Designing your smart home – communication protocols

In an earlier post, we discussed smart home communication, and the different technologies involved. Prior to going out and spending a lot of money, to avoid a mess of cables, it is worth looking at what communication protocols you want to use.

The important thing to remember is that there is no right answer to which communications protocol to use. And you don’t have to stick to one. It is good to try to avoid having lots of different hubs if you can, but in some cases, it’s going to be inevitable. Much like the Apple/Google/Microsoft/Linux argument, it’s better to use the best thing for the job you want to do rather than stick to one brand or type.

Communication protocols are suited to different tasks. If you’re looking to design your smart home, I would recommend the following:

Zigbee/Z-Wave

Sensors (door, motion, temperature etc.). Light bulbs. Mains switches (plugs and/or sockets). Devices that only need to transmit short bursts of data and are battery powered.

Wifi

Cameras, smart plugs, video doorbells. Devices that need to send high bandwidth data, such as video, or are mains powered.

Bluetooth

Key tags, mobile devices. Devices that you tend to carry around with you.

RF

Try to avoid this where possible. If you must use RF, try to use devices that work with other brands.

Infrared

TV / set top box / sound system control. Devices where control of multiple devices with line of sight in the same location is desired.