A configurable context-aware simulator for smart home systems

Abstract

The development of distributed smart homes is accelerating with the approach of the Pervasive Computing era. Heterogeneous devices and network is a significant feature in these smart homes. However, the realization of a real environment is difficult and always takes a long time. It is unrealistic to verify the availability of the entire system and make sure that all devices and applications can work together after finishing the development. In this paper we present a configurable context-aware simulator for distributed smart homes. XML configuration files are used to save information for constructing the home environment, virtual devices and services, simulating context information and testing the OSGi event interaction between devices. This makes the simulator can work under different smart home environment which based on the OSGi framework without modifying any code. And the simulated virtual devices can work with real devices with the help of the simulator. It is easier to provide a complete simulation environment for a device to test and verify during the development process.