Testing Conformance and Interoperability of BACnet Building Automation Products.
Testing Conformance and Interoperability of BACnet
Building Automation Products.
(486 K)
Bushby, S. T.
CIBSE/ASHRAE Joint National Conference. September
28-October 1, 1996, Harrogate, UK, 1-7 pp, 1996.
Keywords:
BACnet; building automation; communication protocol;
conformance testing; direct digital control
Abstract:
The BACnet standard defines classes of conformance and
other collections of protocol functionality. Since a
product need not support all of the capabilities of the
protocol in order to conform to the standard, a
manufacturer must select conformance classes and
functional groups appropriate for the application the
product is intended to meet. A system integrator must
also understand these classifications in order to
prepare procurement specifications. The standard does
not contain test procedures for determining if a device
conforms to the standard. In 1993 the NIST BACnet
Interoperability Testing Consortium was formed, in part
to develop procedures and tools to test the conformance
and interoperability of BACnet products. This paper
describes BACnet conformance classification issues and
the work of the NIST consortium in developing testing
tools and applying them to test products made by member
companies.
Building and Fire Research Laboratory
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Gaithersburg, MD 20899