Abstract

Smart Homes are one of the modern wonders of the Internet of Things. They let people control their homes through a centralized point with efficiency and effectiveness. This analysis report is about the previously submitted plan of development and installation of a smart home automation system as per the requirements of the client. This report identifies further studies such as the analysis method and approaches for achieving the aims and objectives of the project. A detailed discussion regarding the possible challenges faced by the working team and recommendation for the further studies related to the different aspects of the smart home plan is also a part of this analysis report.

Introduction

The Internet is one of the most popular media of all time for communication and sharing of information and ideas. People have been communicating with devices, but the rise of the internet has given a medium of communication that is based on the remote control (Reddy et al., 2010). This remotely controlled communication has developed internet of things (IoT). IoT has multiple services and benefits. A Smart home is one of them. The trend in global IoT is the launching of multiple products and services related to smart homes. But the use and application of smart home worldwide are slower than it should be (Shin, Park & Lee, 2018).

The main reason behind this slow acceptance of the smart home is security. The application of the security in IoT services and products is the one that has barriers the worldwide acceptance of smart homes as the energy efficient, centrally controlled homes. In order to better understand the security, the risk analysis especially the one associated with the users and other stakeholders such as the misuse of information requires secured integration of the overall system in smart home automation (Jacobsson, Boldt & Carlsson, 2016).

This project is about successful development and application of a smart home automation system. This particular part of the report analyzes and discuss the possible methodology and devices that can be used or adopted in the smart home system. This report will also try to resolve any problem related to the security and any other constraints discussed and described by the client and other stakeholders of this project.

Client Requirements and Constraints

In order to complete a project, meetings between clients and service providers are necessary. These meetings provide an understanding of the requirements and constraints of the client (Sharma, 2013). In order to install the smart home automated system a total of four meetings are required with or without the client.

The first meeting will be with the client in order to understand his or her requirements. Requirements such as how many systems he wants to be automated. Are they want them to be centrally controlled? Or not. Should they be wireless or wire-based and what is their budget. The second meeting will be with the team members of the project. This meeting will highlight the problem statement need of the client and how it can be achieved. The third meeting will be the final meeting with the client it will revolve around the discussion of risks and threats and negotiation if required. The fourth and the last meeting will be held between team members in order to plan different phase of the project.

In terms of customer requirement, the three main technical requirements by the client and their impact on the project work is as follows:

Requirement	Description	Priority	Impact on Work
Compatibility of Devices	The device must be compatible with each other and other major products available in the market.	Very High	Have to buy products of the same brand and same vendor to ensure the compatibility
Easily Controllable	The system should be easily controllable, with central remote or with a smartphone app	High	Need to design a custom program while using API of devices used
Security and Strength	The devices should be strong enough against any damage as well as against any technological breach	Very High	Does not impact so much as the security and strength have already been considered in previous requirements

Stakeholder Perspectives

Other stakeholders in this project are neighbors, team workers, vendors form the products will be purchased. Their perspective also matters besides the client (Cekic, Surlan & Kosic, 2017). The two main stakeholders besides the client are the worker and the vendor or the supplier. The workers want an easy job that does not require them to do plenty of work, especially in terms of compatibility adjustment. The need devices to be integrated into the system that is more of “plug and play” type. But at the same time, they do not want to lose their trust by leaving any loophole in the security. On the other hand, suppliers need a good revenue and they have to provide the latest and most compatible option for the devices.

 A summary of views of other stakeholders on the requirements of the client are as follows

Client Requirement	Worker View	Vendor View
Compatibility of Devices	Will feel bad because they have to search and locate devices with compatibility	View this as a revenue generator option, because the same brand devices will be purchased.
Easily Controllable	Have to develop a system of integration	Need to provide the latest models of devices
Security and Strength	Have to provide security, double check each thing. Helpful in getting recommendations.	Provide high-quality devices making more profit for them

Analysis

The main aim and objective of the smart home are to identify the daily activities of the user and then assist him or her by predicting on the behavior of the pattern (Rashidi & Cook, 2009). The second most important requirement of a smart home is the ability and capability of learning and understanding the client’s behavior in order to adopt those identified daily activities of the user (Vainio, Valtonen & Vanhala, 2008).

