The following article was published in ASHRAE Journal, October 2002.

© Copyright 2002 American Society of

Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, Inc. It is presented for educational purposes only. This
article may not be copied and/or distributed electronically or in paper form without permission of ASHRAE.

United States

China
BACnet goes to Washington. Capitol Hill buildings will have BACnet installed during the next few years.

BACnet Today
Significant New Features
And Future Enhancements
By Steven T. Bushby, Member ASHRAE, and H. Michael Newman, Fellow ASHRAE Japan

W ith nearly non-stop increases in com-

puting power and decreasing hardware
costs, the last seven years have been exciting
Committee (SSPC) 135, responsible for
BACnet’s ongoing development and en-
hancement, has been to embrace the changes
for the computing and data communication brought by these two forces without unduly
industries. It also has been an exciting time for affecting existing implementations of the pro-
BACnet, with thousands of new installations tocol. Backward compatibility has been one
worldwide, new sources of supply, and greater of the committee’s greatest concerns since it
acceptance on the part of engineers, contrac- began work in 1995, the year BACnet was
tors, and building owners. originally published as ANSI/ASHRAE Stan-
One of BACnet’s greatest strengths is its abil- dard 135-1995, BACnet—A Data Communi-
ity to adapt to new networking technologies cation Protocol for Building Automation and
and the evolving needs of its users. The chal- Control Networks.
Korea
lenge for ASHRAE Standing Standards Project Since that time the SSPC has processed

10 October 2002 BAC n e t ® To d ay | A S u p p l e m e n t t o A S H R A E J o u r n a l

 BACnet Web
Workstation Browser

‘One of BACnet’s greatest BACnet/IP

strengths is its ability to Internet

adapt to new networking

HTTP
technologies and the evolv- BACnet/IP
Web Server
ing needs of its users.’ BACnet/IP

Figure 1: A web server can allow access to a BACnet network via the Hypertext Transfer
Protocol (HTTP), the standard communication protocol for transferring web pages.

nearly 200 suggestions from the building automation and con- messages between various BACnet LANs via IP using a tech-
trol industry. These suggestions ranged from the adoption of nique called “tunneling.” This method, described in Annex H,
new ways to use the Internet to improvements in the tools uses special IP-capable devices called “tunneling routers” that
available to specifiers of BACnet systems. intercept non-IP BACnet messages and relay them to peer tun-
Five addenda to the original standard were issued between neling routers on the distant LAN for delivery to the intended
1995 and June 2001. At that time a new version of the stan- destination device. This requires no changes to the BACnet
dard, incorporating all of the previous addenda, was approved. devices themselves.
We will refer to the original standard as BACnet-1995 and to The new standard for BACnet over the Internet is called
the latest version of the standard, ANSI/ASHRAE Standard “BACnet/IP.” This specification was the first addendum to
135-2001, as BACnet-2001. BACnet-1995 and was published in 1999 as Annex J. It allows
This article provides an update on the most significant new BACnet devices to communicate directly with each other over
features of BACnet-2001 and the standard’s future direction. the Internet (or any other IP-based network, for example, a cor-
porate intranet) wherever they may be. It also provides a method
New Networking Technologies for BACnet workstations to “sign up” to receive broadcast trans-
Using BACnet over the Internet was a hot topic even before missions, even if the workstation is not on a BACnet LAN.
BACnet-1995 was published. At the time, however, many felt BACnet/IP is quickly becoming the most popular form of
that building controllers did not have the computing power to BACnet networking for workstations and building controllers.
support an Internet Protocol (IP) stack with its high overhead Recently, web servers have been used to present informa-
(the protocol control information for IP adds a minimum of 20 tion from BACnet networks in a form that can be viewed and/or
8-bit bytes or octets to every message and many BACnet mes- altered from standard web browsers. The BACnet side requires
sages are much shorter than this) or that BACnet local area no changes but the BAS functions (such as alarm history stor-
networks (LANs) could tolerate longer messages without bog- age, trend logging, metering) must be performed on a machine
ging down and affecting system performance. other than the workstation/browser (Figure 1). The principle
Nevertheless, BACnet-1995 did offer a way of conveying advantage is accessibility. With proper authorization, a build-

