Feasibility of an Autonomous, Cloud-Less and Controller-Less Architecture for Consumer IoT
TL;DR
The proposed architecture eliminates the need for user intervention beyond the initial Wi-Fi setup and uses a peer-to-peer communication pattern that does not depend on central entities to achieve “zero-touch” and “swarm intelligence” capabilities.
Abstract
Current Internet of Things consumer architectures, such as smart homes, often create barriers for adoption by end users. These barriers are created through reliance on cloud infrastructure or the requirement of in-home hubs and gateways. Smart appliances are often controlled by third-party devices, such as smartphones or voice assistants. While these approaches reflect current market trends, our goal is to enable smart spaces with autonomous devices that operate independently and transparently. Our proposed architecture eliminates the need for user intervention beyond the initial Wi-Fi setup. Unlike standards such as Matter, which promote local interoperability but still require a controller for commissioning and logic management, our proposal uses a peer-to-peer communication pattern. This pattern does not depend on central entities to achieve “zero-touch” and “swarm intelligence” capabilities. Meanwhile, users’ context data remains confined to the local network. We validated our approach by using a smart light bulb prototype that can self-discover and dynamically interoperate with surrounding sensors (temperature, humidity, presence, and luminosity). We also provide a more complex smart home scenario and a qualitative comparison with Matter and Home Assistant.