Treffer: Pre-version of internal report CfPC-2003-PB-53 PLEASE DO NOT DISTRIBUTE A Programming Language Approach to Safety in Home Networks?

Home networks and the interconnection of home appliances is a classical theme in pervasive computing research. Security is usually ad-dressed through the use of encryption and authentication, but there is a lack of awareness of safety: preventing the computerized house from harming the inhabitants, even in a worst-case scenario where an unauthorized user gains remote control of the facilities. We address this safety issue at the program-ming language level by restricting the operations that can be performed on devices according to the physical location of the user initiating the request. Operations that pose a potential safety hazard can only be performed within a physical proximity that ensures the safety of the operation. We dene a conceptual model based on capabilities that dene the origin of an action, and use a declarative approach integrated with an IDL lan-guage to express location-based restrictions on operations. This model has been implemented in a middleware for home AV devices written in Java, us-ing infrared communication and a FireWire network to implement location awareness. 1