BAC n e t ® To d ay | A S u p p l e m e n t t o A S H R A E J o u r n a l October 2002 11

 Property Identifier Property Datatype Code
Human-readable
Standard Properties Profile Description
”
-# ID-#
Object_Identifier BACnetObjectIdentifier R : “ID
Object_Name CharacterString R me Figure 2: BACnet profiles allow
Na
Object_Type BACnetObjectType R f ile_ for extending standard object
Pro types or creating new ones.
... ... ...
Machine-Readable
Profile_Name CharacterString O
Profile Description
... ... ..
s ID-#
tion
Profile-Specific Properties es crip (XML?)
ty D
r o per
XProp1 XProp1_Datatype X P
XProp2 XProp2_Datatype X
... ... ...

ing automation system can be accessed from any place the alarm and event management, scheduling, trending, and de-
web is available. However, using web technology brings up vice and network management. For each of these
security issues. How do you allow access through firewalls, for “interoperability areas,” BACnet-2001 lists (Clause 22 and
example, without exposing your system to hackers? The SSPC Annex L) the capabilities a user should reasonably be able to
has a working group looking into this and other security-re- expect from a set of “standard” devices such as a “BACnet
lated issues. Workstation,” a “BACnet Building Controller,” a “BACnet
Application Specific Controller,” and so on, along with the
Interoperability BACnet capabilities that need to be implemented to achieve
BACnet often is deployed in systems from a single manufac- them.
turer, dedicated to a single task such as HVAC control. But the The listing of BACnet capabilities for each of these “stan-
standard enables much more. As a common communication dard BACnet devices” is called a “device profile.” If the capa-
language, BACnet makes it possible for systems from different bilities of the standard devices are adequate, a specifier need
manufacturers and/or systems designed for different building only require that all provided devices meet the corresponding
automation and control functions to work together. device profiles of Annex L.
To facilitate specification of interoperable systems, the SSPC Manufacturers are free to provide more or fewer capabilities
developed a group of related functions that provides what it than listed in the standard device profiles. The capabilities of
believes represents the core of interoperability: data sharing, any particular device should be listed in the Protocol Imple-

Extensibility: Encouraging Innovation

A major goal of BACnet’s developers has been extensibil- undefined. The ultimate goal is to make the profile machine-
ity. No one should be able to say that using BACnet somehow readable, probably by encoding the information using the
stifles innovation. A major step in this direction has been the Extensible Markup Language (XML) (Figure 2). This would
addition to the standard of the concept of a profile for de- permit a workstation, for example, to load the profile defini-
scribing extensions to standard object types (properties added tions “automatically” and thus, be able to understand the new
to the standard properties already defined) or new object characteristics without further human intervention.
types with a completely new set of properties. To achieve The profile scheme lends itself to the development of
this, a pointer to the profile has been provided in the form of gateways to non-BACnet protocols, particularly if they are
a new, optional property called “Profile_Name” that can be object-based. A good example is a gateway specification to
used with all object types. This property is a text string that the European Installation Bus (EIB). Since BACnet and EIB
starts with the vendor identifier of the profile’s author. This have a number of object-type definitions that share many
allows different organizations to define their own unique ex- common properties, the interface from the BACnet side can
tensions to, for example, an Analog Input object, without be constructed as a set of standard BACnet object types with
conflicting with someone else’s extensions. EIB-specific profiles that describe the additional properties
At the moment, the precise format of the profile is still that are needed to communicate with EIB equipment.

12 October 2002 BAC n e t ® To d ay | A S u p p l e m e n t t o A S H R A E J o u r n a l

 ‘BACnet is rapidly becoming an international standard that is
supported by technical experts from around the world.’

