Home Networks

the human-centred approach

Over 300 million people worldwide have broadband connections to the Internet with 51% of UK households having a broadband connection. However, despite the growing interest in home networking, these technologies remain extraordinarily difficult for people to install, manage, and use.

The Homework Research Project is a collaboration between the Universities of Nottingham and Glasgow, Imperial College London and Georgia Institute of Technology with industrial partners Microsoft Research (Cambridge) and BT.

With funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) under the Wired and Wireless Intelligent Networked Systems (WINES III) initiative, the project aims to investigate the creation of entirely new network architectures which take into account both human and technical considerations.

The research challenge for the Homework Project is to take a radical approach to future networking in the home by considering the needs of the user.  By studying the use of computer networks in the home, it is intended to create the next generation of domestic infrastructure that combines empirical understanding of use with a fundamental re-invention of the protocols, models and architectures of the domestic setting.  The challenge is to develop techniques and tools that inform users of the implications of network changes in terms that they readily understand, aiming to develop an infrastructure that can configure and repair itself.