The Home Needs an Operating System (and an App Store) Colin Dixon (University of Washington) October 20 th, 2010 Ratul Mahajan, Sharad Agarwal, A.J. Brush, Bongshin Lee, Stefan Saroiu, Victor Bahl (MSR Redmond)

Huge amount of tech in homes

Home users struggle Management Nightmare Integration Hurdles

A quick example Unlock? YesNo

Why developers are not helping Application Hardware The actual devices in the house Application Topology Handle WiFi vs. 3G vs. Eth, Subnets Hardware The actual devices in the house Application Device Handle different brands/models Topology Handle WiFi vs. 3G vs. Eth, Subnets Hardware The actual devices in the house Application Coordination When apps disagree, who wins? Device Handle different brands/models Topology Handle WiFi vs. 3G vs. Eth, Subnets Hardware The actual devices in the house Application User Preference What is automated? When? How? Coordination When apps disagree, who wins? Device Handle different brands/models Topology Handle WiFi vs. 3G vs. Eth, Subnets Hardware The actual devices in the house Application Logic User Preference What is automated? When? How? Coordination When apps disagree, who wins? Device Handle different brands/models Topology Handle WiFi vs. 3G vs. Eth, Subnets Hardware The actual devices in the house

Vendors only build islands Vertically integrate hardware and software Seldom make use of other vendors’ devices No single vendor comes close to providing all the devices a home needs

Climate Control Remot e Lock Camera -Based Entry Video Recording Interoperability is not sufficient Media: DLNA, AirTunes, etc. Devices: UPnP, SpeakEasy, mDNS, etc. Home Auto: Zwave ZigBee, X10, etc.

Monolithic systems are inextensible Security: ADT, Brinks, etc. Academic: EasyLiving, House_n, etc. Commercial: Control4, Elk M1, Leviton, etc. Home Media Security

An alternative approach: A home-wide operating system Operating System Video Rec. Remote Unlock Climate HomeStore

Goals of HomeOS Simplify application development Enable innovation and device differentiation Simplify user management

Simplify development … … App A App B Application Logic User Preference What is automated? When? How? Coordination When apps disagree, who wins? Device Handle different brands/models Topology Handle WiFi vs. 3G vs. Eth, Subnets Hardware The actual devices in the house

Application Logic User Preference What is automated? When? How? Coordination When apps disagree, who wins? Device Handle different brands/models Topology Handle WiFi vs. 3G vs. Eth, Subnets Hardware The actual devices in the house Application Logic User Preference What is automated? When? How? Coordination When apps disagree, who wins? Device Handle different brands/models Topology Logically centralize devices Hardware The actual devices in the house Application Logic User Preference What is automated? When? How? Coordination When apps disagree, who wins? Device Standardize at functional layer Topology Logically centralize devices Hardware The actual devices in the house Application Logic User Preference What is automated? When? How? Coordination Access control mediates conflicts Device Standardize at functional layer Topology Logically centralize devices Hardware The actual devices in the house Application Logic User Preference Users’ manage access control rules Coordination Access control mediates conflicts Device Standardize at functional layer Topology Logically centralize devices Hardware The actual devices in the house Simplify development … … App A App B Driver … Port … Access Control Mgmt UI Mgmt UI

Roles in HomeOS Roles are functional descriptions of ports ▫ lightswitch, television, display, speakers, etc. ▫App developers program against roles Enable vendors to innovate/differentiate ▫Anyone can create a new role  e.g., SonyBraviaTV vs. television  Allows new functionality to be rapidly exposed ▫Commodity vendors can still participate

Simplify user management Conducted a field study ▫Modern homes with automation & other tech ▫14 homes, 31 people Users’ needs for access control ▫Applications as security principals ▫Time in access control decisions ▫Confidence in their configuration

Management primitives Datalog access control rules ▫(port, group, module, time-start, time-end, day, priority, access-mode) ▫Reliable reverse perspectives help users confidently configure access control User accounts ▫Can be restricted by time (guests) Application manifests ▫Specify role requirements for compatibility testing ▫Simplifies rule setup (only when roles match)

Implementation status Built on the.NET CLR ~15,000 lines of C# ▫~2,500 kernel 11 Applications ▫Average ~300 lines/app Music Follows the Lights ▫Play, pause & transfer music where lights are on/off Two-factor Authentication ▫Based on spoken password and face recognition

Open questions/Ongoing work Additional evaluation ▫Is it easy to write apps and drivers? ▫Is it easy to manage? ▫Does it scale to large homes? Deploy & support application development Explore business/economic issues

Conclusion A home-wide OS can make home technology manageable and programmable HomeOS balances stakeholder desires ▫Developers: abstracts four sources of heterogeneity ▫Vendors: enables innovation and differentiation ▫Users: provides mgmt. primitives match mental models