Web.
Home automation standards and IPv6
Among the existing automation solutions, BACnet and LonWorks6 are standards primarily used in building automation which is a closely related field to home automation with larger scale installations and slightly different objectives. While further details on building automation can be found in [13], an important trend to notice is the shift towards IP and Web services. However, only tunneling and application level gateways are used to utilize existing IT networks and allows remote access. In this section, we first present the most important systems for HA that offers comparable features to our proposal, before we provide an in-depth comparison of the capabilities.
Comparison of IPv6 with traditional standards
For a general overview, table 1 provides reference values and empirical metrics corresponding to our requirements (see sec. 2.1). Configuration and user interaction are omitted here because they strongly depend on the realized functionality and thus cannot be compared well by coarse grain classifications, in our case none, low, medium, and high.
Costs and installation overhead mostly go hand in hand as both depend on the medium. Wireless solutions like ZigBee and 6LoWPAN (IPv6) are inexpensive to deploy as no cables have to be laid. This also results in a marginal installation overhead. It occurs that the two metrics only diverge for ZigBee. Its wireless installation is simple; however, this proprietary solution requests its own infrastructure that cannot profit from available facilities like LAN for 6LoWPAN/IPv6. PLC (X10, dS) is a good trade-off as it is cheap and as suitable as RF technology for rental apartments or other dwellings that do not allow modifications of the building. With less features, X10 is consequently cheaper than dS and requires no central units such as the dSS. In contrast, KNX remains a complex solution with high entry costs that offers rich functionality, though.
Conclusion and future work
In this paper, we presented the requirements of home automation systems and evaluated how current Internet technology compares to the capabilities of traditional standards. Where Internet technology was once seen too heavy-weight and expensive for low-cost hardware, recent advances, such as 6LoWPAN and embedded Web servers, foster our belief in Internet technology to become the future standard of home automation utilizing IPv6 as a ‘virtual installation bus’ that is able to cover all emerging aspects. To summarize, IPv6 forms an established and proven system whose features are well-suited for HA. Utilizing existing LAN infrastructures lowers the installation overhead while 6LoWPAN extends the network to inexpensive wireless embedded devices.
[attachment=26088]
Abstract
As more and more digital appliances populate our homes, networking them to form a home automation (HA) system not only becomes an option, but almost a necessity. While comfort, security, and energy efficiency can be provided by many existing systems, they all remain complex islands that are difficult to expand and customize. We propose Internet technology to remedy the situation and to become the future solution for HA. For this, we analyze the feasibility of today’s Internet technology with regard to traditional HA solutions. Furthermore, we present two case studies that substantiate the benefits of our proposal. As we will show, with IPv6 and 6LoWPAN, a single network serves the classical as well as emerging aspects of HA while concepts from the Web provide benefits for both, developers and users.
Introduction
Today’s homes are populated by a plethora of appliances to support and entertain ourselves. Home automation (HA) aims for the orchestration of all these devices to provide users with real comfort but also security and the ability to monitor multiple dwellings. For this, HA systems traditionally cover heating, lighting, shading, and door/window control. However, computers and IT networks entered the home entailing modern entertainment systems that for example consist of network-attached storage (NAS) and Ethernet-enabled TVs. With information and communication technology (ICT) having incessantly become cheaper, this trend is expected to continue leading to smart appliances that enrich their primary functionality with additional services as well as context-sensitive behavior, e.g. the stereo reducing volume when the telephone rings or the freezer cooling down at a time when electricity is cheap. The latter also presents an example for a new objective and challenge of HA, namely taking care of energy efficiency. This is currently not only a hot topic in industry, transportation, and commercial services, but also has become central in the residential area.
Internet technologies for the home
Today’s Internet technology, in particular IPv6 and the Web application layer, is to our belief well-suited for home automation. In this section, we first evaluate the particular features and requirements of HA systems. We then justify that our belief is well-founded by briefly explaining the relevant technological issues and by arguing that the mentioned requirements can essentially be met.
Home automation requirements
HA systems consist of networked components that cooperate and that need to be coordinated somehow. Hence, they basically form a distributed system that, compared to typical distributed computing systems, has a number of particular features and requirements.
IPv6 for home automation
To our belief, IPv6 is a well-suited solution for future home automation systems. Thus, after having elaborated on the requirements of HA systems, we next evaluate how Internet technology performs regarding each criterion. We argue that it is ready for HA considering the ongoing trend of ever decreasing cost and increasing level of ICT in home environments, as well as the features of IPv6 and today’s Web.
Home automation standards and IPv6
Among the existing automation solutions, BACnet and LonWorks6 are standards primarily used in building automation which is a closely related field to home automation with larger scale installations and slightly different objectives. While further details on building automation can be found in [13], an important trend to notice is the shift towards IP and Web services. However, only tunneling and application level gateways are used to utilize existing IT networks and allows remote access. In this section, we first present the most important systems for HA that offers comparable features to our proposal, before we provide an in-depth comparison of the capabilities.
Comparison of IPv6 with traditional standards
For a general overview, table 1 provides reference values and empirical metrics corresponding to our requirements (see sec. 2.1). Configuration and user interaction are omitted here because they strongly depend on the realized functionality and thus cannot be compared well by coarse grain classifications, in our case none, low, medium, and high.
Costs and installation overhead mostly go hand in hand as both depend on the medium. Wireless solutions like ZigBee and 6LoWPAN (IPv6) are inexpensive to deploy as no cables have to be laid. This also results in a marginal installation overhead. It occurs that the two metrics only diverge for ZigBee. Its wireless installation is simple; however, this proprietary solution requests its own infrastructure that cannot profit from available facilities like LAN for 6LoWPAN/IPv6. PLC (X10, dS) is a good trade-off as it is cheap and as suitable as RF technology for rental apartments or other dwellings that do not allow modifications of the building. With less features, X10 is consequently cheaper than dS and requires no central units such as the dSS. In contrast, KNX remains a complex solution with high entry costs that offers rich functionality, though.
Conclusion and future work
In this paper, we presented the requirements of home automation systems and evaluated how current Internet technology compares to the capabilities of traditional standards. Where Internet technology was once seen too heavy-weight and expensive for low-cost hardware, recent advances, such as 6LoWPAN and embedded Web servers, foster our belief in Internet technology to become the future standard of home automation utilizing IPv6 as a ‘virtual installation bus’ that is able to cover all emerging aspects. To summarize, IPv6 forms an established and proven system whose features are well-suited for HA. Utilizing existing LAN infrastructures lowers the installation overhead while 6LoWPAN extends the network to inexpensive wireless embedded devices.