EIB remote control through applets and mobile phones

C. Fernndez-Valdivielso, E. Daems, A. Pomares* and I.R. Matas Dept. Ingeniera Elctrica y Electrnica Universidad Pblica de Navarra 31006-Pamplona (Spain) carlos.fernandez@unavarra.es Tel: 34 948 169 841 Fax: 34 948 169 720 *Universitas Miguel Hernndez 03202-Elche, Alicante (Spain)

Abstract.
The Public University of Navarra has been busy in the domain of Home Automation for many years. Home Automation Systems are taught as one of the subjects within the degree of the Telecommunication Engineer. Also, a laboratory with several Home Automation Systems is set up for use in education and research at the university [1]. And recently, a set of new software tools is developed at the university. The software is the new convergence between the Internet and EIB and the different parts are grouped under the name Domotica Online Tools or dot in short. The dot package is still moving, while further research is now being done in the universitys laboratories to add new and innovatory applications.

1.- Introduction.
The concept of this work is to give an overview of the possibilities of Home and Building Automation Systems. This leads to a short description of bus systems with the European Installation Bus (EIB ) as a model. In this system, different kind of modules, actuators and sensors, can be connected with the Installation Bus. Furthermore, this system has the ability of using a Personal Computer to access the Home Automation System and to program the home with special software: ETS (EIB Tool Software). ETS is a Graphical Interface to organize and control a complete system of modules. It runs on a computer connected to the bus through a Bus Coupling Unit (BCU). The main goal of this unit is to connect the PC to the bus and let it take part in the communication among installed modules. Nowadays, EIBA (the EIB Association) has detected the need for controlling an EIB installation from a remote location, outside the building itself. They examined and developed a new application program, called iETS, which satisfies this new need. In the name iETS, the i stands for Internet. The tool is based on a client/server model and uses a TCP/IP connection. The iETS Server is installed in the building to be controlled, and connected both to the bus and to the Internet. At the other side of the Internet connection we find the iETS

Client who is responsible for the programming, and is mainly installed by the provider of the Home and Building Automation System. More and more EIB Customers are feeling the need to control their house even when they are away. Since the iETS Client should be installed and customized on the remote PC this is not useful for simple applications like changes of some parameters in the system, as switching off the heating. This work is intended to build a Java based application that can be loaded and executed on every computer with Internet access all over the world. The newly designed application will be given the name j-dot, short for JavaDomotica Online Tools. It works basically as the iETS Client/Server pair.

2.- Open System Interconnection Layers.

First of all, this work must be located into the Open System Interconnection (OSI) Tower. Several parts compose this application, and each part must be understood separately, as will be explained further on. Figure 1 shows each part, the links between all of them and the relationship with the OSI layers.

Figure 1.- OSI layers for j-dot and m-dot. The home j-dot server is located in the EIB Installation building and is connected to the system trough the RS-232. This part will translate all the orders from the user (coming from Internet services) to EIB telegrams. As figure 1 shows, this communication takes place in the first two layers of the OSI Tower.

The part named browser machine is the machine (computer) where the user is located to make the remote control of his installation. From this point, the user must load the j-dot.class applet from another server. In figure 1, this server is named EIB Installer web server and it could be property of a company founded to install and maintain EIB systems for its clientele. The EIB installer web server can store a set of Plan Description Files (configuration files) for each possible customer in a database. So, the user must load the j-dot.class applet from a remote server (i.e. EIB installer web server). Once the user has loaded this software, he must connect his browser machine to the home j-dot server (connected by RS-232 to the EIB system) to make the remote control over the EIB installation. All these communications between machines and servers are done by HTML, HTTP, TCP and IP. In next points of this work, the main parts of j-dot are explained, and also its main applications as the remote control through cellular phones with WAP applications or the SMS-dot.

3.- The dot Server.

