xAP Version 1.0 Announced

It’s just a little over a month since the xAP project began and already the team have published the version 1.0 specification.

The protocol has already spawned numerous apps and it’s use controlling hardware has already beeen demonstrated by Ian Lowe… Synopsis

xAP is an open protocol intended to support the integration of telemetry and control devices primarily within the home – it is the glue that supports the interconnectivity of Home Automation devices. The primary design objectives are:

• Minimalist, elegant and simple, easy to implement/retrofit
• Suitable for use with a wide range of processing capabilities, from embedded controllers to fully fledged PC’s
• Operating system agnostic
• Programming language agnostic
• Network agnostic

These are lofty design goals, and initial implementation is currently focused on IP based networks, PC’s running Linux, Win/32, Rabbit and PIC embedded microcontrollers. In addition, the chosen implementation mechanism for xAP has three further key benefits:

it reuses existing infrastructure where possible (it is able to co-exist on a wireless LAN) requires no central controller and as such it provides a highly distributed and fault tolerant architecture which allows continued operation of systems wherever possible even in the event of individual component failure.

Read the full spec here xAP V1.0 (HTML Format).