1 # Connected Home over IP
3 ![Builds](https://github.com/project-chip/connectedhomeip/workflows/Builds/badge.svg)
5 ![Examples - EFR32](https://github.com/project-chip/connectedhomeip/workflows/Build%20example%20-%20EFR32/badge.svg)
6 ![Examples - nRF Connect SDK](https://github.com/project-chip/connectedhomeip/workflows/Build%20example%20-%20nRF%20Connect%20SDK/badge.svg)
7 ![Examples - QPG6100](https://github.com/project-chip/connectedhomeip/workflows/Build%20example%20-%20QPG6100/badge.svg)
8 ![Examples - Linux Standalone](https://github.com/project-chip/connectedhomeip/workflows/Build%20example%20-%20Linux%20Standalone/badge.svg)
9 ![Examples - ESP32](https://github.com/project-chip/connectedhomeip/workflows/Build%20example%20-%20ESP32/badge.svg)
11 ![Android](https://github.com/project-chip/connectedhomeip/workflows/Android/badge.svg)
13 ![Unit / Interation Tests](https://github.com/project-chip/connectedhomeip/workflows/Unit%20/%20Interation%20Tests/badge.svg)
14 ![Cirque](https://github.com/project-chip/connectedhomeip/workflows/Cirque/badge.svg)
15 ![QEMU](https://github.com/project-chip/connectedhomeip/workflows/QEMU/badge.svg)
17 ![ZAP Templates](https://github.com/project-chip/connectedhomeip/workflows/ZAP/badge.svg)
19 # What is Project Connected Home over IP?
21 Project Connected Home over IP is a new Working Group within the Zigbee
22 Alliance. This Working Group plans to develop and promote the adoption of a new,
23 royalty-free connectivity standard to increase compatibility among smart home
24 products, with security as a fundamental design tenet.
26 The goal of the Connected Home over IP project is to simplify development for
27 manufacturers and increase compatibility for consumers. The project is built
28 around a shared belief that smart home devices should be secure, reliable, and
29 seamless to use. By building upon Internet Protocol (IP), the project aims to
30 enable communication across smart home devices, mobile apps, and cloud services
31 and to define a specific set of IP-based networking technologies for device
34 The Zigbee Alliance officially opened the Project Connected Home over IP
35 (Project CHIP) Working Group on January 17, 2020 and is in the process of
36 drafting the specification.
38 Visit [connectedhomeip.com](https://connectedhomeip.com) to learn more and read
39 the latest news and updates about the project.
45 Project Connected Home over IP is developed with the following goals and
48 **Unifying:** Project CHIP will produce a new specification, building with and
49 on top of market-tested, existing technologies.
51 **Interoperable:** The specification permits communication between any Project
52 CHIP-certified device, subject to users’ permission.
54 **Secure:** The specification leverages modern security practices and protocols.
56 **User Control:** The end user is in control of authorization for interaction
59 **Federated:** No single entity serves as a throttle or a
60 single-point-of-failure for root of trust.
62 **Robust:** The set of protocols specify a complete lifecycle of a device —
63 starting with the seamless out-of-box experience, through operational protocols,
64 to device and system management specifications required for proper function in
65 the presence of change.
67 **Low Overhead:** The protocols are practically implementable on low
68 compute-resource devices, such as MCUs.
70 **Pervasive:** The protocols are broadly deployable and accessible, thanks to
71 leveraging IP and being implementable on low-capability devices.
73 **Ecosystem-Flexible:** The protocol must be flexible enough to accommodate
74 deployment in ecosystems with differing policies.
76 **Easy to Use:** The protocol should aim to provide smooth, cohesive, integrated
77 provisioning and out-of-box experience.
79 **Open:** The Project’s design and technical processes should be open and
80 transparent to the general public, including to non-members wherever possible.
82 ## Architecture Overview
84 ![CHIP Architecture Overview](docs/images/CHIP_IP_pyramid.png)
86 The Project, as illustrated above, defines the application layer that will be
87 deployed on devices and controllers as well as the supported IPv6-based networks
88 to help achieve our interoperability architectural goal. Project CHIP will
89 initially support Wi-Fi and Thread for core, operational communications and
90 Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) to simplify device commissioning and setup.
