IP Based Home Automation System

Companies producing consumer products have begun working on ways to control their products over the IP (internet protocol). Multinational electronics firms are marking a fair share of their lines using technologies like the RF ID, a front end to the IP networks. The main feature that is achieved by the already-existing home automation systems is that, every piece of equipment integrated is to be controlled by a central unit. The proposed solutions based on this idea are relatively expensive and difficult to configure per each system environment. IP based systems are supposed to be simpler to be accessed and easier to manipulate, with the only necessity being, close proximity to a direct internet connection. With this in mind, we designed a low cost hardware/software framework based on a unit what we call the IPAcBox which allows home/industrial automation systems to be accessed and controlled through a direct internet connection right out of the box even in dynamic IP configurations. We have developed the software and hardware infrastructure necessary for this system. This research consists of designing the server and the client side software, the communication protocols and addressing some hardware issues, along with a proposal to further our studies.