This paper was first published online two years ago (in 2012). The development and deployment of home networks supported by the boom of gradually higher capacity broadband Internet access have been extensive, hence the survey should not be taken as an ultimate and up-to-date overview.

The paper actually surveys six techniques for remote access to home networks and resources: virtual private networks (VPNs), universal plug and play (UPnP) remote access architecture, port forwarding, application dedicated web services, remote desktop access, and cloud hosted resources. Readers who expect to read about the various technical solutions for broadband home access (various digital subscriber line (DSL), fiber to the x (FTTx), and wireless options) and find an extensive comparison will be disappointed. Similarly, the numerous technical variants of home networks are not discussed. Hence, the promised standardization issues to be discussed are extremely limited, primarily to the outcomes of the UPnP forum (even among references there are no IEEE standards, request for comments (RFCs), or industry/interest forum specifications).

The authors concentrate on architectures covering a more virtual approach than purely technicalities related to lower layers. Several generic use cases (remote content access, home automation, and healthcare) and related challenges (technical usability implications) are presented, and the UPnP approach is discussed with resulting overviews (recommendations). The authors’ conclusion is not surprising: there are many solutions available, and no one solution can be classified based on the comparison as ubiquitous and the “best.”