Jini Home Networking: A Step toward Pervasive Computing

I nternetworking services have come a long way since their inception in basic communication between two homogeneous computers located not far from each other. Today, intelligent devices can interact with each other anytime and anywhere in the world. Recent advances in technology—especially in wireless communication—have fueled the market for such devices. At the same time, decreasing processor costs and size let engineers endow ever more devices with application-specific processing power. These trends are moving toward the vision of pervasive computing. Home networks represent a step along this path. As the name suggests, a home network interconnects various electronic devices within a house. In cases where the home network connects to a broadband local loop, it can also make these devices accessible over the Internet, opening the door to new applications that rely on remote network administration. The requirements that drive a home network differ from those for an enterprise network. For one thing, a home network must handle interference from household appliances such as microwave ovens and cordless phones. Second, given the lack of system administrators in the home, the network must operate with little or no user intervention. At the same time, it must meet the challenge of structure and usage variances among in-home devices. Current devices vary greatly from each other and from one household to another with respect to models, make, and quantity. Their purposes range from washing clothes to controlling room humidity. A home network allows all such appliances to communicate with one another. Thus, it needs a technology that can seamlessly integrate assorted devices into a monolithic communication network.