Jörg Falkenberg gave an OpenRemote iKNX presentation last week in Amsterdam. We've made the slides available online.

One of the more frequent questions we get about iKNX is how does it fit with the rest of the OpenRemote product strategy? OpenRemote RI is based around a controller whereas iKNX is a product connecting directly to a KNX gateway. To some this seems like a conflict of product architectures but we don't see it that way.

KNX through iKNX and the OpenRemote Box (ORB) can and do co-exist. OpenRemote iKNX is a client application to an existing KNX installation. It is an easy adoption for users who want to control their existing KNX installation through an iPhone interface. No additional installation is required: no extra boxes, no extra wiring. Assuming you do have an KNX IP gateway set up, you can download the iKNX application from the App Store and you are ready to go! OpenRemote iKNX contains a KNX protocol stack written in Objective-C so it can run "natively" on the iPhone.

The ORB on the other hand is more of a server-side box. It can also act as a client to a KNX IP gateway but due to its nature can easily host functionality that may not make as much sense or is difficult to implement for a pure client device. One example of a KNX-related service that makes sense on the ORB is KNX connection multiplexing. For installations that use a KNX IP gateway, rather than a KNX IP router, the number of available connections tends to be very limited. When you start adding KNX IP client devices (multiple iKNX iPhone clients for example) to such an installation this can quickly become an issue. The ORB can alleviate this by implementing a KNX connection multiplexing or limiting the lifetime of persistent KNX connections. This will make larger installations more manageable.

Another example of a KNX-related service on the ORB is the ability to integrate other protocols to KNX events. For example, an event from KNX bus could trigger an infrared signal to A/V setup or translate the incoming event to a device-specific serial port communication protocol. Or perhaps you also have devices that are managed using a different protocol, 802.15.4 wirelessly, X10 devices or something using Insteon. These devices can be integrated with ORB to act and coordinate with a KNX installation, something that would be much harder to create directly through a pure client device.

So there's a natural synergy between iKNX and KNX services in the ORB, depending on what type of functionality you are looking for and whether that functionality fits more naturally to client or server-side layers of an application. OpenRemote iKNX makes it very easy to adopt an existing OpenRemote product (and ultimately the ability to adopt an open OpenRemote platform is what we offer, regardless of the form or type of installation you have) whereas KNX on the ORB will serve as a server-side host for integration, connection management and other tasks that benefit from data centralization.

(click for a PDF of the presentation)