Automated device discovery on a building network

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9853827-B1
Application number	US-201514741199-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Jun 16, 2015
Priority date	Jun 16, 2015
Publication date	Dec 26, 2017
Grant date	Dec 26, 2017

Abstract

Techniques and solutions are provided for performing automated device discovery over a network operating according to the building automation and control network (BACnet) protocol standard (a BACnet network). For example, automated device discovery on a BACnet network can be performed via automated processing of BACnet traffic without going through a manual discovery and configuration process, and without binding to BACnet devices. For example, who-is and I-am BACnet messages can be used to identify BACnet devices on the network and their property values can be read and displayed (e.g., in a dashboard interface). BACnet devices can also be queried to determine their supported properties.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, implemented by a computing device, for performing automated device discovery over a network operating according to a building automation and control network (BACnet) protocol standard, the method comprising:
monitoring real-time traffic on the BACnet network to dynamically identify, and obtain property values from, unique devices on the BACnet network without manual intervention and without binding the unique devices to a BACnet controller;
sending a who-is BACnet message via the BACnet network;
receiving, based at least in part on the monitoring, I-am BACnet messages from the unique devices, the unique devices identified by corresponding unique device identifiers, on the BACnet network; and
for a selected one of the unique devices on the BACnet network:
sending a query message to the selected unique device;
in response to the query message, receiving, based at least in part on the monitoring, properties supported by the selected unique device;
sending a read message to the selected unique device to read one or more of the properties supported by the selected unique device;
receiving, based at least in part on the monitoring, property values for the one or more properties from the read message;
transforming the received property values into a key-value pair format; and
providing the transformed property values for display in a dashboard.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein sending the read message to the selected unique device comprises sending one of a Read Property BACnet message or a ReadPropertyMultiple BACnet message.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the method is performed without maintaining a database of the unique devices on the BACnet network.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein transforming the received property values into a key-value pair format comprises transforming the received property values from a BACnet format into a JavaScript object notation (JSON) format.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising, for each of one or more additional unique devices of the unique devices on the BACnet network:
sending an additional query message to the additional unique device;
in response to the additional query message, receiving properties supported by the additional unique device;
sending an additional read message to the additional unique device to read one or more of the properties supported by the additional unique device;
receiving additional property values for the one or more properties supported by the additional unique device from the read message;
transforming the additional received property values into the key-value pair format; and
providing the transformed additional property values for display in the dashboard.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein sending the query message to the selected unique device comprises sending an epics BACnet message to the unique device.

7. A computing device comprising:
one or more processing units; and
one or more network interfaces connected to a network operating according to a building automation and control network (BACnet) protocol standard;
wherein the computing device is configured to perform operations for automated device discovery over the BACnet network, the operations comprising:
monitoring real-time traffic on the BACnet network to dynamically identify, and obtain property values from, unique devices on the BACnet network without manual intervention and without binding the unique devices to a BACnet controller;
sending a request message via the BACnet network, wherein the request message is a broadcast message requesting that the unique devices on the BACnet network respond;
receiving, based at least in part on the monitoring, response messages from the unique devices, the unique devices identified by corresponding unique device identifiers, on the BACnet network; and
for a selected one of the unique devices on the BACnet network:
sending a read message to the selected unique device to read one or more properties supported by the selected unique device;
receiving, based at least in part on the monitoring, property values for the one or more properties from the read message;
converting the received property values into a key-value pair format; and
outputting the converted property values.

8. The computing device of claim 7 wherein outputting the received property values comprises providing the received property values for display.

9. The computing device of claim 7 the operations further comprising, before sending the read message to the selected unique device:
sending a query message to the selected unique device; and
in response to the query message, receiving properties supported by the selected unique device.

10. The computing device of claim 7 wherein the request message is a who-is BACnet message, and wherein the response messages are I-am BACnet messages.

11. The computing device of claim 10 the operations further comprising, before sending the read message to the selected unique device:
determining the one or more properties supported by the selected unique device based at least in part on a Vendor_Identifier property value from the I-am BACnet message received from the selected unique device.

12. The computing device of claim 10 wherein the computing device is configured to ignore who-is BACnet messages received by the computing device, and wherein the computing device does not respond to who-is BACnet messages.

13. The computing device of claim 10 wherein the operations for automated device discovery are performed without maintaining a database of the unique devices on the BACnet network.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing computer-executable instructions for causing a computing device comprising a network interface to perform operations for automated device discovery over a network operating according to a building automation and control network (BACnet) protocol standard, the operations comprising:
monitoring real-time traffic on the BACnet network to dynamically identify, and obtain property values from, unique devices on the BACnet network without manual intervention and without binding the unique devices to a BACnet controller;
sending a who-is BACnet message via the BACnet network;
receiving, based at least in part on the monitoring, I-am BACnet messages from the unique devices, the unique devices identified by corresponding unique device identifiers, on the BACnet network; and
for a selected one of the unique devices on the BACnet network:
sending a read message to the selected unique device to read one or more properties supported by the selected unique device; and
receiving, based at least in part on the monitoring, property values for the one or more properties from the read message;
converting the received property values into a key-value pair format; and
outputting the converted property values.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 , the operations further comprising, before sending the read message to the selected unique device:
determining the one or more properties supported by the selected unique device based at least in part on the I-am BACnet message received from the selected unique device.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 , the operations further comprising, before sending the read message to the selected unique device:
determining the one or more properties supported by the selected unique device based at least in part on a Vendor_Identifier property value from the I-am BACnet message received from the selected unique de

Assignees

• Amazon Tech Inc

Inventors

• Goodnow Christopher Alon
• Stolarski Steven Richard
• de Kanter Nicholas Ryan

Classifications

• H04L41/12

  Discovery or management of network topologies · CPC title

• G05B15/02

  electric · CPC title

• H04L43/0811

  by checking connectivity · CPC title

• H04L12/2803 Primary

  Home automation networks · CPC title

• H04L12/2809 Primary

  indicating that an appliance service is present in a home automation network (monitoring functionality H04L43/0817; discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services, H04L67/51) · CPC title