A service-oriented ZigBee gateway for Smart Environments

In the recent past Smart Environments, and in particular Smart Homes, have attracted the attention of many researchers and industrial vendors. In such environments, according to the Ambient Intelligence paradigm, heterogeneous devices may operate collectively using context information and intelligence that is usually hidden in the home networks. The networks of ZigBee devices play an important role in this scenario. However they require an easier interaction model with IP-based networks. This work presents an open source platform that seamlessly integrates ZigBee devices with applications running on smart phones and other connected devices available at home. It can be deployed on low-cost devices, such as Plug-PC, and it exploits the OSGi execution environment to discover devices and to notify the smart home of new available services.