(Top) SSPC 135 vice chairman Bill Swan,

right, holds the Chinese version of the
BACnet standard in 2000.
(Left) BACnet Manufacturers Association
conducts interoperability testing in a NIST
laboratory in Gaithersburg, Md.

mentation Conformance Statement (PICS) that is to accom- property over a specified time interval. The min and max are
pany the device. The format of the PICS is defined in Annex A. accompanied optionally by a corresponding time stamp. The
PICSs should be available from the manufacturers or, eventu- Averaging object type represents an excursion into a new area
ally, via the Web site of the BACnet Manufacturers Association’s for the SSPC: the definition of objects that blur the line between
(BMA) BACnet Testing Laboratories (BTL). data communication objects (i.e., objects that make specific
The use of interoperability areas, BIBBs (see BIBBs: BACnet’s device functionality “network visible”) and application pro-
Shorthand) and device profiles has entirely replaced the Con- gram-oriented objects that represent certain mathematical or
formance Classes and Functional Groups that were defined in logical operations that could then be used within a device’s
the old Clause 22 in BACnet-1995. Conformance Classes and control software (and, at the same time, are network visible).
Functional Groups simply didn’t work and now they are gone! Why, for example, stop with averaging? There could be a “Square
Here are some of the new features of BACnet-2001, arranged Root” object or a “Logarithm” object or “AND” or “OR” objects
by interoperability area. that would operate on Boolean properties. It has been suggested
that someone work on a standard for programming building
Data Sharing automation and control devices. Volunteers?
Two new object types have been added, Averaging and Multi- The second new object type is the Multi-state Value. This
state Value. Averaging objects provide a way to obtain the mini- offers little new functionality beyond what could be achieved
mum, maximum and average value of a particular BACnet with the Multi-state Input and Output objects but was added

device for the value of some property of

BIBBs: BACnet’s Shorthand some object. DS-RP-B says that a de-
The BACnet interoperability areas a client or a server, to achieve some vice must be able to respond to such a
are defined in terms of a new short- communication result. request and send back an answer. Ide-
hand def ined in Annex K called For example, the “Data Sharing - ally, only implementers of BACnet prod-
“BACnet Interoperability Building ReadProperty - A” BIBB (abbreviated ucts need to know about BIBBs.
Blocks” (BIBBs). Each BIBB states DS-RP-A) says that a device must be However, the shorthand could be useful
what BACnet feature must be imple- able to initiate a ReadProperty request, to others in verifying claims of manu-
mented, from either the perspective of i.e., must be able to ask some other facturers.

BAC n e t ® To d ay | A S u p p l e m e n t t o A S H R A E J o u r n a l October 2002 13

in response to concerns about the lack of symmetry between BACnet-1995 provided a way to subscribe for change of
the set of Analog and Binary objects (which have a corre- value (COV) notifications for specific properties of specific
sponding Value object type) and the set of Multi-state object objects. It became clear that it would be a good idea to gener-
types which, previously, did not. alize this by allowing COV subscription to arbitrary properties
and even to provide for sending and receiving COV notifica-
Alarm and Event Management tions without the overhead of managing subscriptions. This
One of BACnet’s key strengths is that it provides a robust but led to the creation of a SubscribeCOVProperty service and an
flexible mechanism for defining special events and alarms, UnconfirmedCOVNotification service.
and notifying workstations or other devices when they occur. It also became apparent that it was difficult to connect a
It was also one of the most difficult parts of the standard to workstation to a BACnet network and obtain sufficient infor-
develop because little commonality existed in proprietary ap- mation about alarms that had previously occurred to enable
proaches. No other protocol provides an interoperable way to them to be acknowledged from the new workstation. This led
manage alarms that is adequate to meet the variety of applica- to the creation of a GetEventInformation service that can ob-
tion requirements found in buildings. The alarm and event tain this information. Enhancements that provided these fea-
features of BACnet were crafted from a deep knowledge of tures were combined with the life-safety proposals as part of
HVAC application needs, borrowing ideas from proprietary the same addendum to the standard.
approaches, and a lot of debate and discussion.
While issues regarding life-safety concerns were being ad- Scheduling
dressed (see sidebar, Developing BACnet: An Open Process), Scheduling occupancy periods in the zones of a building
field experience with BACnet alarming helped to identify other can be a complex process. The 1995 standard provided a way
potential improvements. Originally, Event Enrollment objects, to define weekly schedules that are active for a specific
which are used to monitor a property value for alarm condi- period of time and also an exception schedule that overrides
tions, were restricted to monitoring objects and properties a particular day. The schedule object was restricted to sched-
within the local BACnet device. That constraint has been re- uling other objects within the same device. This restriction
laxed and a standard way exists for one BACnet device to has been relaxed and vendors may choose to schedule ob-
detect and announce alarm conditions in a remote device. jects in remote devices.

