Downers Grove, Illinois (December 1, 2005) There is no doubt that BACnet/IP can meet any Building Automation requirements after the multi-vendor demonstration at the BACnet Conference & Expo 2005 October 25th in Nashville, TN,” Joe Stasiek, Sales Manager for Contemporary Controls commented. The demonstration was powered by Contemporary Controls cabling and Ethernet switches. Contemporary Controls is a major supplier of BACnet and Ethernet networking hardware in the BAS industry. With over 30 years experience, the company has a full line of Ethernet switch products supporting BACnet/IP. Jon Williamson, the Marketing Chairman of the BACnet Manufacturers Association (BMA) commented: “The interoperability demo put BACnet to the test.
BACnet passed with flying colors. Never before could so many products from so many vendors interoperate with so little time for setup and configuration. We started with nothing and within a few hours, 14 vendors demonstrated the power of BACnet and its five interoperable areas in action (data sharing, scheduling, alarming, trending, and device management).”There were more than 25 BACnet devices from vendors including: ABB, Automated Logic, Alerton, American Auto-Matrix, Cimetrics, Delta Controls, Invensys, KMC, Lithonia, Reliable Controls, Siemens, TAC, Veris and Viconics. Each vendor was given an Ethernet connection to Contemporary Controls’ switches.
The 75-minute live interoperability demo was conducted by Grant Wichenko, President of Appin Associates. Appin Associates is an engineering firm that does DDC system design, mechanical system design, and various IAQ (Indoor Air Quality) investigations.Six 42-inch plasma screens (with two computers at each screen) were lined up in the exhibit hall to display 12 BACnet front-end systems that were Ethernet connected using Contemporary Controls’ managed Ethernet EICP8M switches to represent an Internet/Intranet environment.
Each vendor controlled a building system (e.g. variable air volume boxes), and demonstrated all BIBBs (BACnet Interoperability Building Blocks). Thus, a single interoperating BACnet system was created. Williamson said the vendors connected directly to the Ethernet with their BACnet/IP devices or connected via a BACnet router to BACnet MS/TP or BACnet ARCNET® controllers.
Each vendor was also given a range of IP address, BACnet network numbers, and BACnet device instance numbers. “As a result, there were no id conflicts on the network,” he explained. Each vendor was asked to demonstrate BACnet functions including command priorities, setpoint changes, enabling and disabling points, integration of lighting control and more. The switches were setup in a star configuration. Each vendor’s booth was provided with an Ethernet drop.
An additional switch was provided at each of the interoperability tables to allow the vendors to connect to their computers. The Contemporary Controls’ Ethernet network included 26 connected nodes. Wichenko said he hopes future interoperability demos will have more vendors doing more BIBBs other than just data sharing. “We want to demonstrate support for ReadPropertyConditional―the most powerful service in BACnet,” he said.
“Finally, we want to have owners or local dealers doing the demo instead of the factory staff because this will reinforce the usability of BACnet.” What does the future hold for users of the BACnet open protocol? Eric Craton, President of the BACnet Manufacturers Association (BMA) summed it up this way: “BACnet will evolve as the needs of the industry evolve. In the last ten years since the publication of BACnet, it has already evolved to add support for the Internet Protocol. Work is currently underway to make BACnet more compatible with enterprise systems through the use of XML and web services.
Because it is an open standard, every constituent has a say in its future direction.”More information on Contemporary Controls can be found at their websites: www.ccontrols.com , www.ctrlink.com/eisk.com and www.arccontrol.com .
