Wireless Home Automation Networks: a Survey of Architectures and Technologies
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GOMEZ MONTENEGRO LAYOUT 5/18/10 11:46 AM Page 92 CONSUMER COMMUNICATIONS AND NETWORKING Wireless Home Automation Networks: A Survey of Architectures and Technologies Carles Gomez and Josep Paradells, Technical University of Catalonia ABSTRACT USE CASES AND MAIN FEATURES OF Wireless home automation networks com- WHANS prise wireless embedded sensors and actuators that enable monitoring and control applications WHANs enable a variety of use cases, as illus- for home user comfort and efficient home man- trated in Fig. 1. A non-exhaustive list of exam- agement. This article surveys the main current ples is provided below and emerging solutions that are suitable for Light control: A new light can be controlled WHANs, including ZigBee, Z-Wave, INSTEON, from any switch, which reduces the need for new Wavenis, and IP-based technology. wired connections. Lights can also be activated in response to a command from a remote con- INTRODUCTION trol. Furthermore, they can be turned on auto- matically when presence and luminance sensors In recent years, wireless sensor and actuator net- detect that people are in a poorly illuminated works have gained high momentum, receiving room. significant attention from academia, industry, Remote control: Infrared technology has been and standards development organizations. One used for wireless communication between a of the primary application domains of this tech- remote control and devices such as TVs, HiFi nology is home automation. Wireless home equipment, and heating, ventilating, and air con- automation networks (WHANs) enable monitor- ditioning (HVAC) systems. However, infrared ing and control applications for home user com- requires line-of-sight (LOS) and short-distance fort and efficient home management. communication. RF technology overcomes these A WHAN typically comprises several types limitations. of severely constrained embedded devices, Smart energy: Window shades, HVAC, cen- which may be battery powered and are tral heating, and so on may be controlled equipped with low-power radio frequency (RF) depending on the information collected by sever- transceivers. The use of RF communication al types of sensors that monitor parameters such allows flexible addition or removal of devices to as temperature, humidity, light, and presence. or from the network and reduces installation Unnecessary waste of energy can thus be avoid- costs since wired solutions require conduits or ed. In addition, smart utility meters can be used cable trays. However, the dynamics of radio to detect usage peaks and alert the household propagation, resource limitations, and the devices that may be causing them. Energy supply mobility of some devices challenge the design companies may also use WHANs to perform of WHANs. energy load management. Several organizations and companies have Remote care: Patients, and disabled and developed WHAN solutions according to differ- elderly citizens can benefit from at-home medi- ent architectures and principles. This article sur- cal attention. Wearable wireless sensors can veys the main current and emerging periodically report the levels of several body architectures and technologies tailored to or parameters (e.g., temperature, blood pressure, suitable for WHANs. The next section illus- and insulin) for a precise diagnosis. If accelera- trates use cases, and states the main features tion sensors suggest that a person has fallen, and requirements for WHANs. We then present alarms can be activated immediately. an overview of ZigBee, Z-Wave, INSTEON, Security and safety: Advanced security systems Wavenis, and IP-based approaches. We then can be based on several sensors (e.g., smoke discuss these solutions with regard to WHAN detectors, glass-break sensors, and motion sen- requirements plus additional technical and non- sors) for detecting possible risk situations that technical criteria. The final section is the con- trigger appropriate actions in response. For exam- clusion of the article. ple, smoke detectors may activate fire alarms. 92 0163-6804/10/$25.00 © 2010 IEEE IEEE Communications Magazine • June 2010 GOMEZ MONTENEGRO LAYOUT 5/18/10 11:46 AM Page 93 Window shades, Office PC HVAC, central Hall heating, etc. may be Porch Gateway controlled depending on the information Light sensor Glass break collected by several sensor Bedroom 1 types of sensors that TV, HiFi, DVD monitor parameters Window such as temperature, shade Remote humidity, light, HVAC control controller Occupancy and presence. sensor Irrigation Bathroom controller Unnecessary waste Living room of energy can thus On-body medical sensor be avoided. Dining room Luminance Garden Bedroom 2 sensor Smoke Presence detector sensor Underground Temperature humidity sensor Presence Utility sensor Alarm sensor meters Kitchen CO2 detector Legend Garage Light switch Light Garage door Garage door opener remote control Other devices CO2 detector Garage door opener