Design and Implementation of Home Network Protocol for Appliance Control Based on IEEE 802.15.4

Interest in a home network is increasing in accordance with enhancing functionalities of household-electric-appliances. A wireless communication standard, IEEE 802.15.4 attracts attention as a communication media of the home network. This paper proposes a network protocol based on IEEE 802.15.4, which is designed in consideration of requirements and features of the home network. This protocol provides appliance registration procedures by users’ simple operations. Moreover, authentication and encryption by using pre-shared secret information help to maintain network security. Experimental system has been implemented so as to confirm proper functions of the proposed protocol.