In the "Connected Home Lab" at the Communications Technology Institute novel techniques for home networking can be developed, tested and presented.
The central component is cross-technology networking. The use of both wired and wireless transmission technologies promises increased reliability, coverage, and user-friendliness. In the spirit of convergence different application fields such as media network and home automation network merge in the "Connected Home Lab".
Based on the results of the OMEGA project, a software prototype was developed that realizes the essential elements of the InterMAC or the IEEE P1905.1 standard. The InterMAC concept is illustrated in figure 3. Different technologies such as Wi-Fi, Ethernet and PLC can be combined intelligently below IP. The network is always looking for the best path through the fully interconnected home. As an application live TV streaming of DVB-S2 streams over TVHeadEnd is running with XBMC.
At the CTI the OMEGA demonstrator has been extended by an IEEE 802.15.4 network interface. Now TV, laptop and notebook can also communicate over a low rate control network. Thus unneeded interfaces can be switched on and off to save energy, and similar to the HOMEPLANE project Wi-Fi parameters such as the frequency can be changed.
In the area of home automation a variety of different systems exist. The "Connected Home Lab" has draws on a convergence process on top of IP (see figure 4). As middleware acts OpenHAB , which is using bindings to connect different technologies. All devices are accessible become transparent to any applications, such as browsers, databases, or Android applications.
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Figure 1: technology usage in the "Connected Home Lab“ |
Figure 2: floor plan of the "Connected Home Lab“ |
In the "Connected Home Lab" a Smart Grid Gateway exists, which was created as part of the E-DeMa project. Common Smart Meters with wMBus connections can be read and displayed here.
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Figure 3: InterMAC OSI model |
Figure 4: OpenHAB OSI model |