In order to achieve success, the most important step is to analyze the problem successfully. Several approaches have been so far adopted to analyze the smart home users. To analyze a smart home system there are three main approaches, risk-analysis approach, security-based approach, and privacy-based approach.

Risk-Analysis Approach

Since the basis of any smart home system is the internet, the best method to analyses a smart home system is through the risk-analysis based approach. Denning with his fellows (2013), provided the method to handle the risks. The method was identified using security and privacy of the IoT of smart home devices.

Security-Based Approach

The second method of analysis of a smart home is a security-based approach. The investigation and identification of network-based attack in the smart home system is commonly used as the security-based approach for smart home analysis (Babar et al., 2011).

Privacy-Based Approach

The third method of smart home analysis is the privacy-based approach. In this approach, the privacy of the information and data collected by smart home appliances is measured. Analysis of user content, limit of information collected and the openness of the system are usually analyzed in this approach (Weber, 2011)

The method used in this plan will be the security-based approach. The main reason for the adoption of this approach is the client’s requirement. Another reason for the selection is that the planned smart home system will be centrally controlled by a mobile app. And the need for advance and secured mobile application is on go sue too the popularity and increasing functionality of mobile phones (Das et al., 2011).

 

Figure1: Flow Chart of Smart Home Client and Server Security Model

Modeling of the System

There are two main processes in a smart home system as discussed earlier. Awareness, this is the vision, and the AI or artificial intelligence. The awareness part of the system is based on the computer vision. Sensors and camera, are usually the one in a smart home system that identifies and monitors the client activity. These are the ones that perform analysis of the user behavior for further adoption by the artificial intelligence (Gu, Pung & Zhang, 2005).

Artificial intelligence, on the other hand, is designed for developing intelligent objects that can take care of the future. Thought, behavior, reasoning, and rationality are the ones that are concerned with artificial intelligence (Russell, Norvig & Davis, 2010). AI and machine learning algorithms along with techniques of data mining are the ones that are used to analyze and model the behavior of the user. These techniques and methods used are Markov Chain, Multiagent System, Bayesian Method, Fuzzy Logic, Statistical Inferential Algorithm and Artificial Neural Networks (Rashidi & Cook, 2009).

Discussion

The main aim and objective of this plan are to identify and develop a smart home automation system. As per the requirements and constraints of the client, the system must be highly secure, with compatible devices and products. These devices must be centrally controlled. And should be based on wireless networking framework. One of the main features of this smart home system is that it should be both energy and cost efficient so the devices used in this system must be “plug and play” and do not require so much training for handling them. The major impact of consideration for this smart home automation system are the privacy of the whole system, the secure authorization mechanism, secured wi-fi network, security and privacy of the information collected by the sensors, proper and compatible hardware installation, customer satisfaction and trust along with the adaptation of best standard and practices.

Major Challenges Identified

The key challenges that are identified by the team are as follows:

• Unavailability of open smart home architecture: since there is no proper open smart home architecture available that can allow developers to make the compatible device, therefore the need of standardized architectural platform as proposed by Mihaylov et.al, (2015) and Xu et.al, (2016) is crucial.
• User privacy: the second most important challenge that the team has to face is the privacy of the user. The privacy of the user is required to be protected at any cost and at any terms. The network and wi-fi framework of the smart home system must be safe enough and must ensure the privacy and confidentially of the user’s information (Chan et.al., 2008). The system must also be capable of restricting unauthorized access of data by any third party since the access to the personal data is both ethical and illegal and may result in negative outcomes.
• Compatibility and Friendliness: the third challenge is the friendliness and compatibility of the smart home system. Since everybody is not prone to technological advancement and it is also one of the key requirements made by the client, hence like all other smart home automation system out there, this smart home system must be user-friendly in terms of client’s usage and adaptation of the user’s behavior at its own. No programming should be required by the user to handle the system.

