Secure Smart Homes using Jini and UIUC SESAME

In this paper, we discuss our approach to constructing a dynamic and secure “Smart Home” environment and tackling the challenges associated with it. “Tiny UIUC SESAME” is a lightweight Java-implementation of a subset of SESAME. SESAME is an extension to Kerberos that supports public key technologies, access control, and delegation of access rights. We discuss our Tiny UIUC SESAME and how it could be integrated with handheld and consumer devices. With the current advancements in computing power and network technology, the concept of fully automated “smart” homes is not far fetched. Jini technology from Sun Microsystems provides the necessary facilities for creating “network plug and play” devices, which when connected to a network, announce their presence and enable network users to exploit these devices remotely. Once all devices in a household are automated and connected through a network; authentication, security and access control become important and challenging issues to consider. Since Jini provides APIs, protocols, and conventions that handle the common parts of distributed devices, building a Smart Home environment with these tools is fairly straightforward. We have implemented such a dynamic “Smart Home” environment using Jini technology, securing the environment with our Tiny UIUC SESAME, our secure network authentication system.