Smart Home Network: Analysis of IoT Devices and Applications Report

This report analyzes the application of Internet of Things (IoT) sensor devices in a smart home environment. It explores various applications and technologies, including Raspberry Pi for central control, JSON for data exchange, and PubNub for data streaming. The report details the system architecture, design model, and technical solutions, including components like LEDs, door controls, and home surveillance. It presents use cases and results, discussing LED control and monitoring, door control, and home surveillance. The report also covers data distribution, and concludes with a discussion of future work in the field of IoT and smart home automation. The report highlights the benefits of remote management and environmental responsiveness in enhancing user convenience and network flexibility.

Running head: INTERNET OF THINGS
Internet of Things
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note

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Executive Summary
The report is prepared for analysis of the IoT sensor devices and find its application in smart
home. A brief study is made on different applications and technology that can be used for the
development of the smart home network and connect different appliances and sensors with the
network for reducing the effort of the users and manage all the devices from a central point. A
research is made on the raspberry Pi for installing it in the smart home network as a central
controlling unit and send and receiving values for controlling the different devices used for the
development of the smart home environment. The size of the devices used for the smart home
network varies greatly and different interface can be used for connecting the devices such as
Ethernet, wireless access points, gateways, etc. The IoT devices are required to be connected
with the internet for enabling the remote management of the devices and making the life easy for
the users. The changes in the environment of the home should be detected by the smart sensors
installed in different location of the home for taking input and respond to the changes in the
environment for increasing the flexibility of the network.

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction......................................................................................................................4
1.1. Internet of things.......................................................................................................4
1.2. Application of IoT....................................................................................................5
1.3. Aims and Objectives.................................................................................................6
1.4. Motivation.................................................................................................................7
2. Background......................................................................................................................8
3. Methodology....................................................................................................................9
3.1. System architecture and approach............................................................................9
3.2. Design Model..........................................................................................................11
3.3. Technical Solution..................................................................................................13
3.3.1. Components.....................................................................................................13
3.3.2. Use of raspberry Pi for IoT..............................................................................13
3.3.3. Use of JSON for exchanging data...................................................................15
3.3.4. Use of PubNub for exchange and streaming data............................................15
3.3.5. Use of OpenCV for image processing and computer vision...........................16
3.3.6. Use of Iconic framework for mobile or web application.................................16
3. 4. Distribution of data in Smart home.......................................................................16
4. Use Case and results......................................................................................................17
4.1. Use cases.................................................................................................................17

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4.1.1. LED Controls and monitoring.........................................................................17
4.1.2. Door control and monitoring...........................................................................18
4.1.3. Home surveillance cars....................................................................................20
4.1.4. Room surveillance...........................................................................................21
4.2. Results.....................................................................................................................21
5. Conclusion.....................................................................................................................22
6. Future Works.................................................................................................................22
References..........................................................................................................................24

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1. Introduction
The concept of Internet of things was introduced with the growth of the concept of the
internet along with the process of deployment of the computing as well as the mobiles into the
framework of smart objects. The internet of things can create a network of objects, which bring
into the life style new opportunities with the focus into the sector of interaction, communication
to reach a common goal (Xia et al., 2012). The implementation of the concept of internet can
enhance the quality of life due to the factor that each of the device does not work as an individual
technology but becomes a part of the entire connected system. This can be very much beneficial
for monitoring user’s property and business while they are at a distance from them.
1.1. Internet of things
The internet of things can be considered as one of the improving sectors in the industry
but it is not a new concept. In recent time’s technological advancement are required in every
field in order to match the life style of common people. The concept of the internet of things can
be considered as the use of devices, which are intelligently connected, and system to achieve the
advantage of the data, which is gathered, by the embedded sensors and actuators in the machine
(Wortmann & Flüchter, 2015). This results in unleashing a dimension of the service which is
new that improves the life quality of the customers. Taking into consideration the point of view
of consumers, the internet of things concept have the potential of delivering the solution that can
dramatically improve the sectors of heath, security, energy efficiency, education and other
aspects of daily life (Lee et al., 2013). In the enterprise sector the IoT can affect improvement in
the sector of decision making and the concept of the productivity relating to the delivery of the
product.

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Figure 1: Evolution of IoT
(Source: Stankovic, 2014)
1.2. Application of IoT
There are many application when relating to the internet of things which makes the life
safe, easier and very much smart. Few of the application, which can be related to the internet of
things, are stated below:
 Smart Cities: Many of the cities are supported by the concept of the internet of things. The
smart cities require planning which has to be made very carefully in each phase taking into
account the agreement laid by the government. The sectors which can be improved with the
implementation of the concept of internet of things are infrastructure improvement, public
transport enhancement, traffic congestion reduction, safety of the citizens and healthy and
engaged in the community (Gubbi et al., 2013). The connection of all the above sectors and
the support towards the people by the internet being available in every place the cities would
be becoming smarter by the concept of the internet of things.

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Figure 2: Application of IoT
(Source: Da Xu, He & Li, 2014)
 Smart building and homes: The concept of home automation with the aspect of Wifi
technology has been primarily used because of nature of the deployed electronics where the
electronic devices for example mobile phones, TV’s etc. are supported by the Wi-Fi.
1.3. Aims and Objectives
This paper mainly addresses various kinds of issues which has IOT based devices which
focus on various kinds of approach which is based on Home automation services. Common type
of use case focus on home conditioning, controlling various kinds of home appliance and
controlling of various kinds of home access by making use of various kinds of RFID cards which
is generally considered as an example. The ultimate focus of improve the security of various
kinds of company. IOT helps in providing certain number of door locks, sensors on doors,
cameras and smoke detectors which ultimately improvises and ensures security and safety of
various kinds of homes.

