Building management system with cloud management of gateway configurations

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11954478-B2
Application number	US-202117558340-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 21, 2021
Priority date	Apr 21, 2017
Publication date	Apr 9, 2024
Grant date	Apr 9, 2024

Abstract

A building device including one or more memory devices configured to store instructions thereon, that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to implement a software gateway configured to receive one or more messages from building equipment, receive, based on the one or more messages, one or more software updates for the software gateway, wherein the one or more software updates are updates for communicating with the building equipment, communicate with the building equipment based on the one or more software updates and receive data describing the building equipment, and cause a configuration image to be generated for the software gateway based on the data describing the building equipment, the configuration image indicating a configuration of the software gateway for performing one or more gateway services.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A building device of a building comprising one or more memory devices configured to store instructions thereon, that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to implement a gateway, the gateway configured to:
receive one or more messages from building equipment connected to the building device;
configure the gateway to perform one or more gateway services for the building equipment based on the one or more messages;
generate a configuration responsive to an identification of the one or more gateway services, the configuration describing the one or more gateway services for the building equipment; and
transmit a message to a computing system storing a digital twin of the gateway, the message comprising the configuration and causing the computing system to update the digital twin of the gateway to replace a past configuration of the gateway with the configuration responsive to the message, the computing system storing the digital twin of the gateway providing virtual representations of a plurality of devices of the building and interrelationships between the plurality of devices of the building and storing an indication of the configuration, the digital twin of the gateway relating a virtual representation of the gateway with the configuration.

2. The building device of claim 1 , wherein the digital twin of the gateway provides a status indicator of the gateway indicating whether the gateway is in a fault state, wherein the digital twin of the gateway relates the virtual representation of the gateway with the status indicator.

3. The building device of claim 1 , wherein the digital twin of the gateway includes a second virtual representation of the building equipment, wherein the digital twin of the gateway indicates a relationship between the virtual representation of the gateway and the second virtual representation of the building equipment indicating that the gateway collects data from or sends data to the building equipment.

4. The building device of claim 1 , wherein the configuration indicates at least one of:
one or more pieces of software for performing the one or more gateway services;
one or more points of the building equipment that the gateway collects data from or sends data to; or
one or more read or write settings for the one or more points of the building equipment that the gateway operates on.

5. The building device of claim 4 , wherein the digital twin of the gateway indicates a historical record of one or more gateways that managed the one or more points.

6. The building device of claim 4 , wherein the one or more pieces of software perform one or more communication protocols for communicating with the building equipment.

7. The building device of claim 4 , wherein the one or more points include a sensor point associated with a plurality of sensor measurements of the building equipment and an actuator point associated with an operating setting that an actuator of the building equipment operates on.

8. The building device of claim 1 , wherein the digital twin of the gateway provides a second virtual representation of a second building device implementing a second gateway, the second gateway implementing one or more second gateway services based on a second configuration for one or more second building devices;
wherein the gateway is configured to:
receive the second configuration from the digital twin of the gateway; and
implement the one or more second gateway services based on the second configuration for the one or more second building devices responsive to receiving the second configuration.

9. The building device of claim 8 , wherein the gateway is configured to:
generate a third configuration to replace the configuration, the third configuration combining at least part of the configuration and at least part of the second configuration; and
transmit a second message to the computing system, the second message comprising the third configuration and causing the configuration of the digital twin of the gateway to be replaced with the third configuration.

10. The building device of claim 8 , wherein the gateway is configured to receive the second configuration from the digital twin of the gateway responsive to the second gateway entering a fault state.

11. The building device of claim 10 , wherein the gateway is configured to:
receive one or more pieces of software indicated by the second configuration; and
implement the one or more pieces of software to implement the one or more second gateway services.

12. A method comprising:
receiving, by one or more processing circuits, one or more messages from building equipment connected to a building device implementing a gateway;
configuring, by the one or more processing circuits, the gateway to perform one or more gateway services for the building equipment based on the one or more messages;
generating, by the one or more processing circuits, a configuration responsive to an identification of the one or more gateway services, the configuration describing the one or more gateway services for the building equipment; and
transmitting, by the one or more processing circuits, a message to a computing system storing a digital twin of the gateway, the message comprising the configuration and causing the computing system to update the digital twin of the gateway to replace a past configuration of the gateway with the configuration responsive to the message, the computing system storing the digital twin of the gateway providing virtual representations of a plurality of devices of a building and interrelationships between the plurality of devices of the building and storing an indication of the configuration, the digital twin of the gateway relating a virtual representation of the gateway with the configuration.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the digital twin of the gateway provides a status indicator of the gateway indicating whether the gateway is in a fault state, wherein the digital twin of the gateway relates the virtual representation of the gateway with the status indicator.

14. The method of claim 12 , wherein the configuration indicates at least one of:
one or more pieces of software for performing the one or more gateway services;
one or more points of the building equipment that the gateway collects data from or send data to; or
one or more read or write settings for the one or more points of the building equipment that the gateway operates on.

15. The method of claim 12 , wherein the digital twin of the gateway provides a second virtual representation of a second building device implementing a second gateway, the second gateway implementing one or more second gateway services based on a second configuration for one or more second building devices;
wherein the method further comprises:
receiving, by the one or more processing circuits, the second configuration from the digital twin of the gateway; and
implementing, by the one or more processing circuits, the one or more second gateway services on the gateway based on the second configuration for the one or more second building devices responsive to receiving the second configuration.

16. The method of claim 15 , further comprising:
generating, by the one or more processing circuits, a third configuration to replace the configuration, the third configuration combining at least part of the configuration and at least part of the second configuration; and
transmitting, by the one or more processing circuits, a second message to the computing system, the second message comprising the third config

Assignees

• Johnson Controls Tyco IP Holdings LLP
• Tyco Fire & Security Gmbh

Inventors

• Park Youngchoon
• Sinha Sudhi R
• Paulson Erik S
• Trunch Errol

Classifications

• G06F8/65 Primary

  Updates (security arrangements therefor G06F21/57) · CPC title

• G05B19/042

  using digital processors (G05B19/05 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G05B2219/25011

  Domotique, I-O bus, home automation, building automation · CPC title

• H04L12/2807 Primary

  Exchanging configuration information on appliance services in a home automation network (arrangements for maintenance or administration involving network analysis for automatically determining the actual topology of a network H04L41/12; hardware or software tools for network management using graphical user interfaces H04L41/22; address allocation H04L61/50) · CPC title

• G05B15/02

  electric · CPC title