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provided a standardized object model for building auto- THE INTERNET OF THINGS
mation components—normalizing vendor products to an AND THE PROMISE OF BIG DATA
equipment type (i.e. thermostat versus “Philips” thermo-
stat) with generic attributes, parameters, and arguments. Today, local devices (desktop computers, mobile phones,
In this model, BACnet compliant controllers talk to all home appliances, security systems, you name it) have
instrumentation in a building using the same control become information and data grooming instruments
language, and it’s the responsibility of the instrument to connected to a constellation of ready-to-consume appli-
understand and respond. cations via a ubiquitous, standardized, and intentionally
‘transparent’ network. Through web services interoper-
As the power and capabilities of micro-electronics ability, this Internet of Things (IoT) can now share infor-
increase (and costs plummet) the instrumentation layer mation to form greater functionality—superseding the old
is becoming more and more powerful—removing the need locked-in single vendor models with greater capability
to lock-in to any particular building automation vendor and better visibility of data for all stakeholders. This is the
and freeing property managers and building owners promise of Big Data, where the whole is greater than the
to buy the best equipment for the job. As a result, the sum of its parts.
BACnet standard is becoming widely adopted.
The benefits for building management networks to follow
At the same time a corresponding reduction in cost and this same multi-vendor path are clear—more energy man-
increase in performance in communications technologies agement and building control functionality that is easier
has enabled higher bandwidth communications right to and cheaper to deploy. Ultimately more information gets
the instrumentation layer—resulting in a ‘flatter’ network. to the right people and leads to better decision making.
This type of network has smarter and more powerful
end-points with less reliance on intermediate grooming— But while IP attached building sensors and actuators
opening the door for cloud-based applications rather than communicating directly to web-based applications via
on-premise server models. a transparent IP fabric would seem to be the next evo-
lution for building automation—this vision is only viable
SEEN THAT MOVIE TOO for simplistic buildings such as single-family dwellings.
Larger buildings need to manage multiple and sometimes
If all of this increased performance and communica- competing entities. Critical building systems, tenant sys-
tions standardization sounds familiar, it’s because it is tems, security concerns, multiple stakeholders, and the
echoing the evolution of the desktop computing model. sheer volume of instrumentation necessitates some form
In the 1980s and ‘90s organizations were run by client/ of building systems access, edge computing, and usage
server computing over proprietary LAN architectures. control.
Companies like Banyan, Novell, Microsoft, Xerox and IBM
oversaw very complicated middleware architectures that THE BUILDING INTERNET OF THINGS
managed connectivity from desktop to server.
Coined by Realcomm in 2014, the term Building Internet
For a long time this structure blocked multi-vendor of Things (BIoT) focuses on the components of a build-
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solutions and dictated the equipment and applications ing (heating, HVAC, security, communications, etc.) that
deployed throughout a business or enterprise. Since the can be connected to the Internet to create operational
mid-nineties, however, onsite server-based applications efficiencies, achieve energy management goals, improve
and the client/server model have gradually given way building security, and much more.
to the cloud/server model—led by powerful companies
such as Google, Amazon, and Cisco. Even Microsoft, The difference between the Internet of Things (IoT) and
the client server champion, is now positioning itself as the Building Internet of Things (BIoT) is that BIoT requires
a cloud company. an aggregation and computing component that can
groom information from building instrumentation into
In this new paradigm, middleware architecture is stan- data-base level repositories. BIoT systems also require a
dardized (using TCP/IP Protocols) and flattened—essen- level of edge computing to handle low latency policy/con-
tially becoming an extension of the Internet itself. Client trol decisions and fail-safe operations of complex building
devices are intelligent but low cost, emphasizing the systems. Additionally, a middle-tier or gateway is needed
ability to communicate with cloud applications. Building that can enforce rules and uphold system integrity and
information architecture is set to follow the same path. security at the building level—all while enabling the func-

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RC18-EDGE FALL Layout + Mktplce - FINAL.indd 8 10/4/18 3:00 PM