On the buses

Being able to control a TV or a stereo from the comfy chair is taken for granted these days. However, home automation does not stop at remote control for audio & video equipment. Although an increasing number of manufacturers jump the bandwagon called Home Automation or even the Smart Home, there are no signs as yet of a real breakthrough ‘for the millions’.Although several systems are currently available on the market to automate various functions in and around the home, the large number of different, competing, standards and proprietary developments is a large stumbling bock on the road towards the Home of the Future.In an earlier issue we wrote that developments in home automation were being slowed down by the possibilities and impossibilities of facility engineering (‘Home Bus Systems’, Elektor Electronics February 2001). Apparently, developing and marketing a compatible system is time consuming to the extent that manufacturers are always one step behind reality.One of the main problems seems to be flaky exchange of data between different applications. Once the main hitches have been recognised, it is often impossible to make amends at the high pace that rules in the electronics industry. This situation has resulted in a plethora of different protocols and standards which only seems to aggravate the problem.Lessons have been learned, however, because today the trend is not just to look at the connection method, but increasingly at the actual application.

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Network layer
RS-485 Recommended Standard ANSI/TIA/EIA-485-A-98
www.tiaonline.org
IEEE 802.3 Ethernet
standards.ieee.org
IEEE 1394 FireWire
www.apple.com
HomePNA Home Phoneline Network Alliance
www.homepna.org
HomePlug HomePlug Powerline Alliance
www.homeplug.org
MoCA Multimedia over Coax Alliance
www.mocalliance.org
USB Universal Serial Bus
www.usb.org
X10 X10 Wireless Technology
www.x10.com
IEEE 802.15 Bluetooth
www.bluetooth.com
ZigBee ZigBee Alliance
www.zigbee.org
DECT Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications
www.dectweb.com
IEEE 802.11 Wireless Fidelity (WiFi) / Wireless LAN
www.wi-fi.org
IrDA Infrared Data Association
www.irda.org
Communication layer
BACnet Building Automation and Control Networks
www.bacnet.org
BatiBUS BatiBUS Club International
www.batibus.com
EIB European Installation Bus
www.eiba.com
KNX Konnex Association
www.konnex.org
LonWorks Local Operating Network Works
www.echelon.com
Application layer
CEBus Consumer Electronics Bus
www.cebus.org
Modbus Modicon bus
www.modbus.org
PROFIBUS PROFIBUS International
www.profibus.com
HAVi Home Audio Video Interoperability
www.havi.org
EHS European Home System
www.smarthomeforum.com" target="_blank">www.smarthomeforum.com
OSGi/RG Open Service Gateway initiative/Residential Gateways
www.osgi.org
Salutation Salutation Architecture
www.salutation.org
UPnP Universal Plug and Play