This document summarizes different communication methods for building smart home monitoring systems. It reviews existing systems that use technologies like Bluetooth, GSM, Wi-Fi, DTMF, and voice commands. It also compares these technologies and their advantages and disadvantages. Specifically, it provides summaries of systems that use Bluetooth and GSM, mobile apps with IoT, Wi-Fi based internet monitoring, DTMF control via mobile phones, and compares popular technologies like Java, Bluetooth, phone lines, Zigbee, home gateways, and Wi-Fi. It concludes that internet modules provide the main advantage of remote control from anywhere while calling systems using DTMF allow control via mobile phone buttons.

1. IDL - International Digital Library for Technology & Research
Volume I, Issue 4, APRIL-2017 Available at: www.dbpublications.org
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Communication Methods to build Smart Home
Monitoring System: A Survey
Mr. RAMESHA R M1
, Mrs. SNEHA K2
, Dr. B.G.PRASAD3
Dept. of Computer Science
1 M-Tech, Student – B.N.M Institute of Technology, Bengaluru, India
2 Guide, Associate Professor – B.N.M Institute of Technology, Bengaluru, India
3 Guide, Prof & HOD, Dept. Of CSE, BMS College of Engineering, Bengaluru, India
SURVEY PAPER
ABSTRACT- The inability to access and control the
appliances from remote locations is one of the major
reasons for energy loss. An android application or any
input method is used by the users to give instructions
to home automation systems. This system can make
use of a host of communication methods such as Wi-
Fi, GSM, Bluetooth and ZigBee etc.. Different
controlling devices and configurations can be found in
existing systems. Such systems have been found
already in many places for a wide variety of
applications. This paper presents a survey of such
systems.
Keywords: IoT, Automation Control, Wi-Fi, DTMF,
Voice command, Bluetooth, GSM Technology.
1. INTRODUCTION:
Electronic and Electrical environment with respect to
this context is any environment which consists of
appliances such as fans, television sets, air
conditioners, motors, heater, lighting systems, etc. A
remotely accessible environment is an environment in
which each appliance can be remotely accessed and
controlled using software as an interface, which
includes an Android application and Web application.
Such remotely accessible systems are already available
in the market, but have a number of drawbacks as
well. This paper aims to perform a survey of all the
existing such systems and compare the available
features.
The paper will also compare and contrast all the
systems and look at their various features and
disadvantages. A wide variety of options are available
for the home automation systems.
2 SURVEYS
2.1 Smart Home Automation Control Using
Bluetooth and GSM
Home automation is automation of the home. Home
automation can provide increased quality and
revolutionizes their life. In this paper describe the
implementation controlling various home appliances
like light, fan, tv, washing machine and refrigerator
through android mobile app. Home appliances
controlled by using different technology like Wi-Fi,
DTMF, Voice command and hand gesture method etc..
In this paper home appliances controlled using
Bluetooth and GSM technology.
Bluetooth android app developed and installed to user
android mobile. The user sent commands to
microcontroller using android app, microcontroller
processing command based on the command relay
circuit works. Relay circuit will power to turn on or
off the home appliances based on the input from the
microcontroller PIC16F877A. The status home
appliances either on or off sent to owner of the house
through GSM module anywhere in the world. The user
send GSM command to GSM module and user receive
status of home appliances either on or off send to user
anywhere in the world through GSM module. The
GSM command send by the owner also control home
appliances. The step down transformer is connected
with the main power supply. It will convert the AC to
DC Which can be used for the electronic devices like
microcontroller, LCD, GSM and sensors etc..