Developing BACnet: An Open Process

BACnet’s alarm and event management features have been munications Section (3-SB) is the home for standards activ-
very successful but, because of the expertise of the people ity related to communication in life-safety systems. They
directly involved, they were also HVAC-centric. From the be- work closely with the National Fire Protection Association
ginning it was envisioned that BACnet would be used for a (NFPA). At a NEMA 3-SB meeting in April 1997, European
variety of building automation and control applications, not life-safety experts met with one of the authors, who was
just HVAC. Around the time BACnet was published in late making a presentation about BACnet. The Europeans indi-
1995, European companies in the fire alarm industry were cated that they were working to adapt BACnet to life-safety
discussing the adoption of a standard that could be used to systems and had identified some needed functionality that
integrate fire alarm systems with HVAC control systems. They was not included in the standard. These discussions led to a
focused on protocols that were being debated within Euro- formal proposal that was submitted to the NEMA 3-SB com-
pean standards committees and heavily marketed “open pro- mittee in April 1998, for new BACnet objects and services
tocol” options being controlled and promoted by private U.S. that could remedy the identified shortcomings.
companies. The experts involved concluded that BACnet was One of the issues was that devices used for life-safety ap-
the only protocol available that could be scaled from very plications have defined modes of operation that can be
simple to large complex systems. It also offered the kind of changed and also specific operational states relevant to that
flexible networking topology that would be needed. Euro- mode. Examples of modes include enabled, disabled, test,
pean life-safety experts initiated a series of communications manned, unmanned, armed, prearmed, etc. These modes need
with the newly formed ASHRAE SSPC 135. to be visible over the network and the operational details for
In the United States, the National Electrical Manufactur- the device typically vary from mode to mode.
ers Association (NEMA) Signaling, Protection, and Com- Another issue was that life-safety systems support the con-

14 October 2002 BAC n e t ® To d ay | A S u p p l e m e n t t o A S H R A E J o u r n a l

 The exception schedule mechanism can be used to repre- Life Safety Point objects represent individual
initiating or indicating devices.
sent even very complex scheduling components. However, a
potential problem can occur under circumstances where sev-
eral events are combined to make a single exception schedule.
A workstation can read the exception schedule, even from a
device made (and programmed) by a different manufacturer
and see the overall result. However, there is no way to figure
out and display to the operator the component events that
were combined to make the exception schedule. A proposal is
in the public review process to solve this problem by making
network-visible the partial day schedules that are combined to Life Safety Zone objects represent the
make up an overall exception schedule. combined status of a collection of
Life Safety Point objects
Trending Figure 3: Life Safety Point and Life Safety Zone objects expanded
During the development of BACnet, considerable discus- BACnet capabilities for life-safety applications.
sion about trending occurred. A consensus was never reached.
Many other issues were pressing, so it was decided that a stan- Experience from vendor extensions to the standard provided
dard method for trending could wait. BACnet had a file object the basis for a proposal that was later adopted as part of BACnet.
and services to read and write files. If a file format could be The end result was the creation of a new Trend Log object type
agreed upon, these tools could be used to provide trending and a new ReadRange service designed to permit the retrieval
capabilities. The thinking at the time was that we needed a of trend records based on user-selected filter criteria.
consensus on a file format. Pressure from the marketplace would The Trend Log object makes several parameters network-
help to focus attention on this issue and perhaps make it easier visible that describe how trend data is to be collected. If these
to achieve a consensus. parameters are writable, they can be used to configure the
Early developers of BACnet products quickly decided that trend collection details. The Trend Log monitors a property of
creating a robust trending mechanism should be a high priority. a referenced object and, when predefined conditions are met,

