Smart Home Technical Report
Smart Home Technical Report
Smart Home Technical Report
M2M/IoT ENABLEMENT IN
SMART HOMES
TEC-TR-IoT-M2M-007-01
M2M SMART HOMES WORKING GROUP
Important Notice
Disclaimer
The information contained is mostly compiled from different sources and no claim is being made for
it being original. Every care has been taken to provide the correct and up to date information along
with references thereof. However, neither TEC nor the authors shall be liable for any loss or damage
what so ever, including incidental or consequential loss or damage, arising out of, or in connection
with any use of or reliance on the information in this document. In case of any doubt or query,
readers are requested to refer to the detailed relevant documents.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of Contributors ........................................................................................................................................ i
Executive Summary...................................................................................................................................... iii
1 Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 1
2 What is M2M Communication / IoT?.................................................................................................... 3
2.1 M2M Communication ................................................................................................................... 3
2.2 Internet of Things .......................................................................................................................... 4
3 Smart-Home Background Analysis ........................................................................................................ 5
3.1 Current Market Scenario............................................................................................................... 9
3.2 Smart Homes Market Landscape .................................................................................................. 9
3.2.1 Smart Homes Market Landscape-Global Perspective......................................................... 10
3.3 Major Characteristics of Global Smart Home Market................................................................. 10
3.3.1 US leads in Smart Homes Penetration ................................................................................ 10
3.3.2 Smart Homes is a requirement, not a luxury ...................................................................... 10
3.3.3 Market Penetration is less and needs to be increased ....................................................... 11
3.3.4 Fragmented Market & estimation of Return on Investment .............................................. 11
3.4 Major Trends in Global Smart Home Market.............................................................................. 11
3.4.1 Global IoT segments are growing- Smart Home is becoming a trend ................................ 11
3.4.2 Investment Research & Development ................................................................................ 11
3.4.3 Trend in Smart Wearable Devices with Smart homes ........................................................ 11
3.4.4 Convergence of Consumer and Enterprise Technology. ..................................................... 12
3.4.5 Smart Homes and Automobile market ............................................................................... 12
3.5 Major Technology Trends ........................................................................................................... 12
3.5.1 Décor- Friendly Gadgets...................................................................................................... 12
3.5.2 Programmable Devices ....................................................................................................... 13
3.5.3 Wireless controls................................................................................................................. 13
3.5.4 Advanced Security Systems ................................................................................................ 13
3.5.5 Automated door locks......................................................................................................... 13
3.5.6 Smart Appliances ................................................................................................................ 13
3.5.7 Solar Roof tops .................................................................................................................... 13
3.5.8 Wearable Devices................................................................................................................ 14
3.6 Customer Expectation from Smart Homes ................................................................................. 14
3.6.1 Security ............................................................................................................................... 14
3.6.2 Hassle Free system .............................................................................................................. 14
3.6.3 Cost Effective ...................................................................................................................... 14
3.6.4 Convenience........................................................................................................................ 15
3.6.5 Pro-active technology ......................................................................................................... 15
3.6.6 Smart Energy Saver ............................................................................................................. 15
3.6.7 Safeguard Privacy ................................................................................................................ 15
4 Value Chain Players ............................................................................................................................. 15
4.1.1 Chip/ Module Makers ......................................................................................................... 16
4.1.2 Device/Appliance Manufacturer ......................................................................................... 16
4.1.3 Mobile/ Telecom Service Providers .................................................................................... 16
4.1.4 Cloud service provider ........................................................................................................ 16
4.1.5 Application Provider............................................................................................................ 16
5 Indian Market Landscape .................................................................................................................... 16
5.1 Major Characteristic of Indian Market........................................................................................ 16
5.1.1 Emerging Indian Market- Tremendous Opportunities........................................................ 16
5.1.2 Market Penetration is low or limited-Focused on urban customers .................................. 17
5.1.3 Trends in Design .................................................................................................................. 17
5.1.4 Big data Analytics & Cloud Service will lead the IoT market-Data Driven Market ............. 17
5.2 Major Trends in Indian Market ................................................................................................... 18
5.2.1 India’s Internet Spread is increasing ................................................................................... 18
5.2.2 Smart Homes technologies will see a boom with Government initiatives ......................... 18
5.2.3 Cyber security gains attention with more number of devices............................................ 19
5.2.4 DIY kits are gaining attention and leveraging the sales through e-commerce ................... 19
5.2.5 Workshops / Seminars on Smart Cities popularizing Smart Homes. .................................. 19
6 Communication standards / Technology ............................................................................................ 20
6.1 Comparison of the Communication technologies ...................................................................... 22
7 Smart Home Offerings and System Components ............................................................................... 25
7.1 Lighting ........................................................................................................................................ 25
7.2 Energy/ Comfort ......................................................................................................................... 25
7.3 Security & Safety ......................................................................................................................... 26
7.4 Media and Entertainment........................................................................................................... 26
7.5 Hybrid Broadcast Broadband Television, [11] ............................................................................ 26
7.6 Miscellaneous Services ............................................................................................................... 26
7.7 Smart Home Components and Concepts .................................................................................... 27
7.8 In-home Display and Control ...................................................................................................... 27
7.9 Cloud Connected Home .............................................................................................................. 28
8 Automation Platform .......................................................................................................................... 28
8.1 Architecture and Protocols ......................................................................................................... 29
8.1.1 Pros: .................................................................................................................................... 30
8.1.2 Cons:.................................................................................................................................... 30
8.2 Components to build a Smart Home Gateway ........................................................................... 31
8.2.1 Components of Gateway unit: ............................................................................................ 31
9 Smart Home Vertical use-cases .......................................................................................................... 32
9.1 Safety .......................................................................................................................................... 32
9.2 Security ....................................................................................................................................... 32
9.3 Automation ................................................................................................................................. 33
9.4 Energy Management ................................................................................................................... 33
9.5 Entertainment & Personal Lifestyle ............................................................................................ 33
9.6 Common Customer interaction .................................................................................................. 33
9.6.1 Home Management ............................................................................................................ 33
9.6.2 Mobile management........................................................................................................... 34
9.6.3 Remote Assistance .............................................................................................................. 34
9.6.4 Monitoring, Alerts and Notifications .................................................................................. 34
9.6.5 Access Control ..................................................................................................................... 34
10 The Big Picture: Smart Home as a unit of a Smart Building and a Smart City ................................ 34
10.1 SMART BUILDINGS ...................................................................................................................... 35
10.2 SMART CITY ................................................................................................................................. 35
10.2.1 From a vertical, silo’s approach .......................................................................................... 36
10.2.2 To a converged common ICT infrastructure pool ............................................................... 36
10.3 Integrated View of Smart Homes / Buildings as part of Smart Cities ......................................... 37
10.3.1 Security and Safety.............................................................................................................. 39
10.3.2 Energy availability and Reliability ....................................................................................... 40
