Share | History and Importance of Smart Home Wireless Protocol

According to a recent Crimson Hexagon report, “From 2014 to 2017, smart home technology began to receive widespread attention, and more than 60% of consumers showed great interest in smart home technology.” If you are engaged Working in the IoT industry, you may be familiar with reports and data, as it heralds future market development opportunities for smart connected homes.

We all know that when consumers buy smart home products , they are often affected by many factors, such as entertainment, convenience, safety, and improving household energy efficiency and reducing energy expenditure. However, behind these, we all know that one of the biggest obstacles to the development of smart homes is the interoperability of smart home devices and the increasing number of wireless protocols.

Wireless protocols like Z-Wave and Wi-Fi are important pillars of the IoT infrastructure; in some cases, the languages ​​used between devices create a fragmented or closed ecosystem that often confuses end users. Application barriers.

As modern smart homes become more popular, the number of corresponding protocols and their functions is increasing. While engineers, developers, and manufacturers are trying to create products that they believe are the best user experience, and introduce new protocols and technologies, everyone wants to standardize and connect to control All Products. In order to better understand how we reach the current state of the smart home agreement, let's look at a brief history.

Internet of Things before the Internet of Things

First of all, what is the function of the wireless protocol in smart home?

In short, a protocol is a language or function of how devices communicate and understand each other. Many people believe that the emergence of modern smart home protocols can be traced back to the creation of the X10 (an internationally versatile smart home power carrier protocol) in the 1970s, the first universal communication protocol for electronic devices. Soon after, various other protocols were developed, including Z-Wave, and UPB (Universal Power Line Bus), Wi-Fi and Insteon (a low-complexity, low power consumption, low data transfer rate, low cost two-way hybrid) Communication technology, with instant response, easy to install, easy to use, economical and compatible with X10) to solve various problems in the consumer electronics and home control market.

Launched in 1999, UPB uses power line wiring for signal and control, providing high levels of reliability and transmission speed through existing wires in the home. This is a highly technical technology that is difficult for DIY people who have little technical knowledge. In addition, Wi-Fi was introduced in the early 1990s to transfer large amounts of data. Today, Wi-Fi allows devices to connect in the smart home and allows users to enjoy remote control of their home devices. However, Wi-Fi does exist and faces challenges such as high interference and high power consumption, which is not ideal for battery-powered products.

Following Wi-Fi, next-generation protocols such as Z-Wave and Insteon are designed to enhance network signals by providing efficient, low-power connectivity and mesh networks, primarily for home control.

Early technology of smart home

Insteon by Smartlabs Inc. Designed to address connections between power lines and wireless protocols. They were a unique solution at the time, but their closed ecosystem made it difficult for consumers to adopt.

Developed by the HomeRF Alliance, Zigbee is a wireless proprietary protocol with many different "profiles" for the early commercial networking, energy and remote control markets. Like Zigbee, Z-Wave is also a mesh network protocol, introduced by the Danish company Zensys in 2001 and now owned by Silicon Labs.

Z-Wave is specifically designed for smart homes; home control enthusiasts and developers know that to be successful, standards must not only use low-power power but also other home electronics, and as devices grow Stronger. As one of the original network technologies for home control, the tradition of Z-Wave continues to this day. Z-Wave is supported by the Z-Wave Alliance, a member alliance of industry leaders dedicated to promoting standards, with more than 2,400 certified Z-Wave devices and more than 700 members at the time of this writing.

New member of the Smart Home Agreement

In the past few years, with the development of smart home technology, the demand for low-power mesh networks as a pillar of smart home technology has prompted other standards organizations to continuously explore their own technologies. We've seen Threads (launched by Samsung, Nest, ARM, Big Ass Fans, Freescale, and Silicon Labs, an IP-based wireless network protocol for connecting home smart products.) and Bluetooth technology. Existing standards organizations such as the organization (SIG) and the Wi-Fi Alliance have announced their own Bluetooth mesh and Wi-Fi HaLow mesh protocol versions.

Thread was launched in 2014 by Google and other big companies interested in smart homes. Thread natively supports IPv6 and is designed to work with Google and Nest, but does not address product-level interoperability issues. The Bluetooth Grid was officially launched by the SIG in 2017 and has different features than the currently known Bluetooth peer-to-peer communication. With the Wi-Fi HaLow mesh protocol, engineers from major chipset vendors are concerned about the power consumption of WiFi HaLow, fearing that the protocol will consume too much energy for battery-powered smart home devices.

In addition, many newer protocols, such as Wi-Fi HaLow, can take a long time to be adopted by manufacturers and create reasonable products for consumers, which is a major obstacle to their development.

How will the smart home agreement develop in the future?

The smart home market will continue to grow, and so far we have not seen enough signs that a certain standard or technology will dominate the future. But we have a responsibility to help consumers understand the products they bring home and the role each technology plays in practical applications.

For example, Wi-Fi will be an integral part of all smart home product connections, especially if users want to be able to access their devices remotely from outside the home. Bluetooth will play a key role in the smart lock market, allowing consumers to easily open their doors when they walk to the front door with their smartphones. Z-Wave is still a prominent technology in security systems, connecting lights, thermostats, door locks, sensors and other peripherals to make the home truly intelligent.

The more commonly used network protocols are WiFi, Bluetooth, ZigBee, and Z-Wave, but there are deficiencies, such as:

WiFi power consumption is relatively large, suitable for transmitting a large amount of data;

Bluetooth power consumption is relatively low, but there is still a confusion between Bluetooth 2.0 and Bluetooth 4.0, and IPv6 is not supported.

ZigBee technology is more complicated and the development cost is high;

Z-Wave is dominated by the Danish company Zensys, and there is no ZigBee alliance yet.

All wireless protocols have their strengths and weaknesses, but the most important choices are interoperability and security, as well as more product choices. It depends on everyone in us, including standard organizations, manufacturers, retailers, developers and other people in the smart home ecosystem, to promote and achieve a smart home life. (Compile / Meng Guangwei)


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