A Reference Architecture for Smart and Software-Defined Buildings

The vision encompassing Smart and Software-defined Buildings (SSDB) is becoming more popular and its implementation is now more accessible due to the widespread adoption of the Internet of Things (IoT) infrastructure. Some of the most important applications sustaining this vision are energy management, environmental comfort, safety and surveillance. This paper surveys IoT and SSB technologies and their cooperation towards the realization of smart spaces. We propose a four-layer reference architecture and we organize related concepts around it. This conceptual frame is useful to identify the current literature on the topic and to connect the dots into a coherent vision of the future of residential and commercial buildings.