This thesis investigates the usage of wireless control and home automation networks for smart home applications. All evaluations are carried out with regard to a detailed requirements analysis. This analysis is based on the role of smart homes within future smart grid energy systems, and it comprises and combines the applicable requirements from different representative sources. Besides that, realistic evaluation scenarios are defined that are derived from existing buildings.First of all, the relevant technical and physical relationships of wireless data transmission are analyzed and mathematically described. Moreover, a realistic transceiver energy model is introduced that takes the characteristics of existing chipsets into account. This model is applied to derive an objective metric, which can be used to compare the performance of different wireless technologies and standards in realistic scenarios. Different channel models are investigated in order to model the propagation in indoor environments. Additionally, a modification is proposed that combines the parameters from different models. The accuracy of all models is compared with measurement results, and it is shown that the proposed model has a higher accuracy than the other models.The main characteristics and parameters of state-of-the-art wireless control networks are summarized in the next step. A comparison of the electrical characteristics of existing transceiver chipsets shows that transceivers for sub GHz transmission frequencies can be implemented with better power efficiency than 2.4 GHz transceivers. Afterwards, the performance of the state-of-the-art standards is evaluated. They are compared with respect to their reliable indoor coverage range, their energy consumption, and their performance within the evaluation scenarios. It is concluded that currently there is no perfect solution among the available standards.Therefore, different physical layer optimizations and enhancements are proposed, which are based on the obtained results. They can be applied in order to design an optimum wireless smart home network. The first proposal comprises several physical layer modifications of IEEE 802.11g systems, which increase the data rate scalability of existing wireless local area networks towards lower data rates. It is shown that the modifications significantly increase the robustness, whereas the implementation complexity is reduced. The second proposal is an optimized physical layer for low power smart home devices. The main idea is the introduction of a novel frequency hopping. This enhanced frequency hopping has a significantly lower energy consumption and latency than conventional frequency hopping mechanisms. The coverage range and the energy saving potential of this proposal are investigated in detail.