cept of latching in certain operational states until an autho- ments received during the public review resulted in some
rized human takes some action. There is also a distinction revisions and a second public review in March 2001. Final
between a “trouble” condition and an “alarm.” Operators need publication of the addendum was approved in June 2001.
to be able to both “silence” and “reset” devices and these The resulting additions to the standard were a Life Safety
actions have specific meaning in the life-safety industry. Some- Point object type that represents the characteristics of an
times devices need to be viewed and manipulated individu- individual initiating or indicating device (e.g., a smoke
ally. At other times a group of devices need to be viewed or detector or alarm bell), a Life Safety Zone object that repre-
managed as a collection. BACnet-1995 could not easily ac- sents the combined characteristics of a collection of life
commodate any of these needs in an interoperable way. safety points, and a LifeSafetyOperation service that en-
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), ables the special human interactions required (Figure 3).
involved in both the NEMA 3-SB and SSPC 135 commit- The process that was used to develop the life-safety addi-
tees, facilitated the formation of an ad hoc group of experts tions is not unique. Similar collaborations are now under-
from both groups to deliberate the European proposal. The way with the lighting and utility industries. Other proposals
result was a combined working group of life-safety and are being considered that originated from outside the United
BACnet experts who cooperated with, and reported back to, States. These activities illustrate several key points about
the NEMA and ASHRAE committees. Two building industry BACnet. First, new capabilities can be added that enable
communities had combined forces to address a common in- whole industries to enter the BACnet world. Second, the
terest and a mechanism was created to ensure that experts in process is open and flexible so that professional bodies other
both communities had ample opportunities to review and than ASHRAE can contribute. And finally, ideas and input
comment on the technical work. come from all over the world. BACnet is rapidly becoming
The result of this effort was publication of some life-safety an international standard that is supported by technical ex-
additions to BACnet for a public review in April 2000. Com- perts from around the world.

BAC n e t ® To d ay | A S u p p l e m e n t t o A S H R A E J o u r n a l October 2002 15

 ‘BACnet has steadily
gained acceptance
throughout the world.
It has been translated
into Chinese, Japanese
and Korean, and has
been designated as a
national standard in
Korea.’

The Dirksen Senate Office Building will be the first Capitol Hill building to use BACnet throughout.

it saves or “logs” the value to an internal buffer along with a the existing TimeSynchronization service by conveying Coor-
time stamp. The data can be logged periodically or when a dinated Universal Time (UTC) instead of the time at the loca-
change of value for the monitored property occurs. The moni- tion of the timeserver. Historically, UTC was synonymous with
tored property may be in the same device as the Trend Log Greenwich Mean Time, the local time at the zero meridian that
object or in an external device. It is possible to define specific passes through Greenwich, England, and is used as a global
start and stop times for collecting trend data and to enable or time reference. It can be determined from various sources such
disable trend collection using BACnet messages. as NIST’s short-wave broadcast stations WWV and WWVH and
Each Trend Log object maintains an internal buffer to hold from Global Positioning System satellite transmissions.
the trend data. The vendor is free to choose the size of this The significance of this new service is that it was added as a
buffer and whether it is fixed in size or dynamically change- result of the growing recognition that BACnet systems can
able. If a buffer becomes full, the least recent record is over- cross time-zone boundaries and can be, in some cases, global.
written when a new record is added, or the Trend Log may be Using UTC as the basis of the time synchronization allows a
configured to stop collecting new data. The trend data is re- single server to coordinate the time in a BACnet internetwork,
trieved using the ReadRange service. Intrinsic reporting mecha- regardless of its geographic extent.
nisms are defined for Trend Log objects that can be used to
send a notification that a buffer is becoming full. BACnet Procedures
The acquisition of trend records by remote devices has no In BACnet-1995, Clause 19 dealt solely with command
effect upon the state of the Trend Log object itself. This allows prioritization. Later on, it became apparent that a variety of
independent sequential access to the log records by multiple procedures, in addition to those dealing with command
remote devices. prioritization, are commonly required in building automation
The Trend Log object is designed for logging values for a and control systems, and could be carried out entirely with
single property of a single object. The SSPC is deliberating a BACnet objects and services. These should be standardized.
proposal that, if approved, would result in a more complicated The first such set of procedures added to Clause 19, now
object that allows collecting a set of property values in each entitled “BACnet Procedures,” describes “Backup and Re-
record of a trend log. store.” These procedures allow configuration data to be backed
up and subsequently downloaded in an interoperable way even
Device and Network Management if, as is usually the case, a device has been initially configured
The only new feature added in this interoperability area is using proprietary tools and techniques. The new procedures
the UTCTimeSynchronization service. The service supplements required the addition of several properties to the Device ob-

