oBIX and Green Buildings

oBIX is an effort to provide an enterprise interface to building control systems based on the internet standards used in e-Business. Building control systems are all the embedded semi-intelligent systems in a building, whether in HVAC, Elevators, Access Control, Fume Hoods, Fire Alarms, Occupancy monitoring, Power Distribution, Utility Metering, Emergency Generators. . .

US Green Building Council (USGBC) standards are often closely related to the underlying control systems, whether they are goals of efficient energy use, healthful environment, on-site energy production, and, of course, commissioning. The best known of these standards are the Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design Standards (LEEDS)

The controls industry today poses its own problems. It is routine that the control system from one vendor does not interoperate with that of another vendor. When they do communicate, it is through protocols known only within the industry such as BACNet or LON or Niagra, or worse, a format specific to a single brand; operating information is not readily available to the owner or to the tenant. When a savvy operator does get access to this information, that information is extremely detailed at the micro-level and therefore hard-to-understand.

A key challenge for LEEDS is ways to facilitate and routinize commissioning. An acknowledged problem is ongoing measurement and validation of these systems, as evidenced by the poor ongoing energy posture of some facilities constructed to be Platinum. ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air Conditioning Engineers) has a proposed standard (189P) which looks to address some of these issues by defining (among other things) what information should be available from control systems.

The path to oBIX has a several steps. The first is a standard web-services based specification for communicate to the control systems at the concrete level that they operate. This function, which I shorthand as WS-Controls, is complete and allows for point access to each function and sensor within a control system.

The next step is to build some abstractions for each domain, i.e., family of systems, to make this data more useful. Control work is such detailed work, and relies so much on attention to that detail, that it is hard for someone not very immersed in the engineering to be able to understand what is going on. Abstractions will combine host of points into air handling systems, while hiding such details as “the actuator that fires immediately before the heating coil switches on to close the damper”. Abstractions will also allow the curious to request information about room temperature or humidity without plunging into the morass that is building tagging standards.

One of the abstract services we hope to provide is analytic information of the sort measured during commissioning. Ideally, the abstraction of an in-place control system control system would be able to plug right back in to the data structures created for pre-construction building performance analysis with analytical information that either is or is not in conformance the performance goals as designed.

This enables, in concept, the self-commissioning building. (I know, I still want field verification – but maybe the cost-effective statistical verification becomes more reasonable if we have 100% self-commissioning.) This then opens up the possibility of continuously commissioning systems providing ongoing instantaneous performance validation. Such a capability would substantially extend the reach concept of LEEDS for existing facilities.

Daedalus: Architect, Engineer, Craftsman

Keep those emails and questions coming. Several ask "Why New Daedalus?". Some observe that Daedalus crashed into the sea. (That was his son.) Some remember Daedalus as a literary magazine. Well here is the myth of Daedalus.

As in all myths, the ones of Daedalus are varied. He was an artisan descended from the founding royal family of Athens, and was considered the best craftsman and architect of his day. He was the first sculptor able to create lifelike arms separate from the body. His designs have at one time or another been associated with every significant architectural masterpiece in Athens. His skill was said to be a direct gift from Athena.

He fled the law in Athens, and ended up in Crete, where he designed and built the largest and most elaborate building of the day, the Labyrinth. There he was not only the king’s architect, but he built a naughty device for Minos’ daughter, the end result of which was the half-man, half bull Minotaur.

He, like many who work in Facilities Operations, had the best view of the Labyrinth, in a high tower, but could never leave. He crafted wings of feathers and wax to allow him to escape with his son Icarus – but it ended badly for the son. After his escape, he designed and built the most famous structures in Sicily.

Another version has him assisting Theseus in finding his way through the Labyrinth. In this version, he returned to Athens with Theseus and built more of the acropolis.

Daedalus, then, was the best Architect, Builder, and Craftsman of the classical world. He was the archetype for architects and engineers, for contractors and craftsman. That is why I invoke Daedalus.

But why New? From Daedalus's rude sketches until today, drafting was refined and automated, but unchanged. Mechanical systems were wrought by clever craftsman, but not fully designed.

