[3] The smart home hub can consist of dedicated computer appliance, software appliance, or software running on computer hardware, and makes it possible to gather configuration, automation and monitoring of a smart house by communicating and controlling different smart devices that consist of for example home appliances, sensors and relays or robots, many of which are commonly categorized under Internet of things.
Some smart home hubs support a wider selection of components, while others are more specialized for controlling products within certain product groups or using certain wireless technologies (e.g. Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Z-Wave, and/or Zigbee).
Smart home hubs can have software with open source code or use proprietary software with closed source code, and independently of this the application programming interface can be public or closed.
Some smart home hubs must run on proprietary hardware, while others (like for example Home Assistant) can be installed on generic hardware (like for example a laptop or single-board computer with Linux).
Some examples of wireless protocols commonly used in smart home hubs are: There are several cabled bus systems, some of which are built directly into electric panels.