Updated: mars 4, 2009

HomeSIP: building a smart Space with SIP Protocol

Welcome to the HomeSIP Project: Using the SIP Protocol for Home Automation and M2M

• Setup a sensor network and smart device environment based on SIP protocol for Home Automation and M2M
• Create new DSL languages for programming new SIP services for Home Automation and M2M
• Create a smart space at home!

A review "HomeSIP as a possible integration network" of the HomeSIP project by CNET Networks is available here!

• Synchronous Transfer: A current data is acquired by the user, for example retrieving the current state from a sensor. The user may want to perform an action, for example change the current state of an actuator. In pratical, a sensor may be a temperature sensor and a actuator a simple bulb. We must perform GET and PUT actions.
• Asynchronous Transfer: An alarm is sent asynchronously to the user when something is going wrong, for example a sensor is detecting a malfunction. We must collect ALARM events.

The SIP RFC offer the services. According to RFC3261, RFC3265 and RFC3428, we may use:

• The SIP MESSAGE message for GET and PUT actions. This message is originally used for Instant Messaging IM (RFC2428).
• The SIP SUBSCRIBE/NOTIFY messages for ALARM events. These messages are originally used for Event Notification (Presence Management) (RFC3265).

WHY SIP?

The SIP protocol meets all the requirements for accessing devices from the Internet and this enables re-use of the infrastructure that has been constructed for SIP in a whole new domain!

The SIP protocol offers:

• Support abstract addressing/naming. Devices behind the residential gateway/firewall/NAT may not be directly addressable, their addresses may not be known, they may be private IP addresses, or even non-IP addresses.
• Provide security: both authentication/authorization and privacy. There is a need to check access on a per operation per device basis when accessing devices in the home from the Internet. In addition, the contents of the messages, must be kept private.
• Support different communications mechanisms for devices:
  1. Media streaming: wieving webcams for remote monitoring.
  2. Control: turning on the heating.
  3. Queries: current temperature in the house.
  4. Asynchronous events or alarms: notify me when the security alarm goes on.
• Provide a flexible payload capability based on MIME types.
• Interwork with different in-home networking technologies: X.10, CAN bus, CPL. A hardware gateway is used for this.
• Provide support for the mobility of networked appliances.
• Reuse of an existing SIP infrastructure for a whole new set of services.

SIP vs SNMP:

The SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) offers the same capabilities than SIP for Home Automation:

• The SNMP GET message and SNMP PUT message.
• The SNMP TRAP message

But the SNMP protocol is not well suited for Home Automation:

• The SNMP protocol is complex (for example with the BER encoding).
• It is complexe to use. The SNMP agent extension is something complicated.
• The SNMP protocol is unsecure (with the most used version number 1).
• The SNMP User Agent has not a small memory footprint and is not well adapted for tiny embedded systems.
• These are no popular client applications. There's a lot with SIP!
• ...

SIP is also a better choice!

People

The homeSIP is a collaboration between:

• IMS Laboratory: Laboratory of Microelectronics
• LaBRI Laboratory: Laboratory of Computer Science
• ENSEIRB School of Electrical Engineering, Computer Science and Telecommunications

Involved people:

• Patrice Kadionik a.k.a. Pat. kadionik@enseirb.fr. Associate Professor ENSEIRB/IMS. Cosynux Group. Maintainer
• Charles Consel. Professor. ENSEIRB/LaBRI. Phoenix Group
• Laurent Réveillère. Associate professor. ENSEIRB/LaBRI. Phoenix Group

RFC for using SIP in Home Automation and M2M

At this time, these are no specific RFC for using SIP in Home Automation. We must refer to the general SIP RFC:

• RFC3261: SIP: Session Initiation Protocol
• RFC3265: Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)-Specific Event Notification
• RFC3428: Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) Extension for Instant Messaging
• IETF Working Group on SIP for Instant Messaging and Presence Leveraging Extensions (simple)

The Telcordia Technologies Laboratory has proposed in '00 to '02 to the IETF some drafts on this subject (not accepted!):

• Internet Draft: SIP Extensions for Communicating with Networked Appliances. November, 2000
• Internet Draft: Requirements for Networked Appliances: Wide-Area Access, Control, and Interworking. September, 2000
• Internet Draft: Framework Draft for Networked Appliances using the Session Initiation Protocol. June, 2001
• Internet Draft: Device Message Protocol (DMP): An XML based format for Wide Area Communication with Networked Appliances. November, 2000
• Proposition: SIP Extensions for Communicating with Networked Appliances SIP Extensions for Communicating with Networked Appliances by Flextronics

Documentation

• A report on HomeSIP in french language from a ENSEIRB's student. ENSEIRB, stage E2 2008
• A report on HomeSIP in french language from a SUP COM student. ENSEIRB, stage 2008
• A report on HomeSIP in french language from ENSEIRB's students. ENSEIRB, projets avancés E3 2007-2008
• A report on HomeSIP in french language from ENSEIRB's students. ENSEIRB, projets avancés E3 2006-2007
• A report on HomeSIP in french language from ENSEIRB's students. ENSEIRB, projets avancés E3 2005-2006

Papers

• Presentation: The HomeSIP Project: Using Open Source SIP Stack for Home Automation. P. Kadionik. FOSDEM: Free and Open Source Software Developers' European Meeting, Bruxelles, 24-25 february 2007. On-line version
• Presentation: Le projet HomeSIP : élaboration d’une plateforme domotique basée sur le protocole SIP. P. Kadionik. LSM: Libre Software meeting, Nancy, France, 4-8 July 2006
• Article: Le projet HomeSIP : la domotique avec le protocole SIP. P. Kadionik. Linux Magazine, Hors Série 25, avril-mai 2006
• Paper: Remote Controlling Devices Using Instant Messaging Building an Intelligent Gateway In Erlang/OTP. S. Aurell and al. IT University of Gothenburg

Hardware Requirements

The HomeSIP platform will used different SIP devices:

• Smart SIP devices: it is an embedded system based on a ARM9 processor with industrial bus connectivity : serial ports, I/O, I2C bus, CAN bus...
• SIP webcams.
• RFID tags.
• Sensors: temperature sensors, pressure sensors, humidity sensors... connected to a smart SIP device. iButtons is used for this for convenience
• Actuators: door lock trigger... connected to a smart SIP device.
• PDA for human interactions.
• Networking: Ethernet, Wireless and ZigBee well suited for Home Automation.

Software Requirements

Software requirements depends on our hardware devices:

• Smart Device:
  • Linux system for ARM target: purchased with the smart device.
  • SIP stack for ARM target with low memory footprint: oSIP/eXoSIP SIP stack.

Hardware Links

• Smart device:
  • ARM9 board
  • Reseller: Eukrea
• Temperature Sensor:
  • Dallas DS1920
  • Reseller: MAXIM
• Humidity Sensor:
  • Dallas DS1923
  • Reseller: MAXIM

Software Links

• Linux kernel: standard kernel
• SIP stack with low memory footprint: GNU oSIP stack. eXoSIP2 library (high level library based on oSIP)

Downloads

At this time, there's no downloads.

Similar Projects

• Telcordia Technologies: Networked Appliances Project. The basic idea is to introduce a new SIP message called "DO" for performing remote action by the SIP protocol

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