View From Within: The War of the Protocols

Two Giants

Word combinations, such as “smart office” or “automated system”, are no longer unusual to anyone nowadays. Most market players realize that for a large and costly office property to function smoothly it has to be equipped with maintenance and security systems, ventilation, air conditioning, heating, power supply, etc.

A modern building may have several dozen systems installed making it necessary to optimize the management process. Experts agree that the solution to the problem is a centralized management console. Such technologies have been developed.

“The building automation system operates on three levels. There is the field level with shutters, meters and sensors; the medium level is the automation level where controllers are located while the upper level is the management level,” Andrei Golovin, member of the board of the BIG-RU association, explains. Each of those levels report on the operation of the systems on the basis of a special protocol, similar to protocols used on the Web, such as TCP/IP or HTTP.

“A protocol is a service tier of the system responsible for availability and diversity of tools that may be used in a given network, tools for the development of networks, the availability of those tools,” says Vladimir Rybalko of Armo Group. Most office buildings in Russia use two universal protocols – LON and BACnet. Each of those protocols has its supporters, i.e. the companies using it in practice and forming associations.

A Bit of History

Universal protocols are new to the market. Originally, most companies used their own closed protocols. An access code to an open communication protocol is available to anyone willing to use and extend its features, with the results of their research being made available, also on a free-of-charge basis, to other users.

Closed protocols are subject to strict licensing. Initially, most companies used their own protocols with codes available only to their developers. “While open protocols may be viewed separately from developers because they are promoted by groups of companies, a closed protocol is only applied by the company using it,” Andrei Golovin explains.

The LON protocol used to be a closed protocol; later its authors made its code public. Developed by Echelon Co., which still holds the rights to it, the control protocol is open to anyone, even those who do not hold a special license.

BACnet is a more recent product, open to anybody. “That protocol was developed by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE),” says Pavel Peka, an expert in weak current systems at Mirax Group.

However, today “it affects not only the ventilation and heating systems, but involves the operation of the entire building, including lighting, security and fire-safety systems,” says Andrei Golovin. The BACnet protocol was positioned as open-source from the start and is not subject to licensing. BACnet proponents describe it as just a set of certain rules, and the users are required only to pay for a disc containing their text.

Many office centers in Moscow use LON protocols nowadays. According to Andrei Falkov, head of the Armo Group training center, the most vivid examples of office centers applying LON technologies are the Bagration business center on Kutuzovsky Prospekt and the head office of the Russian Railways Company.

As regards BACnet, that protocol, according to Konstantin Trutko, deputy head of marketing and technology development at Siemens, is being used at Lukoil’s office on Bolshaya Ordynka Street in Moscow and at the new Ice Palace in Kazan.

It is noteworthy that along with those protocols the above-mentioned buildings use either EIB/KNX or closed source protocols developed by the companies that equipped those properties. Some buildings use both LON and BACnet, such as the TNK-BP head office on Stary Arbat.

Battle of Giants

Market analysts believe that each of the two protocols has its advantages and disadvantages. The key advantage of LON, in the opinion of Andrei Falkov, is multi-tasking.

“Where a specialist is working on some other protocol, say, EIB/KNX, he will have to turn to other protocols as well [as he will need additional features], while LON makes it possible to perform all tasks from beginning to end,” Falkov explains.

In other words, no other protocols can embrace the operation of the entire system. LON is supported by over 4,000 producers across the globe, according to LonMark International. Moreover, membership in that association is only held by companies who have purchased the relevant license, excluding other firms producing equipment compatible with that protocol.

But the key argument in favor of LON versus BACnet, Andrei Falkov says, is that LON’s younger rival has no ‘physical level’, that is, the level of dumpers, meters and sensors, which restricts BACnet’s area of application.

“That really is the case. BACnet is a program-level protocol with a signal having to run through some wires. But that can be provided by LON or a usual dial-up,” says Konstantin Trutko. BACnet requires an additional environment, i.e. it is necessary to use other protocols as well.

Andrei Golovin believes the problem lies in different levels of automation. “In most cases BACnet is responsible for the upper, management and automation levels while LON takes over automation and field levels,” he says. All the other drawbacks, according to BACnet supporters, are the result of that protocol having been developed much later than LON, and its developers not having enough time to eliminate all the defects.

Golovin expects the number of companies supporting BACnet to grow as many leading manufacturers, including York, Johnson Controls, ICS and others are planning to switch to the protocol. “We are set to abandon the closed source protocol we are using now and switch to BACnet. We will lose a certain amount of profit but will have the opportunity to integrate with other respectable companies, such as Honeywell, Siemens, etc,” says Yevgeny Kalashnikov, automated systems engineer at ICS.

At the same time, BACnet has an advantage that even its opponents cannot challenge. “BACnet is accepted as the ISO 16484 standard for HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems),” says Pavel Peka. ISO stands for the International Organization for Standardization, founded in 1947 to promote standardization across the globe for the purposes of international trade and mutual aid. ISO standards are internationally recognized quality standards.

“ISO’s 205th committee for Building Environment Design is responsible for the intellectualization of buildings and legal acts in that field. That committee has developed a set of standards, one of which is the data communication protocol. That standard is entirely based on BACnet,” says Andrei Golovin.