10.3.3 Water quality and availability, and Waste Water management ........................................ 41
10.3.4 Data Connectivity and user Internet experience ................................................................ 43
10.3.5 Physical Mobility and Transport Access planning ............................................................... 44
10.3.6 The Smart Complex/ Building (Cluster of Smart Homes) .................................................... 45
11 Smart Community ........................................................................................................................... 46
11.1 Smart Community Use cases ...................................................................................................... 46
11.2 Smart Community Components.................................................................................................. 47
12 Challenges ....................................................................................................................................... 47
13 Future of Smart Homes and Community – The Road Ahead .......................................................... 49
13.1 Salient Features of Smart Home and Connected Communities by 2025 [13] ............................ 50
13.2 Conclusions and Way Forward.................................................................................................... 51
14 References ...................................................................................................................................... 52
Annexure 1 .................................................................................................................................................. 54
Annexure 2 .................................................................................................................................................. 64
Figures
Figure 1 : Automated Individual Components, [14]...................................................................................... 1
Figure 2 : Standalone Automated Home, [14] .............................................................................................. 2
Figure 3 : A connected Home: Reference Smart Home as part of a Smart City, [14] ................................... 3
Figure 4 : M2M Concept, [1] ......................................................................................................................... 4
Figure 5 : A typical IoT / M2M Connectivity Network, [Keysight Technologies] .......................................... 5
Figure 6 : Evolution of Smart Homes ............................................................................................................ 6
Figure 7 : Smart homes installed base of connected devices within smart cities from 2015 to 2018 (in
millions)......................................................................................................................................................... 8
Figure 8 : Market Revenue, Source Statista .................................................................................................. 9
Figure 9 : Region wise Smart Home Market ............................................................................................... 10
Figure 10 : Smart living in a Smart Home, [2] ............................................................................................. 12
Figure 11 : Customer Expectations of a Smart Home ................................................................................. 14
Figure 12 : M2M / IoT Value Chain ............................................................................................................. 15
Figure 13 : Smart Home Trends, expectations and challenges ................................................................... 18
Figure 14 : Alliances active in Smart Home................................................................................................. 20
Figure 15 : Installed base of Smart Devices and Technology adoption, [IoT Connectivity, 3Q15] ............. 21
Figure 16 : Smart Home Offerings and System Components ..................................................................... 25
Figure 17 : Smart Home with Power Line and Solar and Vehicle Charging, [14] ........................................ 27
Figure 18 : Smart Automated Home with In-Home Display, [14] ............................................................... 28
Figure 19 : A Concentrator / IHD / Gateway for a Smart Home, [14] ......................................................... 29
Figure 20 : A Smart Home Platform Architecture and Protocols ................................................................ 30
Figure 21 : Smart Home Gateway Components, [14] ................................................................................. 31
Figure 22 : Isolated and Independent Infrastructure, [Gaia Smart Cities].................................................. 36
Figure 23 : Common Infrastructure, [Gaia Smart Cities]............................................................................. 37
Figure 24 : Smart City Scenario, [Schneider Electric: Smart Infrastructure – Xperience Efficiency] .......... 38
Figure 25 : Objectives of a Smart Home ..................................................................................................... 38
Figure 26 : A Smart Home System with various sensors............................................................................. 39
Figure 27 : Integrated view of various aspects of a Smart Home, [XXEL Energy] ....................................... 41
Figure 28 : A water meter system [www.smartgridawareness.org]........................................................... 42
Figure 29 : Water Management System, [IEEE Report on Smart Sensors] ................................................. 43
Figure 30 : Smart Home and Remote Monitoring ...................................................................................... 43
Figure 31 : Modern Home and Integration, [B. Mollstedt, "E.ON Mobility," in Electric Vehicle Integration
into Modern Power Networks, DTU, Copenhagen, 2010] .......................................................................... 44
Figure 32 : Smart Community ..................................................................................................................... 46
Figure 33: A Smart Community illustration ................................................................................................ 46
Figure 34 : Harnessing the IoT for Global development, ITU, 2016 [3] ...................................................... 48
Figure 35 : A use case illustration for a Smart Home, [13] ......................................................................... 50
Tables
Table 1 : Connected Things Installed Base within Smart Cities (in Millions) ................................................ 7
Table 2 : Available Global Standards........................................................................................................... 21
Table 3 : Communication Technologies for M2M....................................................................................... 22
M2M/IoT Enablement in Smart Homes Technical Report
List of Contributors
A. Joint Working Group (JWG) Chairman
Name Designation Organization e-mail address
D.P. De Sr DDG Telecommunications srddg.tec@gov.in
Engineering Centre
(TEC)
E. Contributors
Name Organization e-mail address
Raunaque Quaiser STMicroelectronics raunaque.quaiser@st.com
Alok Kumar Mittal STMicroelectronics alok.mittal@st.com
Anupama Chopra C-DOT anupama@cdot.in
Aurindam Bhattacharya C-DOT aurindam@cdot.in
Manoj Varma Lyra manoj.varma@lyra-network.co.in
Rajeev Tyagi TEC dirsd1.tec@gov.in
Amarjeet Kumar Wi-SUN kumar@procubedinc.com
Sharad Arora Sensorise sharad.arora@sensorise.net
Executive Summary
The world has seen tremendous growth in telecom technology during the last decade. As a result of this,
a multitude of new applications of the Information & Communication Technologies have emerged and
changed the way we live, work, play, interact and even think. This has created a lot of momentum in many
spheres that impact our lives. Latest trend is Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communication / Internet of
Things (IoT) which has led to a new world of possibilities and opportunities. Smart Home is one of the
focus areas in this initiative as is evident from the large number of IoT / M2M enabled nodes being created
for this sector.
While ‘Smart’ inherently means ‘connected’ in IoT world, Smart Homes could have multiple meanings for
different people and even different situations. A Smart Home is a user’s private space and each user may
have different needs. The users spend a significant amount of time at their homes and may have different
expectations depending on their background, taste, affordability and availability of common services.
A Smart Home is an aggregation of all the needs of its occupants while they are inside and also when they
are not. Remote control, Security, surveillance, remote monitoring of premises including monitoring
those who are sick, young, elderly, etc are all requirements of users. In order to meet these requirements,
an integration at the Application level and scalability at the cloud level are needed.
With this kind of diverse backgrounds of users and their requirements and tastes, defining a common
platform for a Smart Home is a rather challenging task. What could perhaps be possible is to create a
generic platform that accepts multiple technologies as its inputs and somehow combines these inputs at
the Home Gateway level and sends the information about various sensors from all the vendors on a single
high speed communication link.
This document of Telecom Engineering Centre describes M2M/IoT Enablement in Homes to take into
account the diverse needs of users as stated in previous paragraphs. It introduces the subject with brief
illustration of M2M communication and its framework for Smart Homes.
The report has identified multiple use cases in Smart Homes e.g. Video monitoring of home, Security &
Alarm, Door control, HVAC control, Smart lighting for efficiency, Controlling appliances through Smart
phones, Solar lighting system, smart (electricity, water and gas) metering etc.
The report identifies key challenges: lack of standards and non-availability of high speed and reliable
Internet services, indigenous manufacturing, etc. Standards will allow for a level playing field for all
participants that will benefit the customers.
In the end, way forward has been suggested wherein action points on various aspects like adoption of
standards, development of devices, certification mechanism etc. have been brought out.
It may be mentioned here that the needs relevant to individual apartments, homes, and small
establishments like shops or small scale industries operating from small buildings are covered in this
document. Industrial buildings and large complexes are not in the scope of this document. The facility
management services of apartment blocks are more similar to management of large complexes, hence
are generally excluded from the scope.
1 Introduction
A smart home is one that incorporates advanced sensing and automation systems to provide the
inhabitants with monitoring and control regardless of whether they are inside or outside the home. For
example, a smart home may have controls for lighting, temperature, multi-media, security, window and
door operations, as well as many other functions.
A Smart home, then, may be defined as a residence or a building with equipment which can be remotely
controlled and operated from any location in the world by means of Smart Devices or through a
smartphone. Smart Homes comprise of Devices that provide comfort, security, convenience, energy
efficiency and enhance intelligent living. The Devices communicate and interact with each other and form
a connected ecosystem. Smart Home is usually understood as automated home but the actual capabilities
are beyond automation. Smart Home ecosystem comprises of a set of connected gadgets with Intelligence
that help them in executing the task and take necessary decisions.
The first step towards making a home smart is automation as shown in Figure 1. The automation could be
related to the individual appliances or nodes being intelligent enough to take local decisions. A simple
example could be a standalone porch light that turns on only when there is movement detected or
wirelessly operated curtains / blinds. Another example could be a camera that records the movements
for a period of time after a gate is opened. Yet another example could be a timer in a washing machine
that takes care of switching it on at preset times.
A solar roof top system that charges a battery and acts as an inverter for the requirement of the individual
home is also an example of an automated home system.
We may have another scenario where these elements are connected to each other controlled by a gadget
placed inside the home (that may be called as in-home display). This connectivity could enable us to take
centralized decisions and monitoring, and would make the home autonomous. These systems, even if
individually smart, do not make a complete smart home. This scenario has been projected in Figure 2.
