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The Z-Wave Ecosystem
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The vision of the "smart home" has been with us for many years, but mass-market acceptance of this idea has unfortunately lagged behind the technological promise. While there have been systems available that could automate and control residential electronics such as lighting, entertainment, security and HVAC, their cost and complexity have relegated them only to the most affluent consumers and custom home installations.
A solution meant for broad acceptance in the mass market would need to be different. It would have to be in step with today's technological, residential and market environments -- a convenient, energy-efficient, low-cost technology that finally makes the smart home practical. But what would such a technology be like?
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An Idealized Solution
In order to create a true mass-market for home controls, it would be necessary to have an accessible, low cost technology which would be easy to install and operate. This means a lightweight system, which from the end-user or installer point of view, would require minimal setup effort and no ongoing network management. The network itself would have to be self-organizing, ensuring error free communication, and in the case of malfunction, it should use self-healing mechanisms to re-establish reliable network connectivity.
Naturally, the ideal choice would be a wireless technology. This would eliminate much of the cost of a custom-installed home control system, and would allow a much greater number of end users and system integrators to take advantage of everything that home control can offer. The wireless technology would have to be based on RF, so that it could work seamlessly throughout the residence and its property. Since today's homes typically feature numerous wireless devices based on the popular 802.11 protocols (Wi-Fi), the ideal control technology would be impervious to interference from such systems, and offer no interference of its own.
To support a full home control system, such a technology would have to be designed to support a broad range of horizontal applications, so that different product types of products from various vendors could communicate with each other in an interoperable ecosystem. As an example, one vendor's motion sensor might trigger another's security system, which would trigger yet another's light switch, and so on.
In order to reach market-acceptable cost points, the RF platform would be highly integrated and manufactured via low cost processes. The associated software protocol would also need to be very lightweight.
From a product developer’s point of view, the development and manufacturing of products based on this technology would need to be simple. The physical modules would need to have a small form factor, for easy integration into new and existing home control products. Today, home control products are often developed and manufactured in low-wage countries to keep the cost to a minimum. It is therefore a significant schedule accelerator to be able to deliver the RF module as a pre-manufactured and pre-tested “component”.
One technology has met all these criteria and more -- Z-Wave®, the standard in wireless control. |
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