SMART GATEWAY DEVICES, SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PROVIDING COMMUNICATION BETWEEN HVAC SYSTEM NETWORKS

• US 20180076978A1
• Filed: 09/09/2016
• Published: 03/15/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 09/09/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tyco Fire & Security GmbH (Johnson Controls International plc)
• Original Assignee: Johnson Controls Technology Company (Johnson Controls International plc)
• Inventors: Schubert, Shawn D., Gottschalk, Donald A., Curtis, Daniel M.
• Granted Patent: US 10,419,243 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2816 Controlling appliance services of a home automation network by calling their functionalities arrangements in telecontrol or telemetry systems for selectively calling a substation from a main station; in which substation desired apparatus is selected for applying a control signal thereto or for obtaining measured values therefrom H04Q9/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2832 Interconnection of the control functionalities between home networks single bridge functionality H04L12/4625
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/66 Arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/2847 characterised by the type of home appliance used
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/08 specially adapted for terminal emulation, e.g. Telnet
• 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 67/53 using third party service providers

Abstract

A smart gateway device for providing communications between multiple networks associated with a building management system (BMS). The device includes a first network interface circuit in communication with a first network associated with a building management system (BMS). The device further includes a second network interface circuit in communication with a second network associated with a subsystem of the BMS, wherein the second network is not compatible with the first network. The second network interface circuit is configured to detect a physical device associated with the second network, and to receive a data packet associated with the physical device. The data packet is transmitted to the first network interface circuit. The first network interface circuit is configured to receive the data packet and to generate a virtual device based on the received data packet. The virtual device is configured to represent the physical device on the first network.

Claims

1. A smart gateway device for providing communications between multiple networks associated with an HVAC system, the device comprising:

a first network interface circuit in communication with a first network associated with a building management system (BMS);

a second network interface circuit in communication with a second network associated with a subsystem of the BMS, wherein the second network is not compatible with the first network;

wherein the second network interface circuit is configured to detect a physical device associated with the second network, receive a data packet associated with the physical device, and transmit the data packet to the first network interface circuit; and

wherein the first network interface circuit is configured to receive the data packet, and to generate a virtual device based on the received data packet, the virtual device configured to represent the physical device on the first network.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the first network interface circuit comprises a virtual network simulation module stored in a memory of a processing circuit.

3. The device of claim 2, wherein the virtual network simulation module comprises a virtual network manager, the virtual network manager configured to generate a virtual device based on the received data packet.

4. The device of claim 3, wherein the virtual network manager is configured to:

create a data structure associated with the device associated with received data packet, the data structure associated with the generated virtual device;

poll the device to populate the data structure with device values; and

schedule data to be transmitted to the first network interface circuit.

5. The device of claim 4, wherein the first network interface circuit is configured to:

detect the virtual device generated by the virtual simulation module; and

expose the virtual devices to the first network such that the virtual devices appear to be field devices associated with the first network.

6. The device of claim 1, wherein the data packet includes at least an address and a device type of the discovered device.

7. The device of claim 1, further comprising a webserver configured to allow a user to interface with the physical device.

8. The device of claim 1, wherein the first network is a BACnet network.

9. A method for integrating devices on a standalone network into a building management system (BMS) network using a gateway device, the method comprising:

discovering a physical device on the standalone network using a first network interface circuit of the gateway device, the first network interface circuit in communication with the standalone network;

generating a virtual device using a second network interface circuit, the virtual device comprising a data structure associated with the physical device;

polling the discovered device using the first network interface circuit to obtain data values associated with one or more data points of the physical device;

updating the data structure with the obtained data values; and

exposing the virtual device to the BMS network using the second network interface circuit.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the second network interface circuit comprises a virtual network simulation module stored in a memory of a processing circuit.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the virtual network simulation module comprises a virtual network manager, the virtual network manager configured to generate the virtual device.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein discovering the physical device comprises receiving a data packet associated with the physical device.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the data packet comprises an address and a device type.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the data structure is generated based on the usual message content received from the device type of the physical device.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein the network is a BACnet network.

16. A building management system (BMS), the system comprising:

a first network comprising one or more devices associated with the first network;

a second network comprising one or more devices associated with the second network; and

a gateway device, the gateway device configured to provide an interface between the first network and the second network such that the devices associated with the second network can be in communication with one or more devices associated with the first network.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the gateway device comprises:

a first network interface circuit in communication with the first network;

a second network interface circuit in communication with the second network; and

wherein the second network interface circuit is configured to detect the devices associated with the second network, receive a data packet associated with the devices associated with the second network, and transmit the data packets to the first network interface circuit; and

wherein the first network interface circuit is configured to receive the data packets, and to generate one or more virtual devices based on the received data packets, the virtual devices configured to represent the physical devices associated with the second network on the first network.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the first network is a BACnet network.

19. The device of claim 16, wherein the first network interface circuit comprises a virtual network simulation module stored in a memory of a processing circuit, the virtual network simulation module configured to create the one or more virtual devices associated with each of the devices associated with the second network.

20. The device of claim 19, wherein the first network interface circuit is configured to:

detect the virtual device generated by the virtual network simulation module; and

expose the virtual devices to the first network such that the virtual devices appear to be field devices associated with the first network.