A Survey of Recent Developments in Home M2M Networks

Recent years have witnessed the emergence of machine-to-machine (M2M) networks as an efficient means for providing automated communications among distributed devices. Automated M2M communications can offset the overhead costs of conventional operations, thus promoting their wider adoption in fixed and mobile platforms equipped with embedded processors and sensors/actuators. In this paper, we survey M2M technologies for applications such as healthcare, energy management and entertainment. In particular, we examine the typical architectures of home M2M networks and discuss the performance tradeoffs in existing designs. Our investigation covers quality of service, energy efficiency and security issues. Moreover, we review existing home networking projects to better understand the real-world applicability of these systems. This survey contributes to better understanding of the challenges in existing M2M networks and further shed new light on future research directions.