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zigbee
Eivindo
Eivindo

Reputation: 1

ZigBee layers in Building Automation system

I'm currently working on a school project about building automation systems, and havent found a clean answer for a thing i've been searching for all day.

Is it possible to use ZigBee in all application layers in a building automation system ? Like in the 1) Managment layer , 2) Automation layer and ofcourse 3) the field layer. Or do you need to have some other solution in the higher layers, like KNX og BACnet?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 98

Answers (1)

t.c.
t.c.

Reputation: 454

I am not sure what you mean by the field layer you mentioned. AFAIK the Building Automation profile does not suppor field upgrade (is this what you mean by field layer?). But you could use the OTA (Over The Air) update feature in Home Automation. Note that 'off the shelf' Building Automation device may not support this.

The building automation profile in ZigBee (pre 3.0) is similar to Home Automation but adds extra commitioning features, and other messages. The profile layer can be considered as the 'Data Plain' layer in ZigBee, maybe what you refer to as the 'Automation Layer'? It defines the device types and messages it supports; like a light or switch that supports input or output on/off message. This is spread over several spec's such as the ZCL Spec and Profile Spec (such as Buildeing Automation Spec). ZCL defines the message and the profile spec defines the devices and the messages they support.

The management layer in ZigBee is referred to as ZDO (ZigBee Device Object).

Finally you mention other standards like BACnet. Building Automation device support 'Protocol Tunnel' messages (defined in ZCL) which can be used to send BACnet messages over. But I think this is more for integrating into legacy systems.

Upvotes: 0

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