Home buildings in Indian scenario are difficult to be classified into a few categories, largely due to the
economic disparity and the place of living. On one hand there is a large population that has barely access
to essential requirements of water, electricity and food; and on the other hand India has a small
percentage of population with income levels similar to those of developed countries. The expectations of
comfort, automation, security and services by this population are same as those of the developed
countries.
Smart Homes present some very exciting opportunities to change the way we live and work, and to reduce
energy consumption at the same time. The owners of smart homes are empowered with conveniences
like: being able to check messages, open windows, operate lights and curtains and monitor how much
money the house has made or saved from the renewable energy system or smart energy management
system, through their respective smart phones, from anywhere in the world.
Further a Smart Home is a common and unifying gateway to the world for its occupants, various sensors
and automating elements inside it. In fact it may be commented here that many other functions of
connectivity may be considered as embedded within a Smart Home. As an example, remote patient
Figure 3 : A connected Home: Reference Smart Home as part of a Smart City, [14]
monitoring, vehicle charging, solar rooftops, metering, home appliances, electric and aircon controls,
entertainment, health and fitness equipment and a host of other connected devices are part of a home
and a Smart Home system is expected to provide a unified view of all these services. Smart home concept
as described has been illustrated in Figure 3 in the context of Smart Home itself being a unit of Smart City.
Extending this concept further likewise, a Smart Home in itself may be a part of a large building complex
and in a much broader sense of a Smart City. This presents opportunities and challenges for connectivity
and interoperability. A large number of smart devices are now available and their numbers are increasing.
At present most of the devices and gateways are working on proprietary standards. However for the fast
development of the sector and to have economies of scale, devices, gateways, network and the
applications are required to be developed on open standards with interoperability.
etc.), which is relayed through a network (wireless, wired or hybrid) to an application (software program),
that translates the captured event into meaningful information. A conceptual picture is shown in Figure
4.
The enabling technologies for M2M are sensor networks, RFID, mobile Internet, wired & wireless
communication network, IPv4 / IPv6, etc. In Home area network (HAN) / Local area network (LAN), low
power wireless communication technologies such as Wi-Fi, ZigBee, 6LoWPAN, Bluetooth Low Energy
(BLE), Z-wave etc. may be used to connect the devices with the M2M gateway. GSM 3G/ 4G or fixed
line broadband / FTTH may be used for connecting M2M gateway to the server. Low Power wide area
network (LPWAN) technologies such as LoRa and Sigfox are being used for transmitting very small data.
Based on 3GPP release 13 and 14, NBIoT technology is expected in near future on LTE network.
IPv4 addresses are going to exhaust. Standardization and adoption of IPv6 in telecom and ICT
organizations will provide an opportunity of having billions of devices which can be IP enabled and
seamlessly addressable through mobile or wired broadband connections.
ITU-T in its Recommendation ITU-T Y.2060 (06/2012) has defined Internet of Things (IoT), as a global
infrastructure for the information society, enabling advanced services by interconnecting (physical and
virtual) things based on existing and evolving interoperable information and communication technologies.
ITU-T has also created a Study Group (SG)-20 in 2015 to study IoT and its applications in Smart cities and
communities.
IoT will be having a heterogeneous network, having IP and non IP devices connected through IP Gateways.
Gateways will be connected to IoT Platform. A huge amount of data will be generated by the sensors. Big
data analytics may be used to create intelligence, which may be further used for various operational and
planning activities. A typical network having various communication technologies and Gateways have
been shown in Figure 5.
Various verticals such as Power sector, Intelligent Transport system, Remote Health management, Safety
& Surveillance systems, Village & Agriculture, Homes, and Industries etc. may be transformed to become
smart by using M2M / IoT technologies. This will improve the efficiency and in turn the quality of life.
and smart phones) will be around 17 percent of all Internet connections; the other 83 percent will result
from devices to be used in various verticals of IoT domain [3]. India is expected to have around 2.6 billion
connected devices by 2020. The home automation market in India is expected to reach INR 8800 Crores
(US $ 1.3 B) by 2017 and is growing at a rate of 30% CAGR (Source: RedSeer consulting).
By 2022, a typical family home will contain 500 smart devices (Source: Gartner).
The idea of Smart Home was originated long back before the advent of IoT. The world has seen a
tremendous change due to the invention of various devices to automate household activities during 1901-
Source: BSRIA
1920. Among the few inventions of early twentieth century were first engine powered vacuum cleaner in
1901 followed by first generation of refrigerators, washing machines etc. In 1966, ECHO IV (Westing
house) was the first smart device invented but was not sold in the commercial market. The device helped
in automation of home appliances, controlling the room temperature and also assisted in preparing
shopping list. This was followed by the invention of H316 Kitchen computer by Honeywell Corporation
that could store recipes but was not commercially available. X10, the first commercial home automation
technology was developed in the year 1975 and it used electrical power transmission wire lines for
signaling and communication. Bill Gates’s smart home which was built in 1995 attracted many people
because of its features like temperature control, heated floors, customized preference for room lighting
and climate control, monitoring his favorite Maple tree with sensors and computer to provide watering
and better gardening. The major trend has started from 1990 where home automation was the basic
functionality. With the growth of smart-phones and other smart devices, the smart home penetration has
increased in the world. The remote control is now embedded in smart phones in form of application to
control.
Smart Homes are the integral part of Smart Cities. Connected things relevant to Smart Homes are
forecasted to grow from 294 million to more than 1 billion; more than tripling in just three years, as shown
in Table 1, [4]. Smart things inside the Smart Home are representing the biggest portion of the connected
devices as per this report. Evolution of Smart Homes with IoT is shown in Figure 6.
Table 1 : Connected Things Installed Base within Smart Cities (in Millions)
Smart homes and smart commercial buildings represented 45 percent of total connected things in use in
2015. Due to investment and service opportunity, Gartner estimates that this will rise to 81 percent by
2020. Homes will move from being interconnected to becoming information- and smart-enabled, with an
integrated services environment that not only provides value to the home, but also creates individual-
driven ambience. The home will become the personal space that provides assistance or personal
concierge experiences to the individual as per Gartner report [4].
Figure 7 : Smart homes installed base of connected devices within smart cities from 2015 to 2018 (in millions)
In a similar analysis by Statista [5], the growth of installed connected devices in smart homes within smart
cities from 2015 to 2018 is shown in Figure 7.
According to a report [6] published in 2015, the major drivers for Smart Homes are Security, Convenience
and Energy Efficiency. The awareness of Smart Homes is very high among customers from upper income
segment and urban areas. Low entry barriers like open source technologies are encouraging more number
of players to look for innovation and to provide better value proposition for their customers.
The Home automation market is broadly classified into Application based and Technology based. From
Application perspective, the market may be segmented into Lighting, Safety and Security, Entertainment
and Energy Management Systems, etc. Whereas based on various technologies used, it may be classified
into Wired and Wireless technologies that may be further classified into X10, ZigBee, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi,
Wi-SUN, Thread, PLC, Z-Wave etc. Presently the market is more concentrated towards luxury deployments
based on specific or proprietary technologies and solutions, however there is a trend where more and
more users and startups are creating Home automation platforms and systems that are cutting across the
technology domains in many cases.
Presently the market revenue from Smart Homes is estimated as shown in Figure 8. The chart clearly
shows that North American market is dominating in the revenues. This growth is driven by various
Industries spread across the region. This leads to concern among the population about safety, security
and creates a need of increased product offerings. European market and Asian market also show a
growing trend.
Smart home trend is gaining momentum day by day. Many international conferences and exhibitions are
being held in various parts of the world, emphasizing the need, offerings, security issues and aspects of
smart homes for a future connected home.
Regionwise Analysis
20.00%
18.00% 17.23%
16.00%
14.00%
12.00%
10.00%
8.00%
6.00% 5.15% 5.33%
4.00% 2.97% 3.13%
2.00% 0.97% 1.02%
0.77% 0.61% 0.79%
0.19% 0.16%
0.00%
Worldwide Asia Australia Europe Latin America North America
In Asia, Smart homes and building market is one of the fastest growing market at a CAGR of 37.7 percent.
