Whitepaper about Smart Building Smart Automation Published by Ethernet Direct

Modern buildings today are installed with multiple proprietary networks for the various building management systems, and telephony and data networks. More building owners deploying totally integrated solutions to make the work place more comfortable, react automatically to weather conditions and protect people, data and business processes from burglary, theft and fire. Intelligent Building Solutions increased comfort, energy efficiency, security, higher productivity, protection of investments and overall reliability of technical infrastructure. Building Automation System employs Distributed control system. Building automation describes the functionality provided by the control system. The control system is a computerized, intelligent network of electronic devices, designed to monitor and control the mechanical and lighting systems in a building.

There are many controls in a building that can be included in a Building Automation System. HVAC controls, lighting controls, electricity controls, hot water controls, fire controls, access controls, security/surveillance, and broadcast controls are commonly seen in a Building Automation System. The Building Automation System can be programmed to manage these controls, such as turning lights off automatically when no occupancy in the building, turning on air con when the room temperature reaches a specified temperature, sending video streams from surveillance cameras to the security room every specified period, or logging access records when personnel comes in and out the door.

Most building automation networks consist of a primary and secondary level. Primary level mainly gathers data from the secondary level devices and sends out commands for managing the controls inside the building. Several kinds of buses can be used to set up the entire network, including serial (RS-232/485), optical fiber, Ethernet, or even a wireless interface. Nowadays with strong bandwidth demands by video streams from surveillance systems, gigabit Ethernet switches and wireless LAN devices are more ideal for Building Automation than serial devices.

Ethernet Direct offers industrial gigabit Ethernet switches, fiber switches, and also wireless LAN products for Building Automation cases. More building owners are adopting totally-integrated solutions to make the work place more comfortable, react automatically to weather conditions and protect people, data and business processes from burglary, theft and fire. Intelligent Building Solutions increase comfort, energy efficiency, security, higher productivity, protection of investments and overall reliability of technical infrastructure. The Gigabit backbone integrates all the key building services to facilitate intuitive processes for the management of the entire system.