LOG COLLECTION DATA HARVESTER FOR USE IN A BUILDING AUTOMATION SYSTEM
First Claim
1. A building automation system (BAS) comprising:
- a server engine adapted to accept, store, process, and retrieve data in a computer processor based control system;
a plurality of BAS devices configured to supply at least one data value about a measurable condition in the BAS, each associated with at least one of a space, a system, or a subsystem for at least a portion of a building or a campus;
a network communicatively coupling the server engine and the plurality of BAS devices and supporting a plurality of communication protocols;
a scheduler implemented by the server engine, configured to maintain a plurality of command queues associated with a period of time when the at least one data value is to be retrieved from a specific BAS device selected from the plurality of BAS devices coupled through the network;
a data harvester configured to determine if the period of time associated with the command queue to collect the data value from the at least one of the plurality of devices has expired;
a log collection handler configured to monitor the data harvester and supply the data harvester with an indication of which of the plurality of command queues the data harvester should process;
wherein at least some of the BAS devices have a predetermined network reporting capability that is less than a maximum capacity of the network; and
wherein the log collection handler is further configured to skip over the collection a stale data value when a predetermined percentage of the time period associated with the command queue to collect the data value has elapsed.
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Abstract
A building automation system (BAS) comprising a plurality of end devices, at least one communication network, and a server engine comprising a data harvester. The end devices are each associated with at least one of a space, a system, or a subsystem for at least a portion of a building or a campus. The communication network communicatively couples to at least a portion of the plurality of end devices to the server engine. In one embodiment, the server engine is adapted to dynamically implement the data harvesting capability to periodically establish communications with, to receive and store data about, end devices and to selectively control the utilization of the communication network in order to prevent overrun or data loss. Methods of handling log collection from end devices in a building automation system (BAS) based upon a distributed schedule provided by a user or a priority scheme are also disclosed.
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Citations
15 Claims
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1. A building automation system (BAS) comprising:
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a server engine adapted to accept, store, process, and retrieve data in a computer processor based control system; a plurality of BAS devices configured to supply at least one data value about a measurable condition in the BAS, each associated with at least one of a space, a system, or a subsystem for at least a portion of a building or a campus; a network communicatively coupling the server engine and the plurality of BAS devices and supporting a plurality of communication protocols; a scheduler implemented by the server engine, configured to maintain a plurality of command queues associated with a period of time when the at least one data value is to be retrieved from a specific BAS device selected from the plurality of BAS devices coupled through the network; a data harvester configured to determine if the period of time associated with the command queue to collect the data value from the at least one of the plurality of devices has expired; a log collection handler configured to monitor the data harvester and supply the data harvester with an indication of which of the plurality of command queues the data harvester should process; wherein at least some of the BAS devices have a predetermined network reporting capability that is less than a maximum capacity of the network; and wherein the log collection handler is further configured to skip over the collection a stale data value when a predetermined percentage of the time period associated with the command queue to collect the data value has elapsed. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. A computer program product, comprising a computer usable medium having a computer readable program code embodied therein, said computer readable program code adapted to be computer executed to implement a method for gathering a collection of run-time data in a building automation system (BAS) by a server engine adapted to accept, store, and retrieve data in a processor-based control system, wherein the server engine comprises distinct software modules, and wherein the distinct software modules comprise a network communication module adapted to communicate with a plurality of BAS end devices, a scheduling module adapted to queue a plurality of data collection commands associated with the plurality of BAS end devices, a data harvesting module adapted to retrieve a set of data values defined by the data collection commands, and a log collection handling module adapted to monitor the operation of the data harvesting module;
- said method comprising;
providing a plurality of data log commands to the BAS, wherein the scheduling module allocates the plurality of data log commands into a plurality of command queues, wherein a quantity of the command queues available for scheduling is based on a predetermined period of time over which the data log commands are distributed; extraction of a single data log command from a command queue by the log collection handling module during a time period associated with the command queue for execution of the single data log command; executing the data log commands by the data harvesting module, wherein the data harvesting module is configured to retrieve a set of data values defined by the data log commands from a plurality of end devices through the network communication module; monitoring the performance of the data harvesting module for overruns of the time period during the execution of the data log commands; prioritizing extraction of the single data log command from the command queue such that the single data log command with a run time frequency of the shortest time period is the first single data log command retrieved from the command queue; wherein the log collection handling module directs the data harvesting module to process the single data log command only if a predetermined percentage of the time period associated with the command queue to collect the data value has not elapsed. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9)
- said method comprising;
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10. A method of gathering data from a plurality of end devices, connected through a network means to a server engine adapted to accept, store, and retrieve data by means of a processor-based control system in a building automation system (BAS) comprising:
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entering a plurality of data log commands into a command queue array, wherein the command queue array comprises a plurality of command queues associated with a period of time, and each command queue is configured to have a capacity corresponding to the number of data log commands that can be processed within the period of time; iterating through the plurality of the command queues in the command queue array; processing the data log commands during the period of time associated with each command queue; harvesting at least one value from at least one of the end devices as directed by the data log commands; monitoring the processing of the command queues such that if the processing of a given command queue extends into the period of time associated with a subsequent command queue by a predetermined percentage, then the data log commands of the subsequent command queue are not executed. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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Specification