The server application is the main part of dot, providing a gateway between Internet communication, including all its services, and EIB telegrams (Figure 2). The server is connected to the EIB bus through the serial port, the RS-232. A client application can request a communication using the TCP/IP protocol. The server accepts this connection on a given TCP port. Once the connection, i.e. the socket client/server, is created, the server forwards all telegrams received on its serial port to the client. The client application is also able to send data to the server, which then creates the telegrams and puts them on the Installation Bus. This arrangement allows a large number of applications for remote control over and notification of the state of EIB devices.

Figure 2.- dot: Gateway between Internet communication and EIB telegrams

3.- Java-dot
A Java Applet is also included in the dot package. This j-dot (Java-dot) Applet provides an easy-to-use Graphical User Interface (Figure 3) that loads itself in every Java enabled Internet browser. The j-dot Applet has to be downloaded, together with a web page, from its physical location, a web server. This web server can either be the same host as the dot server or it can be another host. For example, this other host could be a server owned by the installer of the EIB system. This configuration is extremely useful to build up a remote service for its customers. The EIB installers web server then locates the j-dot Applet together with a set of personal configuration files for each one of its customers. These configuration files are written in the Plan Markup Language (PML), as will be explained further on. The same configuration could be used in the computer center of a campus with an EIB system in every building. Here again a set of configuration files is maintained for every employee or inhabitant of that campus.

Figure 3: Graphical User Interface The j-dot Applet loads and starts inside the browser window, when the user has requested the dot web page by typing in the Internet location (URL) or by clicking some hyperlink. Inside the Graphical User Interface of j-dot, the user gets an intuitive plane view of the building he wants to control. Inside the plan area, rooms and devices are represented. With only a couple of mouse clicks one can wander through the rooms and operate every component connected to the EIB. When clicking the device icon in the plan area, a small window pops up. This window lets the user choose between some operations for the specific device. The buttons on the devices pop-up window represent the possible operations. The users might want to create new devices. A set of templates makes this task easier. Templates are available for a simple switch, with two operations on and off, for a dimmer, with a set value operation, for a heating system, with operations as temperature setting, switching between day and night and defrost protection, and for many other devices that can be connected to the EIB.

The j-dot Applet should not only be used for individual adjustments, as it incorporates userfriendly Functions. These Functions are a collection of various tasks brought together in a single j-dot device icon. Clicking this icon will execute all the operations, i.e. construct various telegrams to be sent on the Installation Bus in the same instruction. A possible Function would be coming home where the user can switch on the outdoor light, start the heating system on 18C and open the blinds in the living room with a single mouse click. The user is able to configure these Functions without having to change any EIB group addresses put by the installer. As j-dot is written as an applet, using j-dot is as easy as surfing on the World Wide Web (WWW).

4.- Mobile-dot
One not always has a PC with browser application on his disposal. So, this work tries to use other communication devices to connect the EIB Installation Bus and the final user. A mobile or cellular phone is the most convenient solution and also included in the dot software package. The m-dot (short for Mobile-dot) is a set of Java Servlets responding to Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) [2]. Figure 4 shows the m-dot icon.

Figure 4: m-dot icon A Java Servlet is a small Java application executed on the web server when the corresponding page is loaded [3]. It is supposed to create and respond with a valid page. Many Servlets are created to respond with HTML pages. In mobile communications with cellular phones, Wireless Markup Language (WML) is the language used to portray information on a mobile phone, so m-dot creates Servlets to respond with WML pages. The mobile phone requests a first WML deck from the server, in which the information about the building is included.

Information can be ordered in a hierarchical way, using a Plan with Rooms, Devices and Functions as will be explained when talking about the Plan Markup Language. After going through the Plan and Rooms, the user makes his choice from the devices and Functions proposed by m-dot. Every choice contains a hyperlink, so when selecting it, a new request is sent to the server. The m-dot Servlet then generates the appropriate telegram, and sends it on the bus. After receiving the acknowledgement from the EIB device, a new WML deck is sent to the users mobile phone, giving information about the current state of the device. The m-dot can be used both to view the current state of some devices and to control and alter this state. It allows the user to control its installation from every place as easy as use a cellular phone. The only restriction is on the cellular phone: it must support wap applications.

