Jon Smirl: Keep it Simple and Standardized and Interoperable

I have seven mixed home automation networks in my house. It is a situation that only a software engineer can deal with and I can't even keep it running all of the time. If home automation is going to expand to the broad population it is going to have to standardize. We have to be able to purchase smart appliances, dimmers, thermostats, etc and have the expectation that they will all work together. It is unreasonable to expect the broad population to call in a CEDIA integrator every time they want to change a light switch.

Remember 1985 when we had Arcnet, token ring, SMCnet, Ethernet, modems, proprietary radio mixed with Netware, MSNet, Netbeui, DECNet, SNA, Vines, Appletalk? We agreed on TCP/IP and now we have the Internet. Everyone is better off.

The obvious choice for the networking protocol is IPv6 extended with things like 6lowpan/ROLL/6lowapp. There are two key features to IPv6 - lots of addresses and it's routable. Being routable allows multiple PHY layers in the house and also allows remote control from the Internet. Almost every home router is Linux based. It is likely that these routers will be central to routing between multiple PHY layers in the house. These routers are cheap and can be used without a connection to the Internet.

It is critical that these standardized networking protocols be kept free from IP licensing even if they are more inefficient. IP licensing is incompatible with the GPL. Let's not repeat the problem Siemens had when they went to contribute a Zigbee implementation to the Linux kernel and discovered that Zigbee licensing was GPL incompatible. Look at the mess H.264 licensing is causing Mozilla and YouTube . There is no IP licensed technology that is so valuable that it is worth shutting out the GPL world.

As for the PHY layer... It looks like we will end up with multiple PHYs. Wifi and switched Ethernet is already in the house. But Wifi/Ethernet/Moca are too expensive (OFDM) to be used in things like dimmers. Non-OFDM powerline needs phase couplers which are tricky for a non-technical person to install. That leaves simple radio like 802.15.4. 802.15.4 radios are cheap (under $2) and produced by a lot of vendors. I'll change my position on this if someone can make open, $2 wifi radios.

So my dream installation would be 802.15.4 smartmeter, 802.15.4 dimmers, 802.15.4 orwifi appliances, cheap router between wifi/802.15.4/Ethernet. And no home energy display. Give me another standalone display and I will throw it away. Instead provide apps for smart phones, PCs and Internet enabled TVs to get the data from the meter and display it. Widget on my TV is the best display, now my family can look at the graphs together.