Glorious Victory

The greatest victory won by BACnet in Russia is believed to be Mirax Group’s decision to use the protocol in the development of what is to become the tallest office center in Europe – the Federatsia (Federation) Tower within the Moskva-City Business Center. The BACnet protocol provides a powerful basic structure and offers a broad range of possibilities for the integration of various systems, Pavel Peka explains.

“The company has opted for the open source protocol because certain groups of signals – from transformers, fire fighting and refrigerating systems, etc. – will have to be sent from a local controller’s office to the Moskva City’s main console and to the single controller’s office of the Russian Emergencies Ministry,” he says. Those are the compulsory requirements endorsed by the Moscow government.

However, the developers will not be applying BACnet on all levels of automation. Field sensors at Federatsia will be operated through LON and Modbas protocols. One more reason why Mirax Group has chosen BACnet is that using BACnet/IP for connection with external automation systems makes it possible to speed up data communication through ordinary computer cables. That particular feature of BACnet has interested other developers as well.

“BACnet works faster than other protocols and provides access to a local network through TCP/IP; therefore, data transmission is easier, via ordinary local lines. That means there is no need to lay extra lines. Earlier, special interfaces had to be developed for the purpose; now, what’s needed is an ordinary socket,” Yevgeny Kalashnikov says. ICS plans to use BACnet in several buildings, he added.

“For example, there could be a building in northern Moscow and another one in the east but they can be connected through a single network with data being transmitted through a dedicated channel. It is also possible to have more than two, say three, or four or even more properties connected to that network with all the data being accumulated at a single console,” Kalashnikov says. Those systems are expected to appear within the next six months and should attract special interest from companies running several office buildings at a time.

Automation Costs

The cost of automation may prove higher if a developer fails to make provision for it at the early design stages and chooses to address the issue when the office building is nearly completed. “The cost of an automation system is the same as that of engineering systems, though installing it in a completed building is quite costly,” says Pavel Peka. “It requires high quality specialists and there must be no automation systems in the engineering equipment. Conditions for the use of open source protocol also be available.”

Roman Cheptsov, development director at Prime City Properties, is convinced that installing expensive systems into a completed building could prove to be useless. “Installing an automated system into a completed building leads to inefficient use of intellectual systems, as well as higher costs. Their operation will only be efficient provided all the systems have been taken into consideration at the design stage,” he explains.

Still, regardless of the costs, the intellectualization of offices is economically justified. “Building automation systems helps us save energy and heat,” says Pavel Peka. “The system pays back in 3 to 5 years, whereupon the maintenance service begins to receive an income in the form of saved funds.” Roman Cheptsov agrees: “The automated system extends the service life of the building and reduces operating costs, thus, increasing the investment appeal of the project.”

In the long run, it is possible to save up to 20% on maintenance costs, Armo Group reports. For a property of 50,000sqm that means $180,000 per year.

Changing Roles

The automation systems in buildings create significant changes in the work of maintenance personnel. To begin with, the principle of the maintenance service’s operations changes considerably, as well as the working conditions of the technical staff.

The operation of an automated system when maintaining several office buildings at a time requires the use of two doubling substations, Yevgeny Kalashnikov. There is a service-level differentiation: the upper level is operated by a single controller. He monitors operations in all the buildings and accrues data on all malfunctions. The lower level is monitored by narrow specialists who are directly responsible for the flawless operation of the ventilation system, for example, and fix problems when they arise.

“The controller is not interested in where exactly and what switch has been pushed; what matters for him is to know which of the systems has been malfunctioning and to inform the specialist in charge. For example, we tell the controller from the start that current strength must not exceed 200 A. As soon as it exceeds that level the controller receives a signal on his console and realizes that the power supply system has been malfunctioning,” Kalashnikov explains.

He believes that such a division of labor helps save on human resources. Night shifts can be manned by only one duty engineer for each system, instead of four specialists in each field, as before.

“On the whole, with such a system in place there is no need for more than four employees – an electrician, a plumber, a person in charge of monitoring operations of the automated systems, heating networks, for example, and a lift operator. The controller is a highly skilled expert with a higher education, more or less familiar with all of those fields,” Kalashnikov concludes.

Needless to say that rank-and-file employees’ access to the automated systems is restricted. Sometimes, however, they may need to change the room temperature, for example. In such situations, says Armo Engineering’s technical director Andrei Abramov, employees at the TNK-BP headquarters have to call their supervisor and ask him to call the controller with a request to make the air in their offices warmer or cooler.

In Western countries, where automated offices are much more common, employees do not even need to use the switch on the wall because the necessary software is installed on their work stations, Andrei Falkov says. There is no need for an employee to walk 50 meters to the wall unit; all he needs to do is launch the necessary software and adjust the temperature in his office.

Looking for Consensus

Market experts believe that with time the attitude of ordinary office workers towards new office buildings will change, as well as the segmentation of that market itself. Vladimir Pasekov, a member of the Intellectual Buildings and Information Automated System at the non-profit partnership AVOK, says that the market of building automation systems will see what is happening now on the market of operating systems.

“Most home computers use Windows while servers use Linux,” he recalls. In his opinion, the market of building automation systems will develop in the same direction, with each company choosing the protocol it considers best, depending on the size and specifics of the office building.