Distributed Home Automation with Home Assistant

Abstract

In this paper, we examine implementing distributed home automation platforms, with Home Assistant serving as a case study. Home Assistant is an open-source platform that enables users to control and automate various aspects of their homes. The paper addresses the platform’s limitations due to hardware constraints, which can cause performance bottlenecks when many tasks are running at once, and with a focus on especially intensive tasks. Implementing a distributed architecture facilitates computational loads across multiple devices which improves Home Assistant’s capabilities. Key aspects include establishing a distributed network, configuring communication protocols, and developing data handling and processing methods. This approach involves working with both existing and custom-developed components and tools. The achieved results affirm the potential of a more distributed system in enhancing the performance of Home Assistant, offering a more scalable and capable solution for managing and automating various home functions.