SURE Universal Set Top Box

SURE Gateway SURE Smart Home software-based solution is designed for the maximal utilization of the existing hardware, and supports devices and protocols available on the market. It is based on the Open Connectivity Foundation (OCF) open standard, and utilizes open source libraries implementing OCF. The “heart” of the solution is the SURE Gateway, a software module installed on a Set-Top Box (STB). The STB is connected to the home WiFi network, which is typically connected to the Internet. To communicate with the smart home sensors, and devices implementing Zwave and Zigbee protocols, Zigbee and/or Zwave dongles are plugged into the STB via USB ports. Additionally, SURE Gateway communicates with the cameras and other WiFi-enabled devices, using WiFi network. SURE Gateway is a software package installed on Android or Linux based Set-Top Boxes (STB). It is a smart home / smart building “hub”, in charge of establishing communication with various smart home (or smart building) devices, sensors and cameras, and exposing the information to the clients. Since STB is connected to a TV screen, SURE Gateway has the GUI for administration and monitoring tasks. Main components of SURE Gateway: • Appliances Management Core: Infrastructure for managing the list of the Smart Home devices connected to the Gateway, their connectivity status, exact state and supported commands for interaction. Exchanges the information and commands with the Agents. • Scenes / Rules: Implements the automation functionality in the Gateway: sends commands to activate Scenes, monitors devices state to trigger Rules and implements Scheduling functionality based on time. For example: A door opening event could trigger turning on multiple lights at the same time, via sending command to smart sockets and light devices. • Discovery: Provides the way to recognize the devices connected to the Gateway, so they can be added to the system in a fully functional way. This includes device detection, authentication and pairing. • Agents Manager: Infrastructure for plugging new connectivity protocols into the Gateway. Manages the list of Agents: software plug-ins implementing a specific communication protocol with the Smart Home devices. The infrastructure supports adding more and more agents (for either IP-based or radio protocol based) as plug-ins to the system, so no changes in the core modules are required for such an expansion. • OCF Compliant Gateway: This module is a Bridge, exposing the proprietary devices connected to the Gateway as OCF (Open Connectivity Foundation) open standard enabled devices, for the purpose of 2-way communication. Based on that bridging capability, OCF Universal Client communicates with the existing devices on the market, which were never designed to support OCF. • Set Top Box Control: Provides the capability to control the Set-Top Box (STB) itself, via the SURE Client. Implements commands, mouse and keyboard functionality and video streaming. • STB/TV GUI: GUI working on the TV monitor. Provides an option to perform both operational and administrative tasks from the TV monitor, in addition to SURE Client.