System for connecting smart devices in a building

摘要

A system for connecting smart devices in a building, the system comprising at least two bridging devices ZBR, each arranged in relative proximity of at least one of at least two smart devices arranged at different locations within the building, each bridging device being connected to its respective smart device via a wireless connection and to the other bridging device(s) via a broadband network, and wherein the bridging devices perform packet filtering to protect the network from flooding of packets wherein each bridging device comprises a list of addresses of smart devices and associated personal area networks to determine if a packet received from its proximal smart device is to be transmitted over the broadband network or to be discarded. The bridging devices may each comprise a list of known smart devices to check the source and destination addresses of packets received and effectively run packet filtering based on a white-list of known smart devices. The lists may be created and maintained by a Building Control Centre BCC. The smart devices may be connected to the bridging devices via a Zigbee IEEE 802.15.4 connection. The smart devices may comprise smart (utility) meters etc. The bridging device may act transparently to perform MAC level acknowledgements.