wilamowski-b-m-irwin-j-d-industrial-communication-systems-2011

Building and Home Automation 26-13
Finally, through the integration of smart metering devices in the system, additional services such as
remote meter read-out, detection and handling of events and alarms in situations involving tampering,
vandalism, outages or leaks, and extensive diagnostics, monitoring, and logging functionality are added
to the application portfolio of home automation.
26.4 Outlook and Further Challenges
The emergence of BAS is a nonreversible trend in modern buildings. While in the past the main focus
was put on the primary goal of automation in certain domains such as HVAC or lighting applications,
today’s potential lies in the tighter integration of different building domains. This requires the merge of
functions as well as technologies and results in more complex systems than before. While it is a primary
design goal to aggregate functions into more valuable building functions, the resulting technological
implications on how to use gateways, bridges, and open interfaces to previously proprietary systems
are manifold. More complex functions also require a steadily increasing number of data points to be
configured and maintained. While in the past a number of 1,000–10,000 data points in a building was
common, the number tops 100,000 today and keeps growing.
One of the main issues in today’s workflow concerns configuration and commissioning. Different
technologies, vendors, and even devices of the same vendor require different paradigms, different workflows,
and different tools. Connecting 10,000 data points of a LonWorks system into a BACnet BAS can
be a daunting task. Also, the growing number of data points per building poses new challenges even
within a single technology domain. While more data points mean better control of the process, it also
requires a higher planning and configuration effort. Automatisms in the process are needed along with
templating common tasks in automated tools that assist the installer.
Another area of development in BAS is flexibility of already installed systems. Changing small parts
of a system can incur high costs today. Devices need to be recommissioned, bindings changed, and
even cabling restructured. For facility managers, the goal is to reconfigure the office spaces according
to tenant’s needs while keeping inflicted cost as low as possible. This increases the turnover in renting
out space and reduces cost of unrented space. This process should be easy enough so that the facility
manager himself or herself can simply move walls and change a limited set of configuration parameters
in the BAS software instead of calling in cost-intensive installation personnel to reconfigure the communications
systems. This is an area of development, which needs new and innovative solutions such
as rule-based commissioning and more advanced self-binding mechanisms to name a few. The ultimate
solution is to provide a unified view of the buildings operational state, CAD drawings of its structure,
architectural information, configuration parameters, and data mining options from the BAS data into
a building information model.
One fact that is still underestimated today is network security in BAS. Early systems used direct I/O
and proprietary communications. The introduction of open systems and the move to IP-based backbones
opens the BAS network to new levels of security issues not known before. Only now, first solutions
are emerging, which are not yet widely accepted.
Moving from the building to the home stresses the above arguments even more. Consumer equipment
for home automation needs to be more easily installed and provide valuable solutions to the owner
to justify the investment. This is also the main reason why home automation has not taken off recently.
Niche markets for the technophile home user or holiday vacation owners pose the exception. Improving
comfort and giving peace of mind are main driving factors in that area. Today’s solutions with dial-in
heating presets, air-conditioning scheduler, or alarm services are just arriving. Companies can gain
benefits from giving away price-reduced home automation equipment by generating revenue from
advanced Web services such as assisted energy savings or monitored alarm and intrusion detection.
While the market in BAS is mostly established, the home automation area still has to be considered
being in its infancy.
© 2011 by Taylor and Francis Group, LLC