An Integration Gateway for Sensing Devices in Smart Environments

Smart Environments, and in particular Smart Homes, have recently gained the attention of many researchers and hardware vendors. An increasing number of sensing devices, whose price is rapidly decreasing, are available on the market. Although such devices are becoming familiar in Smart Homes, user acceptance is limited by the fragmentation of the market. Heterogeneous technologies do not integrate seamlessly into a Smart Home; rather, each vendor offers its private vertical solution. ZigBee and OSGi play a predominant role in this scenario. ZigBee offers a service-oriented approach for lowpower devices, with the unique feature of defining a variety of profiles that standardize the functionalities of several classes of device (e.g., home automation, health care, smart energy). OSGi offers a component-based execution platform facilitating the deployment and management of software units.