How IoT Testing Is the Backbone of Your Smart Home Solutions
Published: 2020-08-12 07:39:47

One of the well known and assuring use cases of the escalating IoT devices (https://www.hiotron.com/) in smart homes. The smart home market is developing in a rapid way and is predicted to reach up to $151.4 billion by 2024.  Near about 50% of everyday necessary household, accessible products will be auto-replenished from the “connected home” via the IoT. 

Day by day there is continuous development in technology starting from smartphones up to smart homes. Smart home automation systems embrace solutions likewise motion sensors, leak detectors, thermostats, cameras, smart outlets and plugs, smart switches, aiming to make our lives much easier and simpler.

This quick growth of the smart home market comes with huge challenges that require to be tackled strategically. To maintain everything complete and robust, IoT implementation in smart homes is of central importance.

Smart Home Automation System

Virtual digital assistants are now assisting and automating regular tasks with their intelligence.  A particular automation system in smart homes handles the lighting, entertainment systems and appliances. 

It also involves a home security system side by side with features likewise access control and alarm systems, thereby increasing overall home safety.

Smart devices come with a lot of challenges in terms of data security, hardware challenges, standard requirements, access management and integration management. The qualities as well as the performance of these devices are central factors that need to consider in home automation systems. Hence to assure safety in smart homes, testing the end-to-end functionality of several devices has importance.

Let’s take an example if any uncertain situation such as theft occurs in the home then the alarm system must give respond to it immediately. It can be in terms of mobile notification. In case of smoke in the room then the system should recognize and give an immediate alert to the concerned team. 

To assure immediate and precise responses, the overall system requires interacting effectively with each other and all the IoT devices should be attached with the respective authorities also. This is where IoT testing comes into the scenario as the backbone of a smart home solution.

Why Smart Home Solutions are Complex?

IoT-based smart homes leverage devices vary from simple stand-alone sensors to highly-advanced appliances and devices issued with self-learning and artificial intelligence (AI) abilities. To assure that these IoT-enabled smart home systems (https://www.hiotron.com/home-automation-system/) function as specified, organizations require justifying not just the technology, but the complete process involved. This involves the trigger that activates the device, the correlated applications, network and environment.

Interconnectivity, interoperability and surrounding ambiance are the three main features that need to be safeguarded for the successful contribution of a smart home system. The absence of interoperability would turn into a system failure, compromising the security of the smart home system. 

Second thing large numbers of devices are attached in a smart home system and all these various devices require interacting with one another efficiently. 

So, several devices and all the applications included must connect constantly in a controlled and systematic manner. This synchronous connectivity must always be assured of the overall performance of the complete system. 

The third factor is the environment, which acts as a stimulus to activate smart devices into action. A smooth and perfect functioning across all parameters is necessary for a smart home ecosystem.

IoT Testing Importance in Smart Home Solution

The entire IoT system involves four layers that must operate in sync to turn data into practical information in order to begin with successful acts such as a device, data consumption, data processing and application. 

Whole Architecture of these four layers is composite in nature which makes their testing across the system required. The IoT testing phase itself includes a few protocols that must be observed in order to prove the entire device in smart home-compatibility testing, security testing, real-time performance testing and end-user usability testing. 

A system that includes several nodes should be tracked and analyzed in real-time and tested to assure no exposure of data takes place. A strong and robust IoT network can assist in overcome such situations. 

Getting smart devices is not sufficient; applying smart solutions to them can simplify various tasks. But it also means that they should be handled and tested timely in order to function suitably.

User Experience and Data Security 

Smart homes exist to make our lives secure and simpler. A huge crucial data is created while all the IoT devices are interlinked with the applications in a smart home system. The whole system will fall into chaos if such critical information is revealed. It is necessary to maintain data privacy and prefer network accuracy in a virtually connected environment. 

Hence, distinct nodes in a system must be critically tested to assure that no sensitive data gets issued and efficient firewalls should be constructed based on the specified vulnerabilities. Any violation in the smart home system can be protected by testing the security and reliability of the IoT network.

IT will play an important role in the future of energy landscape specifically in the renewable energy sector. The insufficiency of resources has put pressure on the increasing need for home automation. 

Basically smart home technology is more energy-efficient than any conventional home appliances and electronics. The connected appliances are planned to work in such a way that the minimal amount of energy is utilized, thus, resulting in reduced energy consumption costs.

Technology as well as business processes combine together in smart homes to drive personalized customer experience. As user experience and user, satisfaction assists in driving profitability to the business, assuring quality in the home automation environment is a supreme certainty.

Implementing IoT with intelligent devices is required in smart homes to simplify several operations and enable an exchange of data. 

Along with the appearance of smart technologies in almost every industry, the surface of the testing industry is also transforming at a fast pace and organizations require to acquire new methods of software testing to deal with this change.