India is one of the fastest growing Smart Homes markets in Asia Pacific. The home automation market in
India is expected to reach INR 8800 crores by 2017.
3.4.1 Global IoT segments are growing- Smart Home is becoming a trend
M2M/IoT technologies are proliferating and Smart Homes vertical is witnessing a major action.
Variety of sensors that can be easily connected to the cloud at affordable prices are resulting into
this proliferation.
It is pertinent to mention that roof-top solar, net metering and electric vehicles would play a huge
role in the Smart Home, thereby creating a micro grid. Electric vehicles would not only provide a
clean and efficient means of transport, but would act as virtual power plants which could supply
power to the grid in case of an outage [8].
Hassle Cost
Security Free Effective
System
Smart Safeguard
Ease of Pro Active Energy
Use Technology Privacy
Saver
Comfort Entertain
Convinienc ment
e
3.6.1 Security
Security of the home is of paramount importance. This applies to both the situations when the occupants
are inside or away. Increasingly people are required to monitor their homes for intrusions from outside
or to have a look at the well-being of their children or elderly relative staying at home.
3.6.4 Convenience
With the growth of technology products a customer expects to solve his problem within short period of
time and without much human intervention. In general, a customer prefers an automated environment
that improves the quality of life for him.
5.1.4 Big data Analytics & Cloud Service will lead the IoT market-Data Driven Market
When many devices operate simultaneously, the amount of data generated is high. Processing
this structured and unstructured data is a challenge and Big Data analytics is an opportunity in the
Indian Smart Home space.
5.2.2 Smart Homes technologies will see a boom with Government initiatives
Government of India has planned to create 500 smart cities in a phased manner. In the first phase,
100 cities will be developed and 20 of these were named in the first list. Second and third lists of
13 and 27 cities respectively have also been declared recently. Smart Homes is an important entity
of a Smart city and hence the market is favorable for Smart Home players.
5.2.4 DIY kits are gaining attention and leveraging the sales through e-commerce
Do It Yourself kits are gaining attention in India and many Smart Homes enthusiasts have already
purchased these devices from market and installed at Home. These kits include Smart sensors
that can be integrated to Home appliances and can be controlled remotely with the Smart
gadgets. These kits are now available through e-commerce websites also at affordable rates.
Smart Home
Alliances
The following are the key technologies, but not limited to, relevant to Smart Homes:
It should be noted that above list is by no means complete or necessarily applicable to Smart Homes in all
scenarios. The new standards are emerging and getting added at rapid pace and technology adoption is a
result of number of factors outlined in earlier sections. Standards released by ETSI and CENELEC are as
given in Table 2.
A lot of work related to standardization in M2M / IoT domain is going on in various Standardization
organizations such as IEEE, ISO, IEC, ETSI, OneM2M and ITU.
Figure 15 : Installed base of Smart Devices and Technology adoption, [IoT Connectivity, 3Q15]
ZigBee 2.4 GHz, Full support of IEEE 11073 Not widely adopted Health
920 MHz, device specialization BLE is the direct Monitoring
915 MHz, profile competition for and Safety
868 MHz, Longer battery life from ZigBee providing Client Activity
780 MHz low cost coin cells for different Monitoring
wearable devices (source: modes/profiles of Health and
ZigBee alliance) operation. BLE is Wellness
Wireless range up to 70 getting adopted monitoring
meters indoor and 400 faster than ZigBee
meters outdoor (source: within short span of
ZigBee alliance) time
ANT 2.4GHz Low power mode BLE is giving direct Fitness device
supporting longer battery competition to ANT Healthcare
life as it is already device
Adopted by major mobile supported by all the
manufacturer mobile manufacturer
Supports mesh capability Not all mobile
which is an edge over BTLE Manufacturer is
supporting ANT
hardware
Low penetration in
market is less due to
present eco-system
of other Wireless
Technologies
The various system components of a Smart Home are depicted in Figure 16 and described below:
7.1 Lighting
This comprises of smart lighting solutions that controls the lights of smart homes. These solutions
include controlling the intensity, dimming the light, changing the schema of light in a room depending
on the mood and preference of the user. Using motion detection sensors and light detecting sensors,
more options can be customized like auto switch on and off, of the lights depending on proximity.
Figure 17 : Smart Home with Power Line and Solar and Vehicle Charging, [14]
regarding the ambient temperature, weather, online news, in-home camera. The user can also control
the appliances from the display supporting touch control.
8 Automation Platform
Home automation devices is a network of multiple devices which can serve different purpose and are
offered by different vendors. Hence they are heterogeneous in nature and there is a need to have
/invest multiple gateways to communicate and transform the data and push the data to cloud.
If there is centralized middleware it will ease communication, monitoring, maintenance and support and
upgrades to the standards.
The data transfer to and fro between devices and server can be done by pull and push mechanism over
http/rest/soap in xml or JSOn supported by the vendor of the devices.
Distributed nodes by the cloud could be identified by a framework using URLs. The cloud vendor should
have a platform which comes with standard APIs or services for all sorts of devices, protocols and data
format. Support for additional features such as security, automation, device controls, monitoring and
alerting can be built on top of them. An indicative picture of protocols is shown in Figure 20.
8.1.1 Pros:
Data is centralized
Mulitiple protocol support and uniformity in data format
Ease of setup
Reduces the cost for customers
8.1.2 Cons:
Since data is over the cloud, there is a need to be cautious about middle man attack / use by third
parties for sale / Use by third parties for behavioural analysis or finding out routines in a home.
Power Management Unit: The Power management unit is one of the important components of
Gateway or concentrator unit. There would be provision of different kind of power inputs to the
Gateway making it a portable unit
MCU / MPU: The micro-controller unit or micro-processor unit is the brain of the concentrator
unit that controls the in-home display unit. The controller / processor will talk with other
supporting devices using various board level protocols.
Touch Display (Human machine Interface): Human machine interface is essential element for the
Human Machine Interface system as user will be able control different appliances and see
different logs / dumps on the concentrator side. The user will be able to make changes in the
settings
Security: Security of the system is one of the important requirement for the Smart Home Solution.
As all the devices are connected to internet, Security of the System from any external attack
becomes important. There are different mechanism to prevent external attack and hacking of
data. There can be different method of providing security to our system. Some of them are :
o Secure booting
o Access Control
o Firewalling and IPS
Software / Apps: Human Machine Interface (HMI) at the Gateway makes the usage of the system
easy for the end user. There can be provision of Mobile Apps which can simulate the functionality
of HMI system on the Gateway using the wireless connectivity available on the Gateway
Firmware / Libraries : are the software running on the MCU / MPU that gives functionality to the
Gateway
Sensors : Motion and Environmental sensors available on the Gateway gives environmental
information of the Gateway
Protection: is the usage of the protection mechanism on the DCU from sudden surge in current and
voltage that may damage the board.
a) Single touch panic alarm to alert monitoring station and family members during medical, fire or
any other emergency situation
b) Motion detection in secured area while family is asleep or away
c) Detection of hazardous LPG/CO (Carbon monoxide )gas leakage
d) Early detection of fire using smoke detectors to ensure timely response
9.2 Security
a) Intrusion detection through Door/Window
b) Remote locking and unlocking of the doors
c) Access to the visitor/family based on face detection ( very advanced function)
d) Multiple Indoor & outdoor IP cameras to keep an eye on home.
e) View live video from anywhere on any smart phone/ tablet /Laptop /PC to monitor activities
inside the house
f) View who is outside the main door on touch screen or smartphone
g) Scenario based and event driven recording of video clips with ease of configuration of alerts for
each event.
h) Ability to archive video locally or on the cloud with tagging making retrieval archived video easy
i) Access to all home videos, including live streams and recordings as well as the ability to organize,
save, search, tag, and share them
9.3 Automation
a) Switch on/off lights using smartphones/tablets
b) Configure and save mood lighting settings best suited for occasion. Activate mood lighting as
required with touch of a button.
