Abstract :
Home automation is not a new concept. It has been around for a couple of decades in some form or other. Early commercial systems focused on the control of lighting, security, climate and appliances around the house. Adoption rates have hardly set the world alight, and the networks have tended to be quite sophisticated and, consequently, on the expensive side. While the industry is getting smarter about developing the wireless technologies and protocols needed (and thinking up innovative names for the options) it is clear that those at the cliff face of product and applications marketing face a major challenge in customer education. The battleground is set between the leading players in the home automation - chief among these are ZigBee and Z-Wave