Standards for wireless smart home technology need to be made more robust in order for the burgeoning sector to thrive, a consortium of operators and vendors have said.
The Home Gateway Initiative (HGI), a group of companies including Deutsche Telekom, Telecom Italia and Orange, has issued a set of guidelines for the wireless technologies that should be deployed in the smart home.
Excitement in the area is building with reports claiming Apple is set to announce its move into the smart home at its developers’ conference next week.
The HGI said there were a number of criteria, across security, performance, ease of use, configuration of devices and reliability that needed to be met for a healthy ecosystem of services to be produced. It warned the current model was much too diverse to work in the long term.
The document said: “The current status of wireless home area network technologies is hampering the development of the Smart Home market. The lack of a ubiquitous, plug and play wireless technology is a major barrier to mass-market adoption of Smart Home services.
“None of the operational entities, from service provider to user, can be sure which technology will become the de facto standard/market leader and so may be reluctant to choose or invest.”
In order for the services to catch on, the HGI said network providers need to work closer with device manufacturers in order to lay out robust specifications.
Duncan Bees, Chief Technology and Business Officer of HGI, commented: “It is already apparent that the use of wireless home area networks will expand with the advent of smart home services. These wireless technologies are key to enable energy management, home automation and many other applications.
“Yet, operators and manufacturers must select among many competing technologies. The new work from HGI helps companies to understand the requirements specifically needed by smart home applications. We see this as a first step in helping companies to select the right technology, and also as a step to assisting the technology development groups with improving their capabilities.
“We intend to work with many of the wireless home area network groups, in comparing their capabilities against these requirements, and converging on appropriate solutions for the industry.”