Green home network requirements

Nowadays, home networks host different wired and wireless communication devices. Information and Communication Technology-enabled (ICT) devices consume about the quarter of the total power consumption within a typical home network, which puts forward the issue of energy efficiency in the home network. In addition, electromagnetic radiation emissions are becoming ubiquitous within homes and may create fear likely to slow down future innovations, which requires intervention to reduce such emissions. A routing solution has therefore to support additional constraints. In this paper we provide an overview of home networks as well as their routing solution requirements. We introduce a new taxonomy for routing protocols. Finally, we analyze the suitability of these protocols according to energy efficiency and EM-radiation for a green home network.