ACTIVE DEVICE MANAGEMENT FOR USE IN A BUILDING AUTOMATION SYSTEM

• US 20110208803A1
• Filed: 02/23/2010
• Published: 08/25/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/23/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Trane International Inc. (Trane Technologies plc)
• Original Assignee: Trane International Inc. (Trane Technologies plc)
• Inventors: Eiynk, Benedict J., McCoy, Sean M., Sun, Weiwei
• Granted Patent: US 9,258,201 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0681 Configuration of triggering conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0811 by checking connectivity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0817 by checking functioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/16 Threshold monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/50 Testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/141 Setup of application sessions admission control or resource allocation in data switching networks H04L47/70

Abstract

A building automation system (BAS) comprising a plurality of end devices, at least one communication network, and a server engine comprising a communication state manager for actively managing the state of various devices in building automation system and an associated reconnect manager to reestablish communication with off-line devices. The communication manager and the reconnect manager coordinate the interaction between the server engine and the devices in order to minimizing the load on the communication network, while also working to establish the working state of any of the end devices and to transition off-line to an on-line state.

Claims

1. A building automation system (BAS) comprising:

a server engine configured to monitor and control a plurality of end devices;

a network communicatively coupling the server engine and the plurality of end devices;

a connection manager implemented in the server engine and configured to monitor the status of the plurality of end devices; and

a reconnect manager implemented in the server engine and configured to iteratively query any one of the plurality of devices that has entered an off-line status in an attempt to transition the one of the plurality of end devices from the off-line status to an on-line status.

2. The building automation system of claim 1, wherein the reconnect manager is further configured to increment a delay period between the query to any one of the plurality of end devices based on a length of time that the end device has been in the off-line status.

3. The building automation system of claim 1, wherein the reconnect manager is further configured to remove the one of the plurality of end devices from a list of end devices to be queried by the reconnect manager in the one end device has been in the off-line status for a maximum period of time.

4. The building automation system of claim 1, wherein the connection manager and the reconnect manager share notifications that include an indication if an end devices has transitioned from the off-line status to the on-line status or from the off-line status to the on-line status.

5. A method for managing the connection status of a plurality of end devices in a building automation system (BAS) comprising:

providing a server engine communicatively coupled to the plurality of end devices by a network;

transmitting a first verify message to a one of the plurality of end devices via the network and incrementing a message count of the number of verify messages sent;

waiting for a response to the verify message for a wait-time period proportional to an amount of time the end device has been off-line;

incrementing the wait-time period if no response to the verify message is received, checking if the message count has reached a maximum message value, transmitting another verify message if the maximum message value has not been reached;

setting the wait-time period to a preconfigured minimum-time and clearing the message count if an affirmative response to the verify message is received; and

discontinuing the transmission of verify messages to the one of the plurality of end devices if the message count has reached the maximum message value.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising limiting communication to end devices that are off-line to verify messages by checking an on-line/off-line status indication before non-verify messages are transmitted to end devices.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising sharing notifications between two components embodied in the server engine that include an indication if an end devices has transitioned from the off-line status to the on-line status or from the off-line status to the on-line status.

8. A method for managing the connection status of a plurality of end devices in a building automation system (BAS) comprising:

providing a server engine communicatively coupled to the plurality of end devices by a network;

dynamically monitoring a subset of the plurality of end devices that do not provide active indications of status changes with a connection manager;

transmitting a raw communication request to a one of the plurality of end devices only if the one of the plurality of end devices is on-line; and

notifying a reconnect manager that a one of the subset of the plurality of end device has transitioned from either an on-line status to an off-line status, or from the off-line status to the on-line status when a communication request is attempted.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

transmitting a first verify message to a one of the plurality of end devices via the network and incrementing a message count of the number of verify messages sent;

waiting for a response to the verify message for a wait-time period proportional to an amount of time the end device has been off-line;

incrementing the wait-time period if no response to the verify message is received, checking if the message count has reached a maximum message value, transmitting another verify message if the maximum message value has not been reached;

setting the wait-time period to a preconfigured minimum-time and clearing the message count if an affirmative response to the verify message is received; and

discontinuing the transmission of verify messages to the one of the plurality of end devices if the message count has reached the maximum message value.

10. A building automation system (BAS) comprising:

a server engine communicatively coupled to the plurality of end devices by a network; and

means for dynamically monitoring a subset of the plurality of end devices that fail to provide active indications of status changes with a connection manager;

the connection manager including;

means for transmitting a raw communication request to a one of the plurality of end devices only if the one of the plurality of end devices is on-line; and

means for notifying a reconnect manager that a one of the subset of the plurality of end device has transitioned from either an on-line status to an off-line status, or from the off-line status to the on-line status when a communication request is attempted.

11. The building automation system (BAS) of claim 10, the reconnect manager including:

means for transmitting a first verify message to a one of the plurality of end devices via the network and incrementing a message count of the number of verify messages sent;

means for waiting for a response to the verify message for a wait-time period proportional to an amount of time the end device has been off-line;

means for incrementing the wait-time period if no response to the verify message is received, checking if the message count has reached a maximum message value, transmitting another verify message if the maximum message value has not been reached;

means for setting the wait-time period to a preconfigured minimum-time and clearing the message count if an affirmative response to the verify message is received; and

means for discontinuing the transmission of verify messages to the one of the plurality of end devices if the message count has reached the maximum message value.

12. The building automation system (BAS) of claim 10, further comprising:

a user-interface configured to provide notification of the on-line or off-line status of any one of the plurality of end devices to a user.