Smart gateway devices, systems and methods for providing communication between HVAC system networks

• US 11,057,244 B2
• Filed: 08/05/2019
• Issued: 07/06/2021
• 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.
• Primary Examiner(s): Coby, Frantz
• Application Number:
  US16/531,249
• Publication Number:
  US 20190356513A1
• Time in Patent Office: 701 Days
• Field of Search: 709222, 709224, 340 125, 340 1232
• 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 a first network associated with a building management system (BMS) and a second network associated with a subsystem of the BMS, the smart gateway device comprising:

one or more processing circuits configured to;

discover a physical device on the second network;

receive data comprising a device identifier from the physical device;

generate a new virtual device responsive to a determination that the device identifier does not match any device identifiers in a virtual device registry, the virtual device registry providing mapping between the new virtual device and the physical device, one or more data points of the new virtual device corresponding to one or more data points of the physical device;

receive data values for the one or more data points of the physical device; and

update the one or more data points of the new virtual device with the data values obtained from the physical device, the virtual device configured to represent the physical device on the first network.

2. The smart gateway device of claim 1, further comprising a webserver that provides web pages for accessing the first network or the second network to a user device.

3. The smart gateway device of claim 1, the one or more processing circuits further configured to poll the physical device to receive the data comprising the device identifier from the physical device.

4. The smart gateway device of claim 1, the one or more processing circuits further configured to expose the new virtual device to the first network.

5. The smart gateway device of claim 1, further comprising a serial communication driver configured to provide an interface between the physical device and the smart gateway device.

6. The smart gateway device of claim 1, further comprising a wireless radio that allows a user device to access the smart gateway device.

7. The smart gateway device of claim 1, wherein the first network comprises a BACnet network and the second network comprises an H-Link network.

8. A method for providing communications between a first network associated with a building management system (BMS) and a second network associated with a subsystem of the BMS, the method comprising:

discovering a physical device on the second network;

receiving data comprising a device identifier from the physical device;

generating a new virtual device responsive to a determination that the device identifier does not match any device identifiers in a virtual device registry, the virtual device registry providing mapping between the new virtual device and the physical device, one or more data points of the new virtual device corresponding to one or more data points of the physical device;

receiving data values for the one or more data points of the physical device; and

updating the one or more data points of the new virtual device with the data values obtained from the physical device, the virtual device configured to represent the physical device on the first network.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising providing web pages for accessing the first network or the second network to a user device.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising polling the physical device to receive the data comprising the device identifier from the physical device.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising polling the physical device to receive the data values for the one or more data points of the physical device.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein polling the physical device to receive the data values for the one or more data points of the physical device comprises polling the physical device to receive new data values at regular intervals.

13. The method of claim 8, further comprising exposing the new virtual device to the first network.

14. The method of claim 8, wherein the first network comprises a BACnet network and the second network comprises an H-Link network.

15. A system for providing communications between a first network associated with a building management system (BMS) and a second network associated with a subsystem of the BMS, the system comprising:

one or more computer-readable storage media having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to implement operations comprising;

discovering a physical device on the second network;

receiving data comprising a device identifier from the physical device;

generating a new virtual device responsive to a determination that the device identifier does not match any device identifiers in a virtual device registry, the virtual device registry providing mapping between the new virtual device and the physical device, one or more data points of the new virtual device corresponding to one or more data points of the physical device;

receiving data values for the one or more data points of the physical device; and

updating the one or more data points of the new virtual device with the data values obtained from the physical device, the virtual device configured to represent the physical device on the first network.

16. The system of claim 15, the operations further comprising providing web pages for accessing the first network or the second network to a user device.

17. The system of claim 15, the operations further comprising polling the physical device to receive the data comprising the device identifier from the physical device.

18. The system of claim 15, the operations further comprising polling the physical device to receive the data values for the one or more data points of the physical device.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein polling the physical device to receive the data values for the one or more data points of the physical device comprises polling the physical device to receive new data values at regular intervals.

20. The system of claim 15, the operations further comprising exposing the new virtual device to the first network.