Top Trends inSmart Home ApplicationsThough home automation has been around for decades, it will not be much longer until every device in the home is connected to one network. Imagine that your entire home—all appliances, devices, and systems—could communicate directly with one another, synched by one common language, and perhaps even controllable by a single app. Looking forward, service providers will be looking to adopt applications that integrate all devices seamlessly, greatly reducing the need for human intervention. Ten top experts have come together to delve into some of the top trends defining this space.

The graph below lists the trends that were identified by the experts

Of these seven, the top four trends identified were powerline ethernet systems, single-app control, open-standard hardware,

and cybersecurity components

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Powerline networking is just one of many ways to connect computer systems in a home. It allows for devices in a home to share a connection through existing electrical wiring, which means utilizing structures that are already in homes, thus keeping implementation costs lower. The ability to efficiently enable ubiquitous connection between home appliances, as well as ensuring security, makes powerline ethernet systems an attractive option.

Powerline Ethernet Systems:

Participants:

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Senior Control Systems Engineer, Australian

Synchrotron

Gonzalo Conesa ZamoraCustomer Success

Manager for IoT, PTC

Shannon LooperEngineering Manager,

Logistics, LCBO

Dragoslav NeskovicDirector of Facilities,

University of Virginia - Darden School of Business

Keith A. Crawford

"From a security standpoint, use powerline Ethernet systems already in existence. Relying on Wi-Fi could be a bad idea would be a bad idea as the bandwith will become rapidly cluttered in apartment situations, whereas a powerline Ethernet system could (and should) be isolated by an appropriate choke at the meter boxes or other power entry. Opening the communications to the outside world should be a choice for the end-user."

“Contract Functional Safety Engineer, Schneider ElectricAllan Gibson

Principal Consultant, DYNOMOTOR

Dean BoeElectrical Engineer:

Substations and Transmission Lines, High

Energy Inc.

Matthew EarleywineFounder, CTO and

Managing Partner,Creative

Technology & Innovation

Scott AndersenContract Functional Safety Engineer, Schneider Electric

Allan Gibson

Manager Strategy & Central Functions,

Volkswagen America Inc.

Jürgen BauerPresident, Kanti

Consultancy Services LLC

Tejas Shah

Probability

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Impact

Elder Health Location/ Monitoring

Wireless Charging

Smart Irrigation Systems Controllers

Cybersecurity Components

Open Standard Hardware/Software

Single App Control

Powerline Ethernet Systems

While the ability to control devices within a home via apps is alluring in and of itself, control can be made that much more functional through the use of a single app that is connects to multiple devices. Monitoring and organization is optimized, and the integration of devices within a system means the potential for a more personalized home.

Single App Control:

2

“These days there are smartphone apps for almost everything. There are several apps out there to monitor energy consumption of specific appliances, activate or deactivate your security system, or turn your heat on and off, but there is not yet an app (that I am aware of) to monitor and control your entire home. Creating such an app may require a standard wifi connection to every appliance, that could access the internet, and send all the proper info to your phone. There is no standard encoding for this, and even if there was, you'd have to have good encryption and cyber security measures to ensure that people aren't hacking your home. Assuming those challenges can be overcome, a single app to control and monitor everything in your home will provide added convenience, energy savings, and security benefits.”

“

Electrical Engineer: Substations and Transmission Lines, High Energy Inc.Matthew Earlywine

In addition to a single-app control, the adoption of open access software will also enable a much smoother system for communication between devices. In addition to allowing a diverse array of products to effectively synch with one another, it will also mean lower entry costs than many other standards available.

Open Standard Hardware/Software:

3

“In the market most of the companies are supplying products into many of categories such as environment, health, security, etc. However most of these products are operating independently and establish their own communication network. For example if you purchase appliances from SIEMENS, they will communicate within the SIEMENS family, but SAMSUNG, and other. Hence, there is need to develop the open access platform for home appliances, which results into development of master controller.”

“President, Kanti Consultancy Services LLCTejas Shah

“One of the key aspects (learned the hard way in industry) is the ability for different manufacturers equipment to talk to each other transparently with minimal supporting programming. We are still having issues getting hardware to talk between systems running Windows (and in fact different versions of Windows as they use incompatible device drivers), IOS and Linux (in its different flavors including Android) (and similar Unix derived systems) amongst others. What is needed is an open standard set of software and hardware interfaces with minimal licensing issues. Standards that have significant entry costs will be ignored.”

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Contract Functional Safety Engineer, Schneider ElectricAllan Gibson

While the prospect of having a fully connected home is an exciting one, it also bears a new set of fears concerning security measures. If consumers want to be able to control their homes via a single app, they must also be able to trust that the IoT software platforms are lacking in cybersecurity vulnerabilities that open homes up to attacks.

Cybersecurity Components:

4

“I believe that there will be many factors that are common across control systems in the industry and in smart homes. One of key importance is the cyber security component. This used to be a concern of IT systems but it impacts industrial control systems as well, and so it will with the smart homes systems. It might be very helpful that you can control remotely your appliances, (e.g. turning your heating on when you are heading home from work), but you have to be sure that no one else does.”

“Senior Control Systems Engineer, Australian SynchrotronGonzalo Conesa Zamora