92 The Application Layer can be further broken down seven main components:
94 ![CHIP Stack Architecture](docs/images/CHIP_Arch_Pyramid.png)
96 1. **Application:** High order business logic of a device. For example, an
97 application that is focused on lighting might contain logic to handle turning
98 on/off the bulb as well its color characteristics.
100 2. **Data Model:** Data primitives that help describe the various
101 functionalities of the devices. The Application operates on these data
102 structures when there is intent to interact with the device.
104 3. **Interaction Model:** Represents a set of actions that can be performed on
105 the devices to interact with it. For example, reading or writing attributes
106 on a device would correspond to interactions with the devices. These actions
107 operate on the structures defined by the data model.
109 4. **Action Framing:** Once an action is constructed using the Interaction
110 Model, it is framed into a prescriptive packed binary format to enable being
111 well represented on the “wire”.
113 5. **Security:** An encoded action frame is then sent down to the Security Layer
114 to encrypt and sign the payload to ensure that data is secured and
115 authenticated by both sender and receiver of a packet.
117 6. **Message Framing & Routing:** With an interaction encrypted and signed, the
118 Message Layer constructs the payload format with required and optional header
119 fields; which specify properties of the message as well some routing
122 7. **IP Framing & Transport Management:** After the final payload has been
123 constructed, it is sent to the underlying transport protocol for IP
124 management of the data.
126 # Current Status of Project Connected Home over IP
128 The Project’s design and technical processes are intended to be open and
129 transparent to the general public, including to Work Group non-members wherever
130 possible. The availability of this GitHub repository and its source code under
131 an Apache v2 license is an important and demonstrable step to achieving this
134 The Project endeavors to bring together the best aspects of market-tested
135 technologies and to redeploy them as a unified and cohesive whole-system
136 solution. The overall goal of this approach is to bring the benefits of the
137 Project to consumers and manufacturers as quickly as possible. As a result, what
138 you observe in this repository is an implementation-first approach to the
139 technical specification, vetting integrations in practice.
141 The Project repository is growing and evolving to implement the overall
142 architecture. The repository currently contains the security foundations,
143 message framing and dispatch, an implementation of the interaction model and
144 data model. The code examples show simple interactions, and are supported on
145 multiple transports -- Wi-Fi and Thread -- starting with resource-constrained
146 (i.e., memory, processing) silicon platforms to help ensure the Project’s
151 We welcome your contributions to Project Connected Home over IP. Read our
152 contribution guidelines [here](./CONTRIBUTING.md).
154 # Building and Developing in Project
156 Instructions about how to build Project Connected Home over IP can be found
157 [here](./docs/README.md).
159 # Directory Structure
161 The Connected Home over IP repository is structured as follows:
163 | File / Folder | Contents |
164 | ------------------------------------ | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
165 | `build/` | Build system support content and build output directories |
166 | [BUILDING.md](./docs/BUILDING.md) | More detailed information on configuring and building Project CHIP for different targets |
167 | `CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md` | Code of Conduct for Project CHIP, and contributions to it |
168 | [CONTRIBUTING.md](./CONTRIBUTING.md) | Guidelines for contributing to Project CHIP |
169 | `docs/` | Documentation |
170 | `examples/` | Example firmware applications that demonstrate use of Project CHIP technology |
171 | `integrations/` | Third party integrations related to this project |
172 | `integrations/docker/` | Docker scripts and Dockerfiles |
173 | `LICENSE` | Project CHIP [License file](./LICENSE) (Apache 2.0) |
174 | `BUILD.gn` | Top level GN build file |
175 | `README.md` | This file |
176 | `src/` | Implementation of Project CHIP |
177 | `third_party/` | Third-party code used by Project CHIP |
178 | `scripts/` | Scripts needed to work with the Project CHIP repo |
182 Project CHIP is released under the [Apache 2.0 license](./LICENSE).