16 October 2002 BAC n e t ® To d ay | A S u p p l e m e n t t o A S H R A E J o u r n a l

ject type, the most prominent of which is the whole web of network security issues are becoming important
Configuration_Files property, an array of identifiers of File in integrated building systems. The SSPC has created a Net-
objects that, together, contain all relevant configuration data work Security Working Group (NS-WG) to investigate and de-
needed to restore a device to its current state. liberate these issues. Their charter is to identify relevant security
issues, assess risks, and propose appropriate solutions. In many
Future Directions cases it is expected that solutions already being applied in the
Having established a firm foothold in the world market- fields of information technology and electronic commerce will
place and demonstrated the extensibility of the original de- be directly applicable for building automation systems. Other
sign, BACnet is beginning to grow into many new application threats may arise that will need BACnet-specific solutions.
areas. SSPC 135 has established working groups to deliberate • For several years the SSPC has been working on a compan-
and propose new capabilities in several areas. In many cases ion standard to BACnet called 135.1P, Method of Test for Con-
ASHRAE experts are working cooperatively with other profes- formance to BACnet. This standard, now in the public review
sional societies in a manner similar to the successful effort process, will provide a comprehensive set of tests that can be
with the fire alarm industry. used to determine the communication capabilities of a BACnet
• A Lighting Applications Working Group (LA-WG) has been device. The draft version of this standard is already being used
formed. This working group is cooperating with both NEMA by the BACnet Manufacturers Association (BMA) as the basis
and the Illumination Engineering Society of North America. for an independent testing and listing program for BACnet
The focus of the LA-WG is to develop network visible ways to devices. The BACnet Interest Group -Europe is cooperating
represent the kind of control logic that is found in lighting with the BMA in this endeavor and will open and run an inde-
control panels. These are things like flexible groupings of pendent testing laboratory in Europe. A very close and coop-
lights, pre-defined lighting scenes that can be recalled with erative relationship has been developed between the SSPC
the push of a button, fade control, and warnings and overrides and these industry associations.
for unoccupied periods. These represent the kind of high-level
functionality that may be important in an integrated system. Conclusion
• Many parts of the world are moving away from regulated, While this article has focused on the technical develop-
monopolistic electric and gas utility providers toward open, ments leading up to BACnet-2001, much of the real excite-
competitive markets for energy supplies. In the near future it ment has been in the political and commercial arenas. BACnet
will be important for building automation systems to commu- has steadily gained acceptance throughout the world. It has
nicate with utility providers to negotiate prices, reduce or shift been translated into Chinese, Japanese and Korean and has
peak loads, exchange billing and quality of service informa- been designated as a national standard in Korea. It is already a
tion, and perhaps other functions. The SSPC has created a Utili- European Community Pre-Standard and is in a parallel ap-
ties Integration Working Group (UI-WG) to investigate these proval process that will lead to its becoming a full-fledged
issues and develop suitable extensions to BACnet. The UI-WG European and ISO standard. Moreover, recent surveys have
is reaching out to utility companies and the Electric Power revealed that BACnet installations are in nearly 100 countries
Research Institute for dialog on these issues. and on every continent, including Antarctica. This has been
• Access control systems are another building control ap- the result of one central fact: BACnet is a true consensus stan-
plication for which there is beginning to be some significant dard of the building automation and control industry whose
interest in BACnet. There is a great deal of appeal to linking development, enhancement and use is open to all.
access control systems with fire detection, lighting, and HVAC
control for better energy and comfort management, and also Note
to provide critical responses during emergency situations. In BACnet is a registered trademark of ASHRAE. Use of trade-
addition to actions that the systems may be programmed to mark names does not imply recommendation of any commer-
take automatically, they can provide a wealth of information cial products by the National Institute of Standards and
about the conditions in the building and the location of oc- Technology.
cupants that is helpful to emergency response personnel. The
Life Safety and Security Working Group (LSS-WG) is shift- Steven T. Bushby is leader of the Mechanical Systems and
ing its focus to these areas. Controls Group, at the Building and Fire Research Labora-
• BACnet has enabled the interconnection of multiple build- tory, National Institute of Standards and Technology,
ings using IP protocols and the combination of what were Gaithersburg, Md.
historically stand-alone systems in a building. These capabili- H. Michael Newman is manager of the Utilities Computer
ties have brought with them new security concerns. Thus, a Section at Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.