Surveillance camera market has evolved drastically in recent years, and IP cameras are outplacing traditional CCTV (Closed Circuit TeleVision) cameras in both business and home markets. With easy wireless installation combined with mobile apps deliver cost-effective and remote surveillance solutions to small businesses and homeowners. Traditional CCTV Cameras store videos in local networks through DVR/VMS/NVRs while the newer IP cameras generally store videos in the cloud making it even easier to maintain.

A smart home is very similar to an everyday ordinary house. The main distinction between a smart home and a normal home is that ordinary mundane appliances, gadgets, and devices within the house (such as refrigerators, stoves, washing machines, etc) are replaced with a smart device version of it. These smart devices are capable of connecting to the internet and are used to help with everyday tasks. For example, a refrigerator which monitors if the food within it has reached its expiration date or a washing machine that remembers your washing settings and cycle. This grouping of smart items is commonly referred to as the Internet of Things (IoT).

A smart home is a home connected through a network commonly referred to as the Internet of Things (IoT). This allows people to easily manage their appliances, thermostats, lightings and other smart IoT devices remotely using smart devices. The IoT functions by having devices similar to those in a normal everyday house except they carry some functionality to allow them to connect to a network for remote management. Some of the popular IoT devices include appliances, home security devices such as surveillance cameras, thermostats, smoke detectors to name a few, and more and more "things" will be available for smart home management.

With home & industrial automation slowly getting prominence across the globe, the efficiency of supporting infrastructure to perform as desired plays a significant role. Just like Zigbee, Z-Wave is one such protocol which supports communication between smart devices. Z-Wave relies on Radio Frequency (RF) for performing signaling and controlling operations.

With a plethora of high data rate communication standards not suitable for communicating with sensors and actuators, a system designer primarily looks for a standard to work effectively with low-power requirements and low-latency. Though it was initially built as an alternative to Bluetooth because of its inefficacy to work in certain applications, ZigBee is best suited for IoT devices including industrial automation, embedded systems, home automation, etc.

Due to the advancement in network technology, a trend in “Smart Homes” has developed allowing users to control each device remotely in their home. In this article, we will define what a Smart Home is, what technologies are used, and how this can be advantageous to homeowners.