Demand response (DR) programs encourage end-use customers to alter their power consumption in response to DR events such as change in real-time electricity prices. Facilitating household participation in DR programs is essential as the residential sector accounts for a sizable portion of the total energy consumed. However, manually tracking energy prices and deciding on how to schedule home appliances can be a challenge for residential consumers who are accustomed to fixed price electricity tariffs. In this work, we present Yupik, a system that helps users respond to realtime electricity prices while being sensitive to their context and lifestyle. Yupik combines sensing, analytics, and optimization to generate appliance usage schedules that may be used by households to minimize their energy bill as well as potential lifestyle disruptions. Yupik uses jPlugs, appliance level energy metering devices, to continuously monitor the power usage by various home appliances. The consumption patterns as well as data from external sources are analyzed using data mining algorithms to infer user's preferred usage profile. Using the preferred profile as a reference, Yupik's optimization engine generates multiple usage plans that attempt to minimize energy and inconvenience costs. Some of Yupik's capabilities are demonstrated with the help of preliminary data collected from a home that was instrumented with jPlugs to monitor the power usage of a few devices.

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Home networks differ from most other networks since they are usually administrated by inexperienced users. Today, protocols such as Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) support zero-configuration networking and are used for data-sharing and entertainment. However, security mechanisms are neglected and are not integrated into current UPnP devices. This becomes even more of an issue when we think of future interconnected home networks where many users and devices will interact. A possible successor of UPnP, the Devices Profile for Web Services (DPWS), is built upon the standard Web-Services(WS) stack and thus also provides WS-Security. However, the configuration of fine-grained access rights for DPWS actions (e.g. for browsing through a media collection) is not defined. This paper describes how to use DPWS and the security framework XACML as a basis for a secure service infrastructure for future home networks. Templates for policies can be auto-generated and a trust model based on X.509 certificates is used for identifying devices and for the interconnection of multiple home networks.

Abstract-In today's home networks security features are very rare. Infact, the only service that is usually secured is the access to the wireless network. Services, such as video streaming and audio distribution systems, often use the popular UPnP protocol since it provides dynamic service discovery and is supported by the Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA). However, UPnP implements no security features which is not only a problem for today's services, but especially for future services in future home networks. Part of the problem is the complexity and the effort that is needed for maintaining a security infrastructure and for the deployment of security mechanisms that are common in administrated enterprise networks. This paper addresses the problem stated above by introducing an assistance system that allows for the easy and almost automatic issuing and distribution of valid X.509 certificates to new devices. We then use these certificates for controlling network access and for the design and implementation of a secure video streaming system based on the Devices Profile for Web Services (DPWS). This system shows that certificates not only help within a home, but are absolutely mandatory when interconnecting multiple homes.