HomePlug 1.0

HomePlug 1.0 is a specification for a networking technology. This network connects devices - such as PCs and other devices that use Ethernet, USB and 802.11 technologies - through the powerlines in a home.

Benefits

Major companies such as Belkin, Netgear and LinkSys provide the required bridging and routing devices, meaning that products are easily accessible.

HomePlug 1.0 has a data rate of 10 Mbps and provides for whole-house coverage.

Limitations

The same limitations discussed for previously mentioned powerline technologies also apply to HomePlug 1.0.

Even though some major companies are involved with this specification, only 50 products are provided by a total of 12 companies. Some of these products are duplicated between the companies. This gives the consumer little buying power.

Z-Wave

Zensys is a provider of low data wireless networking solutions. They offer a family of integrated microcontroller unit (MCU)/transceiver chips that are embedded with the Z-Wave technology. This technology is an RF based, two-way communications protocol using a mesh network topology.

There is now a Z-Wave Alliance promoting Z-Wave and they are in direct competition with the ZigBee Alliance and technology. It operates at a data rate of 9.6kbps.

Benefits

Z-Wave products are already on the consumer market. This is a major benefit for a wireless home automation technology.

This technology is a low power and low cost solution for home automation.

Limitations

As with all RF devices radio dead spots and signal reflections are a problem. Communications may be intermittent or fail completely. Zensys claim that their routing principle overcomes this problem.

Products operate on the 868.42 MHz (Europe) and 908.42 MHz (Americas) frequency bands. This excludes Australia and other countries that cannot operate on these frequencies.

Insteon

Developed by Smarthome’s engineers, the Insteon technology targets the same market as X10 but improves on it.

It sends data at 1200bps. This enables the Insteon protocol to include 48-bit source and destination addresses, unique to each device, as well as a cyclic redundancy check (CRC). Encryption can be supported, so the technology can be used in security applications.

Insteon employs a repeater-based protocol. Nodes that are furthest away from the source repeat the message. Increasing the number of nodes in the network expands the network’s coverage. Wireless repeaters are also part of its product line.

Benefits

Insteon combines powerlines home automation with wireless communications. This means consumers get the best of both worlds. They get the flexibility of having wireless products as well as the reduced cost of installation by using their existing home wiring.

Insteon is backwards compatible with X10 products.

It is a two-way protocol meaning that devices can communicate with each other. X10 is not able to do this.

Limitations

The same limitations that other powerline technologies have also apply to Insteon.

Other

Other wireless technologies are available but may not be suitable for home automation. This includes Bluetooth (IEEE 802.15.1). Bluetooth is a wireless personal area network (WPAN) standard that is limited to 8 nodes and is for transferring higher data volumes (1Mbps) than required in home automation. The same applies to WLANs.

Cypress Semiconductor Corporation and its second-source partner, Atmel Corporation, have reintroduced their WirelessUSB (Universal Serial Bus). Initially it was designed to compete with Bluetooth. Now, with the recent media interest and talk surrounding ZigBee, it has been re-introduced. It acts as a USB human interface device (HID) and enables PC peripherals, gaming controllers, remote controls, toys, and any other point-to-point or multipoint-to-point applications to operate wirelessly. It claims low cost and long battery life, and it operates on the 2.4GHz ISM band at 62.5kbps. It has a 10m-50m range.

Tags: zigbee, ZigBee Project, IEEE 802.15.4, Mesh Networks, Home Automation, Wireless Home Automation