The Internet Power Line Adapter - University of Queensland

Home Automation, Power Lines and the Internet Quenten Alick
systems. Finally, the use of power lines as a communications medium would
greatly reduce the setup cost of such a system since is removes the need for
additional wiring to be installed.
1.3 Goals of Power Lines & Home Automation
Home automation is a very large and diverse field. Almost every modern
appliance could be connected to a home automation system to allow it to
communicate with other appliances and to be controlled from a central point.
With this in mind it was decided to reduce the scope of the home automation
system to the concept of an adapter that any appliance could be plugged into.
This adapter would give a rudimentary measurement of the power consumption
and give the ability to turn the connected appliance on or off.
The Internet is also a very large and diverse field. An entire thesis could be done
on the topic of Internet Security alone. Also, the concept of connecting
appliances to the Internet has been done before and therefore has already been
demonstrated to be feasible. For these reasons it was decided that this thesis
would concentrate on the concept of proving that power lines are a viable
communications medium for home automation systems. The Internet
connectivity would be considered a minor part and would be completed in the
quickest way possible.
The ultimate aim of this thesis is to design a device that will prove that the use
of home power lines as a communication medium for a home automation system
is a realistic option. A device will be designed and constructed in order to prove
this. The exact specifications of this device will be discussed in chapter 3.
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