Author: Thinagaran Perumal
Home application developers depend on middleware to develop solutions that can be implemented across multiple systems, amortizing the implementation cost of different systems integration. Home technology companies and vendors benefit by having functionality to install advanced appliances, knowing that those appliances will be seamlessly connected with middleware. Finally, middleware brings digital home to greater heights towards faster deployment, high scalability, realize interoperation among systems and provide multiple alternatives than relying on single proprietary technology.
Home Sweet Digital Home
Digital technologies penetration into home is growing rapidly. The digital home era is here and slowly morphing from legacy systems towards fully unified digital entity. While each digital home service provides unique features and capabilities, they all require the use of Internet and sharing of data, voice and video among home appliances. Several value-added services in digital homes are enabled with the arrival of high speed Internet access. Taking cost into consideration, an ideal home would deploy single access point to the Internet; therefore there is need for a solution that will be essential for application providers to deploy multiple services using Internet. This solution or standardized procedure is known as middleware.
In digital home scenario, middleware technology refers to a layer of software that lies on top of a home devices or appliances operating system. Middleware provide the opportunities in facilitating rapid development, increasing scalability of a systems and integration of services in digital homes. It bundles hardware and software into a single solution and provides transparent interaction between home systems and databases, enables unified user interfaces, reduce infrastructure requirements and allows multiple services become easier to manage. In a typical digital home, there could be number of home devices and appliances, which allow the physical interconnection of multiple systems and services. Home systems and services are inevitably supplied by different manufacturers and use a wide range of different protocols and standards for communication. The home systems and services must be interconnected seamlessly in a consistent platform. This is one of the main functions of middleware technology. Figure 1 below shows the integration of middleware with various digital home services.
