Flood transmission based protocol for home automation system via power line communication

Abstract

There are many researches and development involving the use of power line as data transmission medium. With multiple power outlets in almost every room in every house, the power line is the most pervasive network and the largest infrastructure available. The aim of this project is to deploy this infrastructure in designing a home automation system. This paper presents a method to develop a home automation system using the AC (alternating current) power line to establish a network between main controlling unit and client units with a proprietary designed power line communication (PLC) protocol. The designed protocol has features such as multinode simplex communication, flood transmission and even parity error detection. The protocol is successfully implemented and tested in a home automation system consisting of one main controlling unit and three client units. Each client unit is able to control three electrical devices. Multipoint of receiver units can be controlled (On / Off) by the main controller unit sending command data using power line as transmission medium to the corresponding devices.