Underground humidity sensor Figure 1. An example of a WHAN-enabled home. The main characteristics and requirements • To facilitate end-to-end connectivity, multi- for WHANs are as follows: hop communications are required, so that • The node density is potentially high, and intermediate nodes can retransmit data for the number of nodes may be on the order nodes that are not within the sender’s trans- of hundreds. mission range. • The home is typically a multipath environ- • Although most devices are static, the mobil- ment due to the presence of reflective sur- ity of some of them and the dynamics of faces (e.g., walls, floors, and tables). RF signal propagation require the network • Residential scenarios are subject to interfer- to be self-healing. The duration of connec- ence. Industrial, scientific, and medical tivity gaps due to network topology changes (ISM) bands are particularly crowded with should be low. the presence of WiFi, Bluetooth, cordless • The applications require WHANs to sup- phones, and even microwave ovens. port various traffic patterns, such as point- IEEE Communications Magazine • June 2010 93 GOMEZ MONTENEGRO LAYOUT 5/18/10 11:46 AM Page 94 ZigBee 6LoWPAN Z-Wave INSTEON Wavenis 868/908 433/868/915 (all chips) RF band (MHz) 868/915/2400 904 (2400 also 2400 available) (400 series chip) 30 (indoors) 45 200 (indoors) Range (m) 10–100 100 (outdoors) (outdoors) 1000 (outdoors) 9.6/40 (from 200 series chip) 4.8/19.2/100 Bit rate (kb/s) 20/40/250 38.4 Physical layer 200 (only 400 (min./typ./max.) series chip) Modulation BPSK/BPSK/O-QPSK BFSK FSK GFSK Spreading DSSS No No Fast FHSS technique Receiver –85 or better (2.4 GHz band) –101 –110 –103 sensitivity (dBm) –92 or better (868/915 MHz bands) (at 40 kb/s) (at 19.2 kb/s) CSMA/TDMA (synchronized MAC TDMA + CSMA/CA (beacon mode) and TDMA + CSMA/CA networks) and mechanism CSMA/CA (beaconless mode) simulcast CSMA/CA (otherwise) 14 64 (standard Message size 127 (maximum MAC messages) N/A Link layer (bytes) (maximum) payload in 200 28 series chip) (extended messages) BCH (32,21) FEC, 8-bit check- data interleaving, sum, scrambling. Error control 16-bit CRC, ACKs (optional) 8-bit CRC ACKs Per-frame or (optional) per-window ACKs (optional) Unicast Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Broadcast Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Communication Yes (NWK and IP multicast (not APL layers). optimized for LoW- modes Multicast Yes Yes Yes Not supported PANs). Not by MAC supported by MAC Indirect Other modes IPv6 anycast No No N/A addressing 16- and 64-bit MAC 16- and 64-bit addresses 32-bit MAC addresses 24-bit 48-bit MAC Identifiers 28-bit IPv6 addresses (home ID), 16-bit NWK module ID addresses (which can be com- 8-bit (node ID) identifiers pressed to 16-bit IDs) Edge router, mesh Coordinator, node (mesh under), Controllers and Single type Single type of Device types router, and end router (route over), slaves of device device device host Table 1 continued on the next page. 94 IEEE Communications Magazine • June 2010 GOMEZ MONTENEGRO LAYOUT 5/18/10 11:46 AM Page 95 ZigBee 6LoWPAN Z-Wave INSTEON Wavenis Multihop Mesh routing, tree routing, Tree RPL Source routing Simulcast solution and source routing routing 30/10/5 Hop limit (mesh routing/tree 255 4 4 N/A routing/source routing) Network layer O(N2) O(N) O(N) (controller), O(N) (root), (root), Multihop (mesh routing), O(N ) O(N ) prec No state O(1) solution state O(1) DAGs (other devices) (routing slaves), (other (many-to-one routing) no state devices) (slaves) ACKs and control of ACKs and End-to-end reliability TCP/UDP/other ACKs — duplicate packets NAKs Command space 65,536 (clusters) — 32,768 65,536 — Application layer Device type space 65,536 — N/A 65,536 — Integrity, confidentiality, 128 bit AES Encryption 3DES and Integrity, confidentiality, and access control (IEEE encryption (e.g., 128 bit Security access control, and key 802.15.4). Key management (400 series rolling AES management not currently supported. chip) codes) encryption Translation gateway needed Yes (not needed Yes No Yes Yes for Internet connectivity for IP-Wave) 7 kbytes (Flash), 48 kbytes 4 kbytes (flash), 32–64 kbytes (external 400 bytes 45–128 kbytes (ROM), 24 kbytes (ROM), (flash), EEPROM), (RAM), Implementation size 2.7–12 kbytes (RAM) 3.6 kbytes (RAM) 2–16 kbytes 256 bytes 20 bytes (SRAM) (internal (non- EEPROM), volatile 256 bytes memory) (SRAM) Specification publicly available Yes Yes No No No Table 1. Summary of the main features of ZigBee, 6LoWPAN, Z-Wave, INSTEON, and Wavenis. to-point (e.g., a switch transmits a com- SOLUTIONS FOR WHANS mand to a light), point-to-multipoint (e.g., a remote control transmits a command to a This section presents an overview of solutions group of devices), and multipoint-to-point that have been specifically tailored to or are suit- (e.g., several sensors report measured val- able for WHANs. Further details and the main ues to a central control). characteristics of each solution are shown in • Delay is not critical for some monitoring Table 1.