Wi-Fi Direct based Smart Set-up (WDSS) in Lighting Systems

Abstract

The Wireless Lighting Control System has drawn intensive attention in the recent years due to the potential for huge cost savings as well as increased convenience. Commonly seen Wireless Lighting Control Systems utilize Zigbee, KNX and Z-WAVE; whereas little attention has been given to Wi-Fi because of unsolved limitations. The purpose of this thesis project was to develop a Wi-Fi Direct based Smart Setup (WDSS) mechanism, in order to make Wi-Fi a proper candidate for the Wireless Lighting Control System. One of the primary limitations of conventional Wi-Fi technology is that the complex setup procedure prevents interface-constrained devices (e.g.lamps) from joining the network. Secondly, the multi-hop Wi-Fi network is not standardized therefore the common Wi-Fi network bears a star topology with only one-hop coverage. The WDSS is an innovative solution, developed on a newly standardized Wi-Fi technology called Wi-Fi Direct, which is being rolled out as standard in Smartphones and other Internet devices. To overcome the first limitation of conventional Wi-Fi technology, WDSS defines a protocol to allow easy commissioning of lamps (and/or other devices) in a Wi-Fi network, adding a major ease of install element to a traditional Wi-Fi based system (without requiring the user interface on lamps). This approach utilizes a third device, namely a commissioning tool, to set up a Wi-Fi Direct link to the lamp, and further instruct the lamp to migrate to an existing Wi-Fi Network in a secured fashion. An additional advantage of the WDSS is that it can also be applied to set up a multi-hop network among lamps. This feature well addresses the second issue, thereby guaranteeing the effective coverage. Unlike many other meshing networks which function in ad-hoc mode, the WDSS multi-hop network is built up in Wi-Fi infrastructure mode, which has been proved to outperform the ad-hoc network in many aspects. The innovation of the WDSS multi-hop network only focuses on the easy setup instead of advanced routing; however, intelligent algorithms and routing methodologies can be compatibly adopted to optimize the traffic flow. As part of this project, a demo has been set up and the WDSS method has been tested on this system. Results showed that the WDSS has significant value in the Wireless Lighting Control System, in terms of easy commissioning, compatibility with standard Wi-Fi infrastructure, applicability on random chipsets, and transparency to the Internet Protocol. The usage of WDSS of course can be easily expanded to other similar applications.