c) Control appliances like storage boiler, ACs, curtains, garage doors, etc. using smartphones/tablets
d) On/off control of water pump based on the water levels in OH/UG tanks
e) Automatic illumination while entering a dark hallway
f) Schedule periodic triggers to switch on /off lights when away from home, set them to replicate
normal usage pattern when on holiday or out of town so it looks like home is occupied
g) Configure and program sprinkler system
10 The Big Picture: Smart Home as a unit of a Smart Building and a Smart City
With the evolution of the converged & networked society, further fueled by the ‘Internet of Things’ era,
a multitude of new applications of the Information& Communication Technologies have changed the way
we live, work, play, interact and even think. The Smart Home paradigm’s true evolution & proliferation
depends entirely on the End-to-End interoperability. Just like our Electrical Plugs, Sockets, Switches,
Lamps and Lamp Holders etc.; or like the IT & Networking equipment. Any component/part of one Make
can be replaced by the same part from any other manufacturer by the consumers themselves without any
compatibility issues. The situation becomes much more complex when we consider Smart Homes in
context of Smart Cities & Smart buildings. A major disconnect which has recently become apparent is: the
technological trends in ‘Smart Homes’, ‘Smart Buildings’, ‘Smart Cities’ and ‘Smart Grid’ are being
considered and pursued in isolation from each other with ‘silo’ approach, by the respective stake holders.
In fact, they form a very tightly interwoven and homogenous confluence of similar technologies being
applied in different domains for a common cause of making our planet earth ‘smart, green and secure’.
Each application ecosystem like smart home, smart building, smart street lighting and smart grid have,
over the years, developed their own respective sets of standards and last mile communication protocols.
Even some ecosystems like smart grid and smart home have got multiple sets of standards and protocols
being advocated as the most appropriate for their respective applications.
Enabled by technology, the smart building connects the structure itself to the functions it exists to fulfill:
Cities are intricate composite environments and the manner in which cities are operated, financed,
regulated and planned are extremely complex to say the least. City operations are multidimensional and
comprise of multiple stakeholders whose dependencies and interdependencies affect and ultimately
determine the built environment.
The various departments mostly overlook these dependencies and interdependencies though known, in
their efforts and focus of providing their services and of being answerable only for the services they
provide. Part of the answer to making cities 'smarter' is a more all-embracing coordinated management
of resources and infrastructure, a collaborative approach to a cleaner greener environment, and
harmonized governance that result in a better quality of living of its citizens.
Coordination, collaboration and harmonization can be better implemented by the effective use of open,
common and shareable, information and communication technologies that allows the creation of a truly
interconnected system with seamless communication between services. Even though the services and
applications can be diverse, they could leverage the use of common infrastructure to achieve this
objective. Cities have to move from isolated Silo’d systems as depicted in Figure 22 to a more unifying,
common model as depicted in Figure 23.
The interconnection or adoption of ICT by different government departments and agencies or the means
to do so is not the realm of this document. However, the sharing of infrastructure, unifying the
information infrastructure or even the sharing of meaningful information/data such that it can improve
efficiency and the quality of life of its citizens is an opportunity that will be recommended.
Such a systems level approach in design and standardization is likely to not only enable newer and better
services, but also allow far greater synergies and cost-effective deployments, reducing the lifecycle (total)
cost of ownership of any Infrastructure, be it the smart grid, a home, a building or even a city, with
attendant environmental benefits, including carbon reductions.
In order to promote interoperability and enable the develpers to bring out innovative solutions at a much
faster pace and with considerable ease, a common service layer is required. The common service layer
shall replace the common data platform. The M2M Gateway and Architecture working group of TEC is
carrying our an exhaustive study of the One M2M standards for implementation of a common service
layer platform [12].
As outlined earlier, a Smart home has several Needs which Smart City must provide and vice Versa a Smart
City has many requirements which a Smart Home must fulfill.
Figure 24 shows key needs of the Smart Homes (for the users), in the context of interaction with the
Figure 24 : Smart City Scenario, [Schneider Electric: Smart Infrastructure – Xperience Efficiency]
Smart City. A Smart city comprises of several smart components, of which the Smart Home is an integral
part and must interact with Smart Water Infrastructure, Smart Mobility services, Smart Energy to ensure
that the user gets improved infrastructure and services and also has a safer and more comfortable Home.
These broad objectives, Figure 25, can be further classified into the below areas which can be
implemented at the Smart Home level and integrate with the Smart City Infrastructure.
A simple smart home system at a most basic level can be outlined as a system as shown in Figure 26.
The Smart Home, must at a basic level have Energy Analytics built in at the Energy Meter level, which can
capture details of Load, Power factor, Daily patterns of load, Renewable Energy Generation, Diesel Genset
generation and Net Metering. Solar Rooftop solutions will be very useful in all parts of India to generate
surplus power and substantial benefit and Subsidy as well as policy change can help bring about increased
adoption of Renewable energy generation. These renewable energy sources when monitored through the
Smart Energy metering solutions can show clear and measurable benefits and savings as well as reduce
the load on the Electrical infrastructure, which would otherwise have to be developed to cater to the full
Consumer load. When cascaded to the city level, this reduced electrical load and excess power generation
can completely transform a city from power deficient to power surplus.
This is one of the biggest areas where a Smart Home can contribute towards a Smart City and will help
make the City power cut free and the energy can be utilized for other infrastructure like: Metro Trains and
even Electric Cars, apart from Industries and Offices.
As the solar technology evolves and makes homes and buldings viable as “power generation units”, a
virtual ‘energy market network’ shall be created that will require support for different energy exchange
models at city level. It will also require that a methodology is defined for (I) citizen empowerment (II)
municipality engagement (III) energy companies and (IV) construction parties in participative decision-
making to achieve the energy generation and management objectives for Smart Homes and Buildings.
Figure 27 shows how a Smart Home manages the Energy generation and metering and optimises the use
of enery for domestic consumption as well as mobility requirements.
A Smart Home’s contribution to water conservation and management is critical and this where sensors at
the Water Meter level need to be intelligent and collect water usage data. Based on specific slab levels,
the metering of water can also be dynamic based on weather (for example water usage charges can be
higher in summers and less in Monsoons and winter). Figure 28 shows a simple integration of a smart
Water Metering system with the Utility service provider for better water management and metering. This
system is already adopted in several countries like US and Germany as part of pilot projects.
Additionally, rain water harvesting systems are important for a smart home and if the amount of rain
water recharged can also be measured with sensors, the water charges can also be at a net metering basis
(Similar to power net metering) to increase the adoption of rain water harvesting systems.
The sensors at the home owner’s level can be connected through the cloud to the Public water supply
agency who can with accurate analytics forecast water demand requirements and corresponding supply
sufficient water.
The waste water discharge (at a building level / cluster level) also needs to be measured for Quantity and
Quality to ensure that Pollutants are not released in the waste water and the sewage can be treated
appropriately. Every cluster / condominium / complex must install Sewage and waste water treatment
plants to recycle and reuse water for gardening and landscaping. Remote monitoring of these STP plants
should be done through the cloud to ensure that they are operating optimally as in many cases the STP
plants are installed but after some time they are not maintained and start discharging polluted water into
the environment. Even at an individual Home level, Mini STP plants should be encouraged to reduce the
amount of BOD discharge into the drainage water. Figure 29 illustrates how the Sewage Treatment plant
at a community level or apartment complex level can be made intelligent and measure the amount of
waste water treated and recycled and used for requirements such as landscaping, thereby reducing
potable water usage. Waste water treatment is also a key initiative that the Smart Home can be an enabler
for and help save precious water.
Figure 31 : Modern Home and Integration, [B. Mollstedt, "E.ON Mobility," in Electric Vehicle Integration into Modern Power
Networks, DTU, Copenhagen, 2010]
At a City wide level, Smart Homes can help contribute significantly towards the Smart City initiative.
