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sMart hoMEs and
buildings
Abstract
Our homes and corporate buildings are becoming increasingly
digital environments with the constant accumulation of a grow-
ing array of specific as well as generic devices and displays.
Consumer and office electronics such as tablets, smart phones,
TVs, laptops, printers and scanners, coffee-making machines,
toasters, ovens, robots, audio and video systems, and games con-
soles are ensuring news ways and means through which con-
sumers and knowledge workers compute and communicate,
entertain, educate and enable themselves, and so on. Devices are
consistently empowered through a host of pioneering technolo-
gies, tools, and tips to devise new situation-aware and people-
centric services to be intimately and intensively relevant for
users. e individual as well as collective operation of all kinds
of machines, instruments, wares, equipment, electronics, appli-
ances, and so on is another option gaining popularity these
days. e remote access of these gizmos and gadgets anytime
from anywhere is growing day by day for a variety of purposes.
Not only distant connectivity but also empowering devices to
sync with one another in the vicinity on an as-needed basis to
implement and incorporate path-breaking capabilities and com-
petencies is gaining momentum. Devices are being empowered
internally as well as externally to find, bind, and talk with one
another with continued success in formulating and firming up
versatile technologies for device integration and orchestration.
Establishing and embodying policies onto device middleware
is another overwhelming proposition to enhance the device
power substantially. Cloud connectivity is being mandated, as
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most of the device-specific services being developed by inspired
developers are deposited in cloud platforms to be readily sub-
scribed to by worldwide users. In addition, cloud infrastructures
are being optimized ceaselessly to be deployed in a distributed
manner, extremely elastic, managed centrally, accessed pub-
licly, consumed as a service, streamlined through automation
solutions, and simplified smartly to position them as the next-
generation IT infrastructure for all kinds of IT platforms, pro-
fessional and personal data, applications, and services. In this
chapter, we discuss the various technologies and their implica-
tions in setting up advanced homes and buildings that in turn
contribute to the realization of smarter cities.
8.1 Introduction
On multiple fronts, there are inescapable trends pointing toward
the urgent need for establishing and sustaining technology-inspired,
process-centric, service-oriented, cloud-enabled, event-driven, and
policy-based smart cities. e highly visible trend is that the urban
population is burgeoning for different reasons. It is estimated that
more than 6.3 billion people (that is, 60% of the total world popula-
tion) will be living in cities by 2050 [1]. An aging population espe-
cially in developed countries, overcrowded cities, traffic congestions,
human crimes, air contamination, administration lacunae, crum-
bling public infrastructures, the continued dwindling of energy sup-
ply, natural and man-made disasters, and so on are the main pain
points of worldwide cities. ese unwanted developments have put
severe stress and led to a series of significant ramifications on cities
across the world. City infrastructures (physical, social, cyber, etc.)
predominantly are bound to totter and tumble by bursting at their
seams.
Governments, city planners and officials, IT product vendors, sys-
tem integrators, and cloud service providers (CSPs) need to precisely
focus on timely understanding and correcting all kinds of infrastruc-
tural limitations. However, as cities are becoming extremely compli-
cated systems, the formulation of an appropriate strategy is the main
task to start with. Unfortunately cities are turning out to be a very
complex system of systems in a number of areas:
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• Food—world hunger, safety, traceability, distribution, pilferage,
and wastage
• Cloths—fashion, protection, supply chain management, retails,
and online-to-offline commerce (O2O)
• Living—cover/protection, comfort, safe, security, costs, and
maintenance
• Traffic—safety, convenience, congestions, costs, economy,
and pollution
• Education—quality, equality, continual education, efficiency,
effectiveness, learning models, and so on
• Entertainment—information and communication technology
(ICT)-enabled games, digital convergence, music, distribu-
tions and cultural events
• Healthcare and wellness
e unprecedented growth of urban populations, catastrophic global
warming, and resource limitations are putting immense pressure on
all stakeholders to focus more intently on both sides: supply as well
as demand. at is, on one hand, efforts are underway collaboratively
on how to increase resource generation whereas on the other hand,
professionals are exploring workable ways and means to conserve
resource usage. Resource efficiency is a serious topic on which there
are deliberations and discourses aplenty these days. Optimized usage
of scarce resources is therefore being insisted on everywhere for future
generations to be able to live on the dwindling amount of various life-
critical resources. Water is one such critical entity; in addition, fuels
need to be preserved, food production has to be substantially enhanced
through revolutionary scientific solutions, transportation facilities need
to be in place to take care of increasing demands, various connectivity
and cyber infrastructures need to be remarkably enhanced considering
population growth, and so on.
