Home automation design using 6LoWPAN wireless sensor networks

Abstract

Wireless sensor and actuator networks (WS&ANs) are a new technology based on networks of small radio-enabled embedded devices that are being deployed in areas such as environmental monitoring, vehicle tracking, building management, body monitoring and other applications. Power sources for network nodes are often limited, which imposes restrictions on hardware resources and their use by the underlying embedded software. We propose a new wireless sensor network architecture that is especially designed for the task of home automation. Our system relies on a low power WS&AN that employs energy harvesting techniques to maximize node lifetime and an embedded residential gateway that offers user interaction and secure connectivity to the outside world. The advantages of our system are its scalability, low power, self sufficiency and versatility.