Smart Homes can be resource efficient (Water, Electricity), More Secure and also help with Smart Mobility
initiatives. In the Indian context, the biggest needs which will drive Smart homes adoption is the need to
conserve our limited resources and also improve the quality of life in the metro cities.
Smart Homes need to be supported by the Government by building a comprehensive framework for
resource optimization and also an Operation centre for remote data management and response
(Specifically for Fire and Security and medical emergencies.)
Smart cities can only be made by integrating all the discrete components of the Smart Infrastructure into
an ecosystem which uses Integrated and intelligent devices to make residents lives easier, safer and more
comfortable.
At a collective level, the Energy Usage, Water usage and Waste Water Generation and many other
parameters of the smart homes can be consolidated. Based on this data, additional benefits can be
provided to residents based on the overall performance of their Smart Cluster / Building.
1) If a large residential complex is able to generate 25% of its energy consumption through
Renewable energy sources, it should be given additional incentives in the form of energy rebates.
2) Say a Residential Complex is treating all its waste water and has a 0% discharge into the sewerage
system as all the waste water generated is used for landscaping and the solid waste remaining is
treated using natural technologies to make compost, the apartment complex should be rewarded
and given additional incentives as a Green Building.
These parameters can be defined by the government and set as a benchmark standard, however for the
success of this program, incentives must be given to the residents, which will accelerate the adoption of
Smart Home systems and also aid in the development of Smart Clusters.
The Residents taking action to develop Smart Homes and Smart Clusters and the government developing
Smart Infrastructure for Smart Cities. Without either of these initiatives, a Smart Home or a Smart City
program cannot be effective.
The benefits to the government from the Smart Home Program will be:
11 Smart Community
The genesis of smart community is at the nexus of infrastructure, communication and analytics is shown
in Figure 32 and further elaborated in Figure 33.
12 Challenges
As the industries are working in silos and also on proprietary standards, it is required to define open
standards at device, network and application levels to have interoperability for sustainable growth and
economies of scale. Figure 34 shows the various Emerging challenges in relation to IoT at the technical
and policy level. This report is focussed on the Technical aspects, hence policy matters shown in Figure 34
are useful only for the broader context.
Figure 34 : Harnessing the IoT for Global development, ITU, 2016 [3]
1. Lack of standards and interoperable technologies : Industries are working in silos and on
proprietary solutions. For the smooth development of the vertical and also to have economies of
scale, devices based on open standards should be used. Interoperability is required at all levels,
be it device, network or application level.
2. Technologies for low power consumption are required for ensuring longer life for batteries
especially in case of wearable devices. This becomes specially important as these devices are
required to be usually equipped with some kind of wireless to be able to communicate with the
nearest available authorised gateway or master.
3. Slow deployment of IPv6: In view of high volume of devices being deployed and expected to to be
deployed in M2M/ IoT domain, the device and Gateways connected directly to PLMN or PSTN
network should have IPv6 or a seamless mix of IPv4 and IPv6. As IPv4 are going to exhaust, early
adoption of IPv6 will be better.
4. Low cost devices (affordability): The adoption and penetration of smart devices is still less and the
cost is high. This is partly due to the fact that proprietary devices are being sold from multiple
vendors. This often requires specific implementation for specific use case. Standardization is
necessary in order to bring down the costs and ensure interoperability as discussed above.
5. Data Security & Privacy : As larger number of devices are getting connected in the home, security
and privacy are becoming increasingly important for the consumer. Whether it is businesses using
behavioral data for their own commercial purposes, or criminals illegally hacking into and
controlling the devices connected to the home network, consumers need to feel confident that
they are adequately protected from any malpractices. For this, end to end security is required
with security features implemented at all levels.
6. Health care regulations are required for use of wearable health devices for remote monitoring
of vital parameters of the individual / patient at home. It will be helpful in reducing the burden on
the hospitals.
7. High speed and reliable internet services: For the development of Smart home / connected home
vertical, there is a need of high speed and reliable interned services on fixed line broadband as
well as mobile connections. All the data from smart devices can be assumed to be concentrated
on a single pipe from the home. High speed is important but reliability and availability are equally
important for faster adoption of the services.
8. Smart home gateways, having multiple protocols for HAN is required as the appliance may be
having different types of communication protocols.
9. Fragmented Market - Fragmentation slows down market development as the vendors’ hedge
their bets on which technologies to back. It also increases equipment costs as multiple solutions
need to be incorporated, and leads to consumer frustration when solutions do not work together.
10. Cost of Implementation - Introducing more and more connected devices into the home is an
expensive business for the average consumer. While costs remain high, implementation of many
solutions will remain limited – especially ones that do not provide any perceived real value.
The connected home of the future will naturally be an evolution of todays connected home, which is built
on the key foundation of broadband Internet access both in the home and on the move, with the latter
typically provided by smartphones and other portable devices
Many players are converging into the connected home and there would be a radical shift from isolated
domains to interoperability and cross domain functionality.
Some of the prominent domains of Smart Home are as shown in Figure 35.
Needs and wants would drive the connected home and community adoption going forward
13.1 Salient Features of Smart Home and Connected Communities by 2025 [13]
- By 2025, superfast broadband will enable more flexi working and home working, reducing the
amount of time we spend commuting. It will also enable more people to improve their quality of
life by living.
- Home security is likely to become part of a larger family security system that will include location
and health tracking, on-demand communications, and safety-aware recommendations on
everything from driving routes to hotels and restaurants
- Basic home systems, such as water, electricity, lights, heating, air conditioning, and appliances,
will be highly automated and optimized to support personal preferences while reducing costs and
the environmental impact
- Virtual reality will be mainstream entertainment in 2025, with technology allowing us to attend
events virtually rather than physically. This will be supported by the widespread deployment of
cameras and microphones capable of transmitting increasingly rich experiences between homes,
event venues, and elsewhere.
- Media will be far more tailored to both individual taste and context, and will be delivered via a
host of new systems and devices. For example, you will be able to ask your kitchen to suggest the
best dinners you can make based on the ingredients and time you have available, and who is
having dinner.
1. Unified Gateway is required to be developed having Wi-Fi and Sub GHz based network (Z-wave,
6LoWPAN, BLE etc) in the home area and fixed line broadband / FTTH / cellular on the WAN.
Gateway should be based on open standards and with static IP capability (preferably IPv6/ dual
stack)
2. Existing BB modems working on fixed lines / FTTH may be converted to Gateways by adding
additional hardware module via the existing either of the available ports like serial, Ethernet, USB
or Wi-Fi etc. An additional memory thus could be used to create a home network in the sub-GHz
band (for Z-wave / 6 LoWPAN etc) depending upon the requirement. This requires further
feasibility as adding a module to the existing devices would require the design details of the
existing devices.
3. Indigenous technologies may be developed in the Sub GHz band.
4. TEC may work on point no. 1 and 2 for creating GR / IR based on related standards.
5. Standards for the common service layer are required.
14 References
[2] C. a. DHL, "Internet of Things in Logistics, a collaborative report by DHL and CISCO on implications
and use cases for the logistics industry.".
[3] ITU-CISCO, "Harnessing the Internet of Things for Global Development," ITU, Geneva, 2016.
[4] Gartner, "Smart Cities Will Include 10 Billion Things by 2020 — Start Now to Plan, Engage and
Position Offerings," 2015.
[5] Statista, "Smart homes installed base of connected things within smart cities from 2015 to 2018,"
2016.
[6] Schneider ELectric, "The Smart Home Market in India : An Industry Perspective".
[8] TEC, "M2M Enbalement in Power Sector (www.tec.gov.in/technical-reports)," New Delhi, 2015.
[10] RedSeer, "Home Automation in India - Fast evolving and rapidly growing," 2015. [Online]. Available:
http://redseerconsulting.com/sites/default/files/Home%20Automation%20market%20in%20Indi
a.pdf.
[12] TEC, "Technical report on M2M Gateway & Architecture (www.tec.gov.in/technical-reports)," New
Delhi, 2015.
[13] ovum, "Smart 2025: The Future of the Connected Home and Community," 2015. [Online].
