Capability-based communication for green buildings and homes - A REST-like API within the conex.io project

Abstract

Within the Kyoto protocol and the Paris agreement the world’s countries have agreed to limit global warming to a maximum of 2°C. The European Union has passed directives to mitigate emissions from buildings, as around 36% of the EU’s total CO2 emissions stem from them. To implement these directives, the use of home automation systems can be a significant contribution installed in existing, even renovated households. Looking to the global home automation market it becomes clear that none of the available vendors/solutions can cover a sufficient end-user scenario alone. And even with a multitude of technologies the integration of different systems is a tedious work as most of the systems are technically incompatible to each other. Tackling this challenge with open source software promises an easier integration but usually comes along with issues of heterogenic command syntaxes and parameter sets. This paper outlines a REST-like API and an abstraction mechanism, enabling user-interfaces and front-ends to communicate with smart home systems based on capabilities instead of protocols and technologies. The API decouples front-ends from specific smart home technologies and allows for a seamless integration of new protocols without touching the code of a front-end again.