Compatibility Issues between Services supporting Networked Appliances

Behind such automation, there is a lot of software controlling the appliances. This software, which is often referred to as services, applications, or bundles is supplied by a range of service provider businesses. Hence in a single home, appliances may be controlled by a multitude of services, which are offered by a wide variety of different providers. Moreover, some services may require the use of other services. Importantly, these businesses are completely independent and may not even be aware of one another or their products. Hence appliances may be controlled by more than one service, and indeed these controlling services are often trying to achieve different goals. This causes compatibility issues, which need to be resolved for networked appliances to be successful in the mass market. This problem is well known in telephony and historically is referred to as the feature interaction problem.