A multi-storey building actuator and sensor system using 6L0WPAN based Internet of Things: Practical design and implementation

The development of IPv6 has enabled the idea of IP-based Internet of Things where the every embedded device connected to the Internet has its unique IPv6 address. 6LoWPAN is proposed and defined by Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) to be an adaption layer to apply IPv6 to the IEEE 802.15.4 standard, which allows direct access to control and monitor smart devices from over the world through Internet. 6LoWPAN-based Internet of Things technology is a scalable system which can help to lower expense and decrease the complexity of smart building monitoring and controlling system. This paper describes the design and implementation of a multi-storey building actuator and sensor system using 6LoWPAN-based Internet of Things. The system consists of low-power wireless building network based on 6LoWPAN using Contiki real-time operating system and COAP application protocol. The building HTTP-COAP proxy is implemented in gateway node provides an efficient data packet transferring which makes the system scalable and accessible to the world based on Ethernet or Wi-Fi Medium. A prototype smart building system has been implemented and evaluated in real multi-storey building environment which has the functions to monitor and control the electrical usage in the smart building. The testing results show that 6LoWPAN-based Internet of Things is a good solution for scalable actuator and sensor networks which can be applied not only multi-storey smart building but also for large scale smart city.