Home automation system coordinator replacement with one-touch network recommissioning

The home automation systems (HASs) and products market has seen significant growth over the past decade. The current HAS architecture is based on a centralized network coordinator to form, manage, and supervise the network system. Each smart home device is typically manually on-boarded onto the network through the coordinator. If the network coordinator fails or a user wishes to change the technology provider, the HAS needs to be recommissioned. Recommissioning can be a tedious task, as it involves manual on-boarding of possibly a multitude of existing smart home devices onto the new network coordinator. This tight coupling between the devices and network coordinator is seen as a significant road-block for further expansion of the HAS market. Here, we present a HAS proxy that incorporates mechanisms to eliminate tight coupling between smart home devices and a centralized network coordinator. Our HAS proxy approach enables one-touch on-boarding of existing smart home devices onto any new network coordinator with devices being oblivious of the process rendering network recommissioning unnecessary. We evaluated the concept in a simulator for HAS along with our HAS proxy.