Modeling and Graph Analysis for Enhancing Resilience in Smart Homes

Abstract

A number of network technologies applicable to home networking have emerged for various purposes in recent decades. Ethernet and IEEE 802.11 WLAN provide the home network backbone, along with a range of competing technologies for sensors and home automation such as IEEE 802.15.4/ZigBee, Z-Wave, and Bluetooth LE. Technologies in the home vary with respect to their importance. In this paper, we provide a model smart home network and analyze its graph-theoretic properties with an emphasis on the resilience of critical services and connections to the Global Internet. We consider both the network connectivity graph of nodes and links, and our novel technology interdependence graph.We explore the resilience of the network technologies in the smart home in light of complex technological interdependency. We analyze these graphs and discuss properties such as diameter, closeness, centrality, and k-connectedness. We explain why this analysis is a necessary pre-condition for understanding IoT-based smart-city resilience.