Communication protocol for a router-based building automation and control network
First Claim
1. An apparatus for updating a message routing table within a building environment control system with message routing information, said message routing information being indicative of a third message router being capable of transferring messages between a first message router and a building environment message destination device, comprising:
- a second message router capable of exchanging said message routing information with said first and third message routers, said second message router being coupled to said message routing table for storing said message routing information, said first and second and third message routers routing said message routing information within said building environmental control system;
a message bridge determinator coupled to said second message router for determining whether said second message router is a bridge for transferring said message routing information from said first message router to said message destination device through said third message router; and
a table updater coupled to said second message router and to said message bridge determinator and to said message routing table for updating said message routing table with said message routing information when said message bridge determinator determines said second message router is said bridge and for not updating said message routing table with said message routing information when said message bridge determinator determines said second message router is not said bridge.
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Abstract
A method and apparatus for improving the performance of Building Environmental Control networks by efficiently storing network routing information and by checking that the data exchanged between two computer applications operating on the network is consistent. The present invention efficiently stores network routing information by having the Building Environmental control network routers only store routing information when that router acts as a bridge for communicating that message further downstream. The present invention also checks that the exchange of data between two building environmental control applications is done by forming a special identifier from the existing data and using that identifier to validate data exchanges. The special identifier is formed by segmenting one field found within the data and having a portion of that segmented field be indicative of the identifying name of the data.
48 Citations
13 Claims
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1. An apparatus for updating a message routing table within a building environment control system with message routing information, said message routing information being indicative of a third message router being capable of transferring messages between a first message router and a building environment message destination device, comprising:
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a second message router capable of exchanging said message routing information with said first and third message routers, said second message router being coupled to said message routing table for storing said message routing information, said first and second and third message routers routing said message routing information within said building environmental control system; a message bridge determinator coupled to said second message router for determining whether said second message router is a bridge for transferring said message routing information from said first message router to said message destination device through said third message router; and a table updater coupled to said second message router and to said message bridge determinator and to said message routing table for updating said message routing table with said message routing information when said message bridge determinator determines said second message router is said bridge and for not updating said message routing table with said message routing information when said message bridge determinator determines said second message router is not said bridge. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. A method for ensuring consistency of data between a first and second computer application operating within a building environmental control system, said data being based on objects of said first and second computer applications, each of said objects having an identifier number of a predefined length and a name, comprising the following steps:
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determining a check number based on the name of an object; segmenting the identifier number of said object to produce a segmented identifier number formed by a combination of a reduced identifier number and said check number, said reduced identifier number and said check number being together the same length as said predefined length, said reduced identifier number representing the same value as said identifier number of said object; providing said object with the segmented identifier number to said first and second computer applications; and exchanging said data between said first and second computer application when said object with the segmented identifier number of said first computer application matches the object with the segmented identifier of the second object. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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Specification