Precisely speaking, cities ought to be IT-enabled to meet theafore -
mentioned requirements. IT already has proven to be a strategic con-
tributor to worldwide businesses. Now IT is more attuned to bringing
in relevant enablement and efficiency in all the spheres that are directly
or indirectly linked with the general population. at is, every facet of
human living is being empowered by the stream of wonderful advance-
ments in the IT industry. For cities to be smart in their operations,
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offerings, and outputs, IT is being greatly recommended for achiev-
ing the desired results. ere are several product vendors consciously
working out in bringing forth competent IT products, platforms, and
tools toward the quicker and risk-free facilitation of smarter cities.
at is, the critical involvement of miniaturization, connectivity, ser-
vice enablement, sensing, perception, vision, knowledge engineering,
visualization, and actuation technologies in shaping the desired goals
for the faster realization of smarter cities is growing.
Smart buildings and homes form a substantial part of smart cities.
In this chapter, we emphasize the powerful technologies, tools, and
tips for building smarter homes and offices from the ground up. ere
are approaches and solutions enabling transformation of traditional
homes into smart environments. e cloud idea also gets special
attention in this chapter, as in the future, cloud-based applications
and data will be orchestrated in an automated manner to understand
perfectly people’s situational requirements and fulfill them.
8.2 Elucidating Technological Advancements
Trendsetting computing, communication, and context-awareness(via
ubiquitous and real-time sensing, vision, perception, knowledge engi-
neering, decision making, and actuation techniques) technologies
are forthcoming. ere is a series of noteworthy innovations, con-
solidations, optimizations, and simplifications in the field of infor-
mation technology (IT) to continuously and reliably cope with the
ever-changing needs of businesses and society. at is, through a
variety of converged, virtualized, federated, shared, and automated
IT infrastructures (computing nodes, network components, storage
arrays, and appliances), there is a solid and substantial renaissance in
IT these days. ese envisioned and delightful transformations bring
paradigm shifts on multiple fronts for all kinds of shareholders and
ultimately for end-users.
e way software systems are being developed, deployed, deliv-
ered, and decommissioned is all set to enter a new captivating and
capitalizing era of online, off-premise, and on-demand paradigm.
Further, massive volumes of multistructured data from all kinds
of disparate, distributed, and digitalized entities and elements are
being systematically captured, cleansed, and stocked in local or/and
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remote software-defined storages. Increasingly powerful applications
and services are being written to process the resulting data tsunami
to extract actionable insights in real time. Next-gen software solu-
tions and services are being taken to the greatly optimized IT infra-
structures (clouds) to reap the originally envisaged benefits of cloud
computing. e Internet has turned out to be the public, worldwide,
open, and affordable communication infrastructure. at is, anytime
anywhere, any device, any network access and leverage of personal as
well as professional applications, services, and data are seeing a neat
and attractive reality with the unprecedented adoption of proven and
promising technologies.
Processes too are going through a number of striking transforma-
tions so that we can have integrated yet lean processes for business and
IT applications. e lingering concept of service orientation has taken
the whole IT industry through a storm and the result in the enter-
prise computing arena is truly momentous and mesmerizing. Another
conspicuous trend is the emergence of newer and nimbler disruptive,
transformative, and imaginative automation elements in the form of
elegant and endearing devices, slim and sleek sensors, multifaceted
actuators, versatile robots, intuitive displays, and so on. e device
ecosystem is fast enlarging as miniaturization and instrumentation
technologies are fast maturing and stabilizing. With the availability
of extreme and deeper connectivity technologies, everyday devices are
becoming interconnected to be intelligent in their actions and reac-
tions. Generic and purpose-specific devices are being produced in
massive volumes to be made available widely and affordably.
Further, the onset of service-enablement and edge technologies has
resulted in a tremendous amount of digitalized, smart, and sentient
objects. at is, every common, casual, and even cheap thing in our
everyday environments is being meticulously digitalized to partici-
pate seamlessly and smartly in mainstream computing. All sorts of
mechanical, electrical, and electronics are instrumented and intercon-
nected to be smart in their operations, offerings, and outputs. ere
is a positive buzz on purposeful, real-time, and ad hoc interactions of
disparate and geographically distributed gadgets and gizmos to craft
smarter environments for different industry segments. Several types
of semantic and sensitive networks are unfolding as enumerated in
the following list based on the distinct ranges of network coverage.
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