Further Studies

The technical area that needs to be further studied by the worker team are as follows:

• Sensors and Cameras: Sensors and cameras are the basic building g blocks of a smart home automation system. Any uncertainty in either of them may result in a fatal error in the information gathered by them (Zhu et al., 2015) and may result in economic and security risk.
• Data Security and Integration: The data and information gathered using cameras and sensor are further processed by AI, usually the AI models of smart home are not capable f integrating and securing these large amounts of data. Since the smart home is also a part of IoT, therefore, special considerations must be given to data integration and security by properly studying them.

References

Babar, S., Stango, A., Prasad, N., Sen, J., & Prasad, R. (2011). Proposed embedded security framework for Internet of Things (IoT).  2011 2Nd International Conference On Wireless Communication, Vehicular Technology, Information Theory And Aerospace & Electronic Systems Technology (Wireless VITAE) .

Cekic, Z., Surlan, N., & Kosic, T. (2017). Value Perspective of Project Stakeholders.  IOP Conference Series: Materials Science And Engineering ,  262 , 012078.

Chan, M., Estève, D., Escriba, C., & Campo, E. (2008). A review of smart homes—Present state and future challenges.  Computer Methods And Programs In Biomedicine ,  91 (1), 55-81.

Das, S., Chita, S., Peterson, N., Shirazi, B., & Bhadkamkar, M. (2011). Home automation and security for mobile devices.  2011 IEEE International Conference On Pervasive Computing And Communications Workshops (PERCOM Workshops) .

Denning, T., Kohno, T., & Levy, H. (2013). Computer security and the modern home.  Communications Of The ACM ,  56 (1), 94.

Gu, T., Pung, H., & Zhang, D. (2005). A service‐oriented middleware for building context‐aware services.  Journal Of Network And Computer Applications ,  28 (1), 1-18.

Jacobsson, A., Boldt, M., & Carlsson, B. (2016). A risk analysis of a smart home automation system.  Future Generation Computer Systems ,  56 , 719-733.

Mihaylov, M., Mihovska, A., Kyriazakos, S., & Prasad, R. (2015). Interoperable eHealth platform for personalized smart services.  2015 IEEE International Conference On Communication Workshop (ICCW) .

Rashidi, P., & Cook, D. (2009). Keeping the Resident in the Loop: Adapting the Smart Home to the User.  IEEE Transactions On Systems, Man, And Cybernetics – Part A: Systems And Humans ,  39 (5), 949-959.

Reddy, P., Filsoof, K., Hakki, Y., Thompson, K., & Kubanski, M. (2010).  Proposal for a Smart House with Power Line Communication Network . Simon Fraser University.

Russell, S., Norvig, P., & Davis, E. (2010).  Artificial intelligence . Upper Saddle River [etc.]: Prentice Hall.

Sharma, G. (2013). 7 Best Practices For Building Client Relationships. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/gaurisharma/2013/10/04/7-best-practices-for-building-client-relationships

Shin, J., Park, Y., & Lee, D. (2018). Who will be smart home users? An analysis of adoption and diffusion of smart homes.  Technological Forecasting And Social Change ,  134 , 246-253.

Vainio, A., Valtonen, M., & Vanhala, J. (2008). Proactive Fuzzy Control and Adaptation Methods for Smart Homes.  IEEE Intelligent Systems ,  23 (2), 42-49.

Weber, R. (2011). Accountability in the Internet of Things.  Computer Law & Security Review ,  27 (2), 133-138.

Xu, K., Wang, X., Wei, W., Song, H., & Mao, B. (2016). Toward software defined smart home.  IEEE Communications Magazine ,  54 (5), 116-122.

Zhu, N., Diethe, T., Camplani, M., Tao, L., Burrows, A., & Twomey, N. et al. (2015). Bridging e-Health and the Internet of Things: The SPHERE Project.  IEEE Intelligent Systems ,  30 (4), 39-46.