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Advantages
• Using the Blue-tooth wireless technology
home appliances are controlled through mobile
android application.
Disadvantages
• Range 10m
• More Power consumption
2.2 Mobile based home automation using Internet
of Things (IoT)
According to CISCO survey, it is estimated that 50
billion devices connected to the Internet by 2020. The
concept of Home automation using microcontroller
based Arduino board and android mobile phone.
Arduino can be used for prototyping any hardware and
software. Arduino can be programmed to receive input
data and depending on the input data control various
electrical appliances. Smart mobile phone interacted
with the Arduino board through external HC-05
Bluetooth module, using the Bluetooth module 100m
range of data transmission expandable.
Android based mobile application is developed using
android studio that provides complete development
environment for developing any mobile application
including tools for compilation, verification and
debugging. Mobile application screen consist of 6 icon
corresponding to various electrical appliances namely
Lamp, AC, Fan, Refrigerator, TV, Washing Machine.
The status of these home appliances are indicated
using a LED. RED colour indicates that an appliance
is in OFF state and GREEN colour indicates that an
appliance is in on state. Whenever mobile app is
launched, Arduino board gets paired to smart phone
using Bluetooth connectivity using serial
communication protocol. Depends on the user home
appliances icon select on the android application
electrical home appliances controlled.
The Bluetooth based home automation system covers
the data transmission range only 100m only overcome
this drawback using Ethernet technology. Ethernet
module is used for connecting Arduino board from
any part of the world.
Arduino Ethernet module Ip address and port number
can be used to locate remote device connected to the
internet in a smart home environment. Andriod mobile
app can be used to control electrical home appliances.
2.3 Home Automation using Internet of Things
Homes of the 21st century will become highly self-
controlled and automated using the home automation
systems. These systems provide comfort and luxury to
the people. A home automation system is a means that
allow users to control electric appliances. Wireless
systems can be of great help for automation systems.
With the advancement of wireless technologies such
as Wi-Fi, cloud networks in the recent past, wireless
systems are used every day and everywhere.
In this proposed system consists of server and sensors.
The Server controls and monitors the various sensors
like temperature, motion and light level sensors. The
Intel Galileo connects to the internet through Wi-Fi.
When the connection is established between sensors
and Galileo board, sensors are start to reading the
parameters of sensors like p1, p2, p3 etc. The required
sensors threshold levels are set as t1, t2, t3 and so on.
The sensor data are sent to the web server and stored
in the cloud using internet.
The data can be received from cloud analyzed
anywhere any time. If the sensor parameters are
greater than the threshold level then the respective
alarm a1, a2, a3 etc. will be activated. In the proposed
system the gas leakage, temperature and motion in the
house is monitored. The temperature and the motion
detection is stored in cloud for analysis. If the
temperature is more than the threshold level then the
cooler will turn on automatically and it will turn off
when the temperature decreases less than the threshold
level. Similarly when there is a leakage of gas in the
house alarm is giving the alert sound. The required
lights are turned on or off automatically by detecting
the light outside the house. The user can also monitor
the electric appliances like fan and light through the
internet via web server. If electrical appliances are on
and turn off remotely through simply typing the IP
address of the web server.
Advantages
• Reduced installation costs
• System scalability
2.4 An Advanced Home Automation System Using
Mobile Phone
In this paper microcontroller is used as a control unit
which gets inputs (instructions, commands) from a
mobile connected through DTMF decoder. To make

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the connection more secure, consumer authentication
along with a password will be provided.
To switch on or off any appliance by pressing the
keypad buttons in the cellular phones are connected to
DTMF decoder. The entered tone is decoded via the
DTMF decoder. The entered tone further translated it
into binary values. Binary values are the input to the
microcontroller which verifies each tone individually
and corresponding output is given at the output
terminal. Depends on the microcontroller output relay
circuit activated and control home appliances either
gets ON or is switched OFF.
Advantages
• This project is simple and easy to access.
• There is low power consumption.
• It can be operated from a long range.
2.5 A comparison of the popular home automation
technologies.
Java [10] based systems have also been developed
where the electronic devices are controlled via a web
server based PC however it requires extensive wired
installations which is certainly not a cost effective
solution. Bluetooth [11] based home automation
systems provides good amount of data rate and
security but incurs latency issues and one-to-one
pairing which make them less efficient to be utilized in
automation scenarios. Telephone line [12] based
systems are heavily dependent on separate telephone
cable architectures which again requires heavy cable
installation with no graphical user interface and
furthermore it also involves the pain of remembering
numerous access codes. A Zigbee[13] based
automation and control system give rise to user fatigue
and inaccuracy problems. Home gateway [14] systems
are also used in various homes and industrial
applications to interconnect the private area network
along with the public network or internet but they
consist of very complex architectures. Wi-Fi based
[15] systems are efficient and interoperable but they
suffer from higher cost and comparatively high power
consumption.
Table 1 summarizes the advantages and disadvantages
of various technologies that have been predominantly
used to implement a HAS
Technology
Type
Advantages Disadvantages
Java
Based[10]
User interface,
secured,
Reliable
Complex, costly,
expensive wired
installation
Bluetooth
based[11]
Secured,
Support
multimedia
Medium power
consumption,
Supports up to 7
nodes only
Phone line
based[12]
Easy access,
simple, remote
access
User has to
remember access
codes, wired
architecture.
Zigbee
based[13]
User interface,
interoperable,
easy
Link breakage
problems, low
data rate
Home
gateway web
server
based[14]
Remote access,
accurate, fast
Costly, dependent
on internet
Wi-Fi
based[15]
Accurate, Fast,
Support
multimedia
High power
consumption,
Complex
Table 1: Comparison of the already existing automation
technologies
3. CONCLUSION
Home automation is the residential addition to building
automation and involves the control and automation of
home appliances like air conditioning, refrigerator, washing
machine, fan, lighting and TV using different technology
like GSM, Bluetooth DTMF and IoT technologies. The
internet module has the main advantage of controlling the
home appliances from anywhere in the world. The home
automation systems also use the calling system which runs
on DTMF technology. Using the calling system home
appliances can be controlled by calling and pressing buttons
of mobile devices. This system has various applications like
houses, offices, hospitals, industries and universities.
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4. IDL - International Digital Library for Technology & Research
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