A Framework for Smart Home Services with Secure and QoS-aware Communications

The scenario of smart home services will be discussed with regard to two important aspects: the quality of service problem for the in-house communication and the need for a security scheme for the whole system. We focus on an installation with smart computers in each flat interconnected using a switched Ethernet network. These smart devices are responsible for performing local services, user control and operate as a gateway for the different types of sensor and actor networks installed at each flat. We propose a QoS scheme to prevent congestion situation for the Ethernet network which is applicable to currently available cost-sensitive hardware. Furthermore, the whole system, all communication channels, user data and the access to the framework are secured by our proposed security architecture. Finally, we will present the latest improvements on Ethernet network standards, the ongoing work on this topics and our next steps for future work.