Today, modeling is radically changing the way we design buildings. Building systems are designed to be interactive and responsive. Information Technology is embedded in every step of the design / build / operate life-cycle. We even expect the building to interact intelligently with the outside world. Intelligent response is becoming pervasive in buildings.

This fundamental change is causing a profound shift in how we work with capital assets. This is arguable the biggest change in design since the days, and methods, of Daedalus.

This is why I call this site New Daedalus.

Security: the path to service

Security is a business service. Security is not about keeping people out. If keeping people out was all you wanted, it is far easier to let no one in than to guard a door. Security is about providing the right services to the right person at the right time. Security enahnces every business serviceyou offer.

Security needs to be aware of the situation, it needs to be aware of identity, and it needs to be aware of role. That is, a secure systems always needs to be aware of what is going on, who is trying to do things, and what is their role. A great system should consider delegation as well, i.e., if this person doesn’t have rights, did someone else who does lend them to him.

When each function that can be invoked in a system is aware of these things, then the enterprise is able to offer more services than it could before. A secure organization can extract more value from each of its services and processes. Things costs what they cost, but their value is in how many different ways you can use them. This is particularly true for embedded systems.

Imagine the naturist family living in the city. They can barely open the door; the city offers them no value. Now add clothes to that family. They can go out into the town. They can invite others into their home. Their enjoyment of others is increased. If they want to assert their naturism, they can do it with friends, who have already passed the security checks. Life has improved. Security has enhanced amenity.

To harvest the maximum value from its existing procedures, technologies, and information, an enterprise needs to be secure in everything it does. This is what we call pervasive security. But as I illustrated in an earlier post on pervasive time, security that is everywhere is nowhere in particular.

When you have pervasive security across your systems, each one can be exposed to more people. What value would you find in the following systems if you could somehow share them with others:

• Security Enhanced Building Systems
• Third Party Energy Managers
• Discoverable interfaces to home systems
• Grid Operations

Great security will enable you to provide better service. This service will enable you to charge a premium over those who do not. It has little to do, however, with trivial techniques,  such as merely using HTTPS for your Web Service. Encryption can be a part of security, but it is not security.

Security is an approach to every aspect of system design, that must built in to the architecture, and into each service in that architecture.

Facilities Systems Integrators

Pervasive Systems. Pervasive Security. Service Oriented Architecture. Federated Identity Management. The building owner is rarely able to find these skills in the A&E community.

I know how many consultants can do this. I know most of them, and have heard of the rest. If I am wrong, and there as many again that I don’t know of, I may have to take off my shoes to finish counting.

Why are there so few in an industry filled with so many bright, competent, people? We are in the early swell of something new. Beyond Intelligent Buildings. Some are calling it Buildings 2.0. That captures it, but it will outlive the trendiness of that name.

The days of integration by extension need to pass. “Enterprise enabling” a hotel room system must mean more than a BACnet node on the room key set-up. “We can manage energy” must mean more than putting an on/off switch to the package unit at the end of the access control system. Some people who are quite good at the old way. The best have realized the limits of the old way of integration. Integrators will need to interact with the business surfaces of SAP, and PeopleSoft….

Human responsive systems will demand something different. Building systems that interact with personal area networks (PANs) and even body area networks (BANs) won’t interact at the control protocol level. Building services will need to be aware of not only identity, but the role and context of that identity. Temporary delegation of role authority for a fixed time will be just another trick in the repertoire.

Zero Carbon buildings will require heterogeneous selection of best of breed systems for each site and each use pattern. Each of these systems must be able to defend its mission against the others, while its producer warrants and tunes its performance. These buildings will require integrators skilled in choreography, not in control.

Building systems will also be small participants in a larger realm. Intelligent buildings will barter with markets on the intelligent grid. They will brace themselves as they receive warnings from the National Weather Service. They will lend situation awareness to emergency personnel during a disaster. They will be full citizens of the digital world.

Building owners have no way identify those competent for this new role. There are no training programs, or certifications to prepare them. There will be.