Perimeter-Based High Performance Home Security System

Homes of the future are expected to be "digital" homes wherein almost all aspects of a home could be controlled using advanced computer technology. One important component of the digital home is the home security system (HSS) that helps to monitor and control various elements related to home security. HSS may be classified into different types including passive systems (PS), phone based systems (PBS), web-based systems (WBS), and hardware-based systems (HBS), where each system differs in performance, controllability, security, and cost. For the success of an HSS the most important characteristics, or non-functional requirements, are performance and security - however, it is almost impossible to have both high security and high performance at the same time. In order to achieve both these non-functional requirements at the same time we adopted the concept of perimeter security from the fields of homeland security and network security to HSS wherein different areas of the house are divided into perimeters and each perimeter uses a different type of HSS to provide security. Preliminary results indicate that both high security and high performance can be achieved using the perimeter-based approach; however, this achievement comes at the cost of high price-tag for the development and maintenance of the system, and an increase in the overall complexity of the system.