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After the implementation of IOT device a user can easily control a mobile application by
i. A user can easily turn on and off LED lights and monitors which are state of the LED.
ii. A user can easily lock and unlock various kinds of doors by making use of several
monitor and doors which checks that doors are locked or unlocked.
iii. A user can easily monitor about the fact whether a particular door is open or closed by
the help of IR sensors.
iv. A user can easily get notification about that whether a door is left opened for interval of
time.
v. A user can easily get notification about the fact who has entered through the particular
door as the camera present on the door can easily capture the image of face and provide
him call which is transmitted through help of call or email.
vi. A user can easily get notification about the fact the camera can easily capture face and
after that it is transmitted through various kinds of email or other methods.
A user is able to gather information about his home from any location.
1.4. Motivation
In the last few years’ internet is known to be big platform from data can be easily
gathered or acknowledged. Implementation of mobile receiver in everyday item and gadgets
provides a platform between various kinds of people and other people and things. The main
issues encounters security and privacy of various kinds of user. IOT has different types of
definition for collection, exchange and communication of data. IOT helps in decision making
(Bonomi et al., 2012). The smarter version of provides near future application and has made
home very smart. Automation is actually possible by the help of monitoring of different parts of
home and making a control over them.

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Some kinds of application of this can be easily considered like monitoring and setting up
of desired or required temperature of the house before arrival and turning on and off of the lights
of the room, proper setting up of washing machine even when the person is at work and
notification about detection of leakage through camera when the person is at work or at any place
away from home (Miorandi et al., 2012).
As the domain of IOT is considered to be challenging this particular kind of topic is taken
which mainly ensures that it provides security and maintenance of various kinds of houses.
2. Background
The main aim of the internet of things is to create a network consisting of sensors and
embedded object that can be used for storing, analyzing, exchanging and communicating data
using the internet. The IoT sensors devices can be installed in a network for management of the
resources connected in the network and take effective decision based on the data analyzed from
the sensor devices (Zanella et al., 2014). The IoT devices finds its application in smart home
network, mining industry, health care, smart city, finance industry, etc. the report is prepared for
application of IoT devices on smart home for controlling the environment of smart home
according to the desire of the person living in the home (Cui, 2016). For the development of the
project report on smart home the concept is understood. For the automation of the smart homes
the common devices and appliances found in home are combined together and required to be
controlled from a central point using a smart device.
A system is designed for the development of a smart home network and it consists of a
control unit, laptop or smart device connected with the control device for controlling the
different electrical devices via the unit. The control unit acts as the gateway for connecting all

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the devices in the network (Da Xu, He & Li, 2014). Different interface is used for connecting the
different devices in then home network such as wireless, Ethernet or serial connections.
Raspberry pi is used for programming the control unit according to the requirement of the
project. Raspberry pi is chosen for its simplicity and compatibility with different type of network
device installed in the network (Chandrakanth et al., 2014). Real life application can be built
using the data stream network increase the security and reliability of the network. PubNub ca be
used as a data stream network and allowing bidirectional network connection reliable and easy.
There are different cross platform application software that can be developed for running
on different devices and that runs on different platform such as android, windows or iOS. For the
development of the cross platform software HTML, JS, SDK and CSS are used.
3. Methodology
3.1. System architecture and approach
The system architecture is the main component for designing the IoT smart home and
compliance of the devices with the application used for receiving the status and commands. A
server client protocol is used for the network for establishment of a direct link between the IoT
devices and the application used for controlling the appliances installed in the network
(Stankovic, 2014). The main control unit for connecting the different appliance of the home is
the Raspberry pi. There are 40 GPIO pins in the raspberry pi that can be programmed according
to the needs of the home automation network.

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Figure 3: System architecture of smart home project
(Source: Ur et al., 2014)
Different challenges are faced during connecting the different devices installed in the
network together and connecting them over internet such that the devices can be controlled from
remote location using web based applications. An analysis is made on the different services that
can be applied in the smart home network for controlling the network devices and it was found
that the routers should be configured with port forwarding protocol (Barnaghi et al., 2012). With
the implementation of the port forwarding protocol one of the router ports would be exposed
towards the local area network of the home and violated the security of the network. Research
was done on the use of hubs and gateways that can be installed in the central point of the

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network for connecting the devices and allowing the devices to communicate with each other.
There are different models that can be applied in the home automation network for simplification
of the system architecture and easy management of the devices such as: sensors, cameras, servo
motors, etc. that are connected with the raspberry Pi (Atzori et al., 2012). The raspberry Pi is
required to be programmed for collection of data from the sensors and the other appliances and
publish it for forming a string in JSON that can be acquired from the different devices to the
PubNub. The channel name and the publish key is used for publishing the data from the
raspberry pi. PubNub servers are used for sending data using the channels (Vujovic &
Maksimovic, 2015). The web or the mobile application is the main subscriber of the data. The
channel name and the subscription key is used for the verification and enabling the application to
retrieve the messages forwarded from the PubNub servers connected in the network. If there is a
requirement to control any of the home appliances connected in the network a command is
converted into JSON string to the Raspberry Pi (Khan et al., 2012). The channel name and the
subscription keys are embedded in the Raspberry Pi and thus a checking is used after receiving
of the published string for taking specified action. Monitoring and control of the devices
connected in the network is necessary it is done by setting the channel and subscription key for
the web or mobile application used for controlling the appliances.
3.2. Design Model
A design of the IoT smart home is required to be created in a simulator and tested
multiple times for identification of the errors that can be faced home automation. For the
preparation of the design Autocad can be used and the simulation can be done in Cisco Packet
tracer 7.0 and above for testing the functionality of the network. A layout of the floor plan of the
home is required to be created and different appliances and devices that would be included in the