Available:
https://www.windstream.com/uploadedFiles/Pages/Smart_Tomorrow/2015/March/Smart2025-
FutureoftheConnectedHomeandCommunity.pdf. [Accessed 2016].
Abbreviations
Annexure 1
2. Glossary
Term Description
IoT Platform Cloud based platform (or in some cases deployed on-premise) that
enables home automation solution to leverage services offered by
ecosystem.
The IoT platform provides data ingestion, big data storage, high speed
distributed big data processing, data analytics, rule engine and
application enablement features along with integration capability with
enterprise systems, databases and third party APIs (weather, map).
Smart Home Hardware device facilitating communication between IoT enabled
Gateway (referred devices and cloud. The gateway referred to in this document will provide
as gateway in this HMI (Human Machine Interface), for the home owner to control IoT
document) devices.
Although rule based decisions are carried out by IoT platform, the
gateway will be capable of executing certain decisions in case of
emergency.
IoT enabled Devices capable of communicating with smart home gateway using
devices/sensors industry standard protocols such as ZigBee, WiFi, Bluetooth, TCP/IP, etc.
(simply referred as Some of the examples are smart switches, smart energy meter etc.
“IoT enabled
devices” or “IoT These devices are supported by smart home service providers.
devices” in this
document)
Appliances Typical home appliances. e.g. electrical appliances (air conditioner,
refrigerator, boiler, microwave), lights / tubes / CFL, etc.
Smart appliances Off the shelf appliances available in the market, usually supporting
proprietary or standard protocols. Smart appliances those support
standard protocols may be integrated with the smart home solutions
relatively easily.
3. Objective
This use case describes a “pay as you go” smart home solution integrated with “Smart City Services”.
Solution service provider takes complete responsibility of deployment and maintenance of the
system, covering all of the key areas of the ecosystem, viz. hardware, software and services.
Uninterrupted supply of utilities such as power, water, gas, etc. will be ensured through the nexus of
third party public and private service providers associated with the smart home solution.
Using the proposed solution, home owners can monitor and control IoT devices locally or from remote
locations in a hassle-free, reliable, secured yet cost-effective manner and get timely alerts in
emergency situations.
4. Background
a. Current Practice
Majority of homes in India are not equipped to have home automation solution installed due to
infrastructure limitations.
Home owners interested in deploying smart home solution, either hire a solution provider or procure
and install DIY home automation kits themselves. Although some of the solution providers design
their own hardware components, many other pick and choose readily available components from the
market.
Most connected home vendors focus on one or two categories of products or services. Also, typically
vendors do not engage with home owners once the installation is carried out. From home owner’s
angle, up keeping home automation system takes a low priority, unless the home owners’ past
experience has led them realize real value from the solution. This situation may result in homes where
the system becomes non-functioning over a period of time.
In smart city projects initiated by central government or integrated townships, a connected home
becomes a part of the ecosystem consisting of (but not limited to) numerous city assets such as
utilities, security, transportation, healthcare, law enforcement, waste management, etc. By becoming
a part of the larger ecosystem, smart and connected homes can help the entire ecosystem function
more efficiently.
With the steady growth in wearables, home entertainment and BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) trends,
home owners and at times even solution providers, select components from a plethora of proprietary
smart appliances to create home automation system. This however results in creating a fancy
application rather than a purposeful solution. Although, such systems may allow home owners a
means to control a set of smart appliances, they usually fall short in the area of analyzing and providing
valuable statistical data in a usable format to home owners. Such solutions typically work in silos,
failing to take advantage of the overall IoT ecosystem described in the earlier section. Using smart
appliances from different vendors poses yet another problem. Each appliance usually is bundled with
its own proprietary application. Managing multitude of such devices becomes a nightmare for home
owners.
Connected home devices and solution vendors need to prove their reliability before they can break
into the mass market. Fragmented ecosystem, price and perceived value, lack of high-speed reliable
network coverage and interoperability between disparate network technologies that are still evolving
are seen as roadblocks in quick adoption of home automation solutions.
d. Proposed solution
Proposed home automation solution will allow home owners to remotely monitor and control IoT
devices, and receive alerts via the gateway installed inside a house. Home owner will be able to take
cognizance of an unannounced visitor by streaming images from a surveillance camera attached to
the door bell, at a remote location. Emergency alerts requiring immediate attention will be sent not
only to the registered home owner but also to concerned third parties such as security office,
healthcare provider or fire brigade via a call centre/provider network. The system can solicit home
owner’s consent before notifying third parties. Rules to raise alerts and send notifications will be
configured through a rule engine, provided by ContineoNX, a cloud based IoT platform.
For home owner’s convenience, responsibility to upkeep various IoT enabled devices inside the house
will be handled by service provider’s call centre. The gateway will monitor health of IoT devices such
as smart switches, smoke/gas detector, motion sensor, beacons, microphone, siren, etc. and inform
the call centre when an IoT device needs to be repaired or replaced. This model will ensure that the
home automation system takes the hassle of maintaining the system away from the home owner.
Home owners will be charged monthly based on subscription or pay-per-use- model for these
additional services.
Communication between gateway and home owner will be carried out over secured channel. Users
will also be able to monitor multiple homes, provided each home has its own gateway. Additionally,
one home can be managed by more than one family members.
The system will provide analytics and reports such as overall energy consumption, month wise
consumption, etc. to home owner. Communication with third party agencies will be handled by
ContineoNX using various communication channels.
The system will provide customized weather alerts or configure wake-up alarms based on the family
members’ calendar along with other parameters such as preferred mode of transportation, weather,
etc.
It is normal for an individual to own multiple real estate properties in different geographical locations.
It is impossible for the owner to be aware of property health from a remote location. Property health
can be defined as availability of utilities such as water or electricity and home appliances in working
condition.
o Enable home owners to perform various operations remotely. Remote operating is especially
useful for appliances such as water pump; which gets jammed if not used on a regular basis.
o Help keep the home in functioning condition by keeping the owner informed about the status
of appliances.
o Send emergency alerts to the owner as well as to the concerned third parties in case of
incidences such as fire, break-ins and flood.
o Provide essential third party services to the family members. For instance, in case of medical
emergency, the gateway can be used to contact nearby ambulances or hospitals either directly
or via a call center.
o Periodically provide usage history of utilities, in order to avoid unpleasant surprises at the end
of billing cycle and help detect miscalculations in billing if any. In the future, the home
automation gateway may also be integrated with utility providers and payment gateway to
make utility payments; relieving the property owner of such regular chores
5. Description
b. Ecosystem description in terms of actors and business roles: The solution involves an Internet
enabled gateway, Service providers (or call center) network, Telecommunication Service Provider
(TSP), IoT platform, owners’ smartphones or tablets, third party services, society office (optional) and
of course the home owners.
c. Contextual Illustration
d. Pre-requisite
Highly available Internet connection is present for the gateway to communicate with stakeholders for
them to be able to remotely monitor & control smart home appliances. Or the gateway is capable of
storing the data locally and send it when connectivity is restored.
e. Triggers
Events occurring inside the home; events can be as simple as switching on a boiler or as critical as
smoke detector raising an alarm.
Control commands invoked by home owners or service providers such as “turning on the AC”
f. Scenario
1. Service provider deploys smart switches, IoT enabled sensors, surveillance equipment, smart
home gateway, etc. and configures the system by registering the gateway and smartphones that
are entitled to operate the system and standard rules.
2. The home owner can change the configuration as per his preferences and installs smartphone
app on the registered phones.
3. The gateway controls smart appliances as per the rules in order to save energy or ensure safety.
4. The home owner operates smart appliances through the HMI interface provided by the gateway
or through smartphone apps.
5. The home owner receives usage reports from the system by email.
6. The home owner receives push notifications from the system in case of emergency. Notifications
are also sent to third party service providers depending on the configuration.
