ZUMA: A platform for smart-home environments the case for infrastructure

A wide range of disconnected communication networks is emerging in the home. Each has different functions and implementation architectures. The user experience as well as the overall functionality would be vastly enhanced if these networks could collaborate in a seamless fashion. Collaboration is challenging because it requires disparate devices and components to interoperate in a user friendly, scalable and upgradeable fashion. We conjecture that such cooperation might be most efficiently assured using a supporting infrastructure. The universal contents router (UCR) is introduced as an infrastructural component. The UCR moves the burden of connectivity away from the end devices to the system core. The paper spells out ZUMA, or functions that a UCR should support, discusses UCR architecture and presents a first-order prototype