Investigation on intelligent building standard communication protocols and application of IT technologies

This paper investigates the frustrating problems of integration and interoperability of Building Automation and Control System (BACS) and presents two possible solutions on the basis of the hierarchy architecture of BACS. One is to employ a unified protocol for the three levels of the BACS networks. The other is the integration at management level. For the first solution, as one candidate, BACnet and its relation with other protocols are evaluated. For the second solution, pros and cons of OPC and Web Services are analyzed and compared. The combination of these two technologies offers good prospects for this solution. A survey on the development of Intelligent Building (IB), the application of IB technologies and the IB standards in China is presented also.