Design and Development of Embedded Web Server

IP network has been evolving significantly during the last two decades, many computers and devices have been attached to the IP network and many applications were developed over it. Powerful microcontrollers are used as part of most home and office appliances of today. Integrating web servers to these intelligent devices will aid in controlling such devices over the Internet and also creating user interfaces for them in the form of web pages. Assigning multiple functionalities to a single button helps manufacturers to economize user interfaces but, this makes design more complicated. Since the cost of web-based interfaces is considerably low, they can be used to provide the infrastructure for the design of simple, user-friendly interfaces for household appliances. Also, a web page based interface is much easier to change as compared to a hardware interface. The approach used to develop our prototype system is lightweight design and utilization of widely available network components such as Common Gateway Interface.