7. The home owner can communicate with guests at the door in case the whole family is way.
8. Usage and operational data is stored in IoT platform for trending and analysis
Home Owner
Alerts IoT
Platform
Notifications/
Commands
Smart Home
With Gateway Public Services
Service Request
Report
Service Center
Call Center
Information Exchange
Figure ANN1-2: Home Automation System Process Flow
- Usage history
- Rule execution log, Alerts log and Device control commands log
- Alerts
- Rules configuration
- Software Updates
- Rules configuration
6. Architectural Considerations
a. Deployment Considerations
Home Automation gateway as well as IoT enabled devices should be installed inside the house.
Location of the gateway should be such that it will ensure uninterrupted Internet Connectivity. From
the installed location, the gateway should also be able to communicate with IoT devices either
through hard wired connection or industry standard communication mechanisms.
b. Geographical Considerations
None
c. Communication Infrastructure
The Gateway will use home Wi-Fi or will have a SIM of its own to exchange information with the cloud
IoT platform using MQTT/HTTP protocol. Smartphones carried by home owners will use
GSM/GPRS/Wi-Fi to send and receive messages. IoT devices & smart appliances will communicate
with the gateway over industry standard protocols such as ZigBee, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, etc. Possibility
of using VSNL broadband router as a home gateway should be evaluated.
d. Performance Criteria
The system should be able to raise critical alerts or execute rules in near real time subject to
availability of connectivity.
e. Interface Requirements
1) Gateway should be able to send alerts/notifications and receive commands using Wi-Fi or GPRS
connection
2) Smartphones carried by home owners should be able to exchange information with Gateway via
IoT platform either through GPRS/GSM or Wi-Fi
3) Service providers should get alters on their devices
4) Service provider should be able to communicate with the home owner for emergency or service
calls
5) MQTT / HTTP will be used for exchanging messages among different parties to ensure scalability
and high performance
f. User Interface
Web based responsive application will be provided for the service providers to carry out
functionalities such as home owner registration, IoT device provisioning, monitoring, etc.
Smartphone app will be provided for home owners to perform various activities such as viewing alerts,
monitoring/operating smart appliances, etc.
The application will provide REST API for third party integration
h. Data Management
Data rate, payload size, frequency of communication, synchronous or asynchronous session types,
request-, request-acknowledge-, handshake-request-, response types, and broadcast constitute data
management in addition to data integrity and payload sizes
ContineoNX will keep a log of data exchanged between gateway and home owner’s smartphone or
tablet. Live data will be maintained only for the duration defined in the SLA between the home owner
and the service provider; old data will be purged. SLA will also guide when backups are performed and
data is archived.
The solution will allow the home owner to provision, configure, monitor and control smart appliances.
Service providers will be able to monitor health of the gateway, IoT enabled devices/sensors and
smart appliances.
k. Start-up/Shutdown Process
Start-up/shutdown process is specific to gateway, devices and smartphones carried by home owner.
Cloud platform is highly available.
l. Security requirements
Communication between home owner’s device and gateway should be encrypted. Gateway as well
as smartphones will be authenticated during each transaction with the IoT platform preventing
malicious intrusion.
By 2020, more than 40% of the Indian urban households which are increasingly becoming tech-savvy,
will use home automation/energy management solutions mainly as a way to increase home security,
status symbol and convenience and also as a way to conserve energy. Also, regular replacement cycles
for switches and light bulbs provide an opportunity for sensor-based lighting. Falling costs in
embedded radio chipsets and sensors, reduced costs of app-based delivery models and personal cloud
services, and the sizable penetration of wireless technologies (wireless Internet penetration of urban
households will increase to be more than 50% the next five years) — will drive growth in the market.
By 2018, 40 devices and things per household in mature markets will talk to one another. (Third party
source)
1,000.0 50,000.0
800.0 40,000.0
600.0 30,000.0
400.0 20,000.0
200.0 10,000.0
- -
2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
8. Implementation constraints
ETSI TS 103 264 V1.1.1 (2015-11) SmartM2M; Smart Appliances; Reference Ontology and oneM2M
Mapping
Annexure 2
The promise of efficient and intelligent use of resources enabled by IoT has raised the expectations of the
technical as well as the consumer community. However it’s not always possible to connect the IoT nodes
directly to the public internet due to power or computational limitations. IoT Gateway help connect Things
to broader internet by using connectivity technologies suitable for resource limited Things. There are a
myriad of technologies and protocols available to communicate between Things, Gateway and Cloud
Application. It is not trivial to make the correct choices for a specific application. In this paper, we present
a flexible architecture for Internet of Things Gateway Platform known as “Wireless Bridge” which supports
different wireless technologies. We will also discuss various connectivity technologies and protocols
available for IoT based applications.
Introduction:
IoT is a network of connected objects (Things) with embedded electronics that allows to sense, report and
controlled remotely and sometimes take simple decisions. IoT seeks to connect every device (things) that
we interact with, including those which are generally not connected to the network. While the premise of
connection to the internet increases with reach of IoT, it also poses unique challenges. One such challenge
is that many IoT nodes have limited memory, storage and computation capabilities and are not able to
connect to the IP based networks directly. An IoT Gateway fills this gap by acting as bridge between IP
based public network. It also provides additional security, storage and processing services allowing the end
nodes to be as cost effective and power efficient. The IoT space is very fragmented and there are too much
literature available on this subject. This paper aims to provide a holistic view of all available protocols and
connectivity technologies.
d) Power considerations: The power source of gateway also affects our decisions related to the
above points. As sensor networks become more prevalent and embedded in Things, they would
need to be as unobtrusive as possible and scavenge power from its environment.
e) Security: This is a factor that can make or break the success of large scale IoT networks. As these
networks become part of application (some of them critical in nature), security will assume
paramount importance.
f) Serviceability: There must be a provision to service and to update the IoT gateway (and nodes) in
the field. There should not be sole dependence of remote serviceability and we should have
additional connectivity options to service the installation.
b) Communication Protocol: There are many communication protocols that can be used by the IoT
gateway to communicate with the Cloud application. Some of the popular protocols are:
Plain HTTP: This is by far the most ubiquitous protocol. It’s widely accepted by servers and is
backed by Internet Standards, and has the least compatibility issues and maps with the RESTful
APIs.
CoAP: Constrained Application Protocol is binary version of HTTP. It has very concise headers and
supported binary data format. It can be used on top of TCP or other transport as well. CoAP
packets can be easily translated to a HTTP packet.
Web sockets: It is a new protocol backed by World Wide Web Standards. It has the same
addressing and handshake mechanism as used by HTTP. It’s especially suited in shared hosting
environments and gateways operating behind proxies.
MQTT: Is also a popular protocol running (optionally) on top of TCP and works in subscriber
model. It more suited for broadcasting messages to interested gateways.
AMQP: This is the most suited protocol for gateway server communication. It acts as a storing
queue and ensures that packets are not lost, even in case of temporary outage.
XMPP: Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol is a popular protocol used by chat clients for
real time communication and has standardized a lot of parameters.
Things Architecture
‘Things’ in this solution are based on Multi Sensors-RF platform which has 2 parts (Sensor Board and RF
board). RF board is the master board consisting of a low power MCU device, Dynamic NFC Tag (M24LR)
and Sub-GHz. MCU runs Contiki3x based 6LoWPAN for connectivity with Gateway.
“Sensors Board” consists of a multiple sensors such as accelerometer, pressure, humidity, microphone
and light sensor.
The Home Gateway has local and remote connectivity options to access sensor data and actuator on the
nodes (Fig: 5)
Android Application: A local user can access the nodes using the Bluetooth connectivity on smart phones
by pairing with the Home Gateway device.
The android application provides the facilities to set alias name for each of the sensor node. The user need
do long click over the IP address which pops up a dialog box to set alias name
NFC Application: The Sensor nodes also have the NFC Passive Tags. The passive tag stores the sensor
values for each node. If the 6LoWPAN network is not available, the user can put sensor node’s NFC
antenna on top of Home Gateway NFC antenna and read the sensors values through NFC interface. The
communication between Android App and Home gateway is on Bluetooth communication.
Cloud Application: User can register sensors node on cloud server and can view sensor data and control
actuators using the cloud application.