5.- Email and SMS-dot

The j-dot and m-dot applications are useful for user interaction towards the home. In both cases, the communication is in only one direction: from user to installation. The user can, whenever he wants, connect to the Installation Bus and check the state of his equipment. He can even change this state using individual adjustments or Functions. This is the case for lighting, heating, and many other systems. But, in case of alarms, j-dot and m-dot do not work, as they only communicate the user to the installation. To provide a solution for the communications in the other direction, from installation to the user, another x-dot has been created: e-dot. With e-dot, the dot server will contact the user in case of an emergency. The dot server generates an alarm message, e-mail or SMS, and sends it. For every device, the user can define a set of email addresses to be notified when the devices state changes. The e-dot application will continuously follow the state of these devices. When a telegram is detected on the EIB Bus, changing the state of this device, a warning message is sent to the user. Default messages exist, but every message can be edited separately to contain plain text, SMS, HTML, voice or any MIME type [4].

6.- Plan Markup Language

The Plan Markup Language (PML) is used to make user configuration files. These files allow different users to use the dot applications simultaneously. Every user uses its own configuration of the devices he wants to control in the building. The PML even provides the possibility to draft user groups with security levels in the multi-user environment of dot. The PML is constructed as an extension of XML [5]. The user can configure a new EIB device for use in the dot applications. The creation of Functions is also done with the PML language.

For every user a separate PML file can contain a Plan hierarchy. This hierarchy consists of Rooms, and a set of devices and Functions in every room. This Plan hierarchy is used in the jdot and m-dot applications to navigate to the right device in the building. The PML files can also contain some extra information about the graphical representation of Rooms and devices in a j-dot Applet. Due to this hierarchy, the graphical environment and the navigation through the application is friendly and very intuitive to the final user.

7.- Other dot applications

At this moment the possibilities of the dot server are extended with new applications. One of these is the communication between two dot servers, so EIB telegrams can be tunnelled through the Internet to another EIB system. While the major part of dot is written in Java code, many of the objects can be reused. Therefore these object classes are all included into a package named unavarra.dot.

8.- Conclusion
This work helps the final user to have a remote control of an EIB Installation. Using Internet tools, as Java Applets, the final user can modify and control his installation in a remote way. No special software is needed, the user just must have Internet access or also a cellular phone with WAP applications. This application has been developed in a server and, of course, the EIB installation must be connected to a personal computer through RS-232. This installation computer must have Internet access, providing the installation control. Different users of this application can create different profiles for them. So each user can have his own profile and his own access to his installation. All the application has been successfully tested in the laboratory of Domotica at the Public University of Navarra.

Acknowledgments.
The authors would like to thank I. Castells for her useful comments. This work has been supported by CICYT research grant TIC98-0397-C03-01 and by Gobierno de Navarra.

Glossary.
dot e-dot HTML j-dot m-dot MIME PML SMS URL WAP WML XML Domotica Online Tools Email and SMS-dot HyperText Markup Language Java-dot Mobile-dot Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions Plan Markup Language Short Message Service Uniform Resource Locator Wireless Application Protocol Wireless Markup Language Extensible Markup Language

Bibliography [1]: C. Fernndez-Valdivielso, M.A. Galdeano, Prof. Ignacio R. Matas and M. Lpez-Amo: Design, Implementation and Set Up Laboratory of EIB System in the Telecommunication Degree; pp.71-78, I Scientific EIB Conference, EIB Proceedings. Contributions part2/1999. [2]: Nokia: Service Developers Guide for the Nokia 7110; November 1999. [3]: Mary Campione & Kathy Walrath: The Java Tutorial Second Edition; Addison-Wesley Pub Co, 1998. [4]: N. Freed & N. Borenstein: RFC 2046, Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions, part two: Media Types; Network Working Group, November 1996. [5]: D. Megginson: Structuring XML Documents; Prentice Hall, 1998.