Blitz survey: The future of wireless technologies for building automation.
Blitz survey: The future of wireless technologies for building automation
Five questions for specialists:
1. What wireless technologies are most promising for building automation?
2. What are the main advantages of wireless technologies for building automation?
3. Does your company use wireless technologies “in practice”?
4. What is holding back the growth of wireless technologies?
5. What are the prospects for the development of wireless technologies on the Russian market?
Victor Gutman
technical director
InternetDom Company:
In my opinion, the clear favorite is Wi-Fi. Although this standard is poorly tailored to automation tasks, its widespread use gives it a clear advantage in the transport environment. In addition, there are a large number of specialists, and the low cost of active Wi-Fi equipment will facilitate its spread.
EnOcean technology is very promising, the main advantage of which is battery-free sensors. It uses the energy of photocells or piezoelectric transducers, and in rare cases, batteries, but very economically. This technology cannot provide communication over long distances, but is very attractive for the “last meters”.
The Insta group radio bus is widely used in simple installations for residential premises and offices. A simple and proven technology, but with very limited functionality and range.
ZigBee is an actively developing standard with a large number of participating companies. The main advantage is the mesh network structure, that is, some devices can relay signals from others, helping to significantly increase the coverage area. But there are still problems with stability.
Z-Wave is being developed as a cheaper alternative to ZigBee: with a similar design principle, but less functionality
Wireless technologies dramatically reduce the number of cables. As a result, labor costs for installation on site. Wireless solutions are very flexible. The system can always be installed on a finished object, and changes can be made. Wireless systems have the potential to replace wired ones almost everywhere, but today the most actively developing area is the creation of various wireless sensors. Various wireless remote controls are actively used in residential automation.
I can tell you about the experience of the InternetDom company. Wi-Fi has long been used in every facility. And mainly to ensure the operation of portable touch control panels. Sometimes as a backbone level or «bridge» between different buildings. Sometimes for IP video cameras.
We have recently used EnOcean batteryless sensors frequently and at all facilities. Most often these are magnetic contact sensors (reed switches) with solar cells and key sensors with piezoelectric elements.
The Insta group radio bus is also regularly used as the “last meters” for EIB and LonWorks buses, most often for push-button remote controls, as well as for key sensors and sensors that for some reason are not connected to a cable.
We tested ZigBee equipment a year and a half ago together with Luxoft. Unfortunately, both hardware and software were very crude at that time, so practical use had to be abandoned. We are waiting for complete solutions at a reasonable price, since we see the standard as promising.
We have worked very actively with Z-Wave equipment; we even have experience in creating our own samples of their implementation at a real facility (controlling valve actuators from a distance when the cable is broken). Further use has been suspended for now due to shortcomings in the automatic relay mechanism. Another disadvantage is that almost all manufacturers of this standard work in the Do It Yourself genre, which sharply worsens the marketing attractiveness for our consumers.
The main problem of wireless technologies is the stability of operation and coverage area. And in fundamentally important cases, I would not dare to use wireless technologies today.
There is also the problem of the power supply. If you need to run a power cable to the device, this is no longer a wireless solution. Therefore, you have to look for either a compromise between operating speed and battery life, or alternative energy, as in EnOcean. But there are also difficulties there. Price is another barrier. Wireless equipment is either very expensive or manufactured semi-professionally and cannot be recommended for use in serious projects.
There will be no high-profile pilot projects; our customer is much less focused on untested innovations. When Europeans and Americans get the hang of it, we will quickly catch up with them in wireless technologies. Or maybe we’ll overtake it, considering the problems we have to deal with when laying cables.
Petr Ivanchenko
partner relations manager
Honeywell CJSC:
Features of wireless standards for building automation: relatively small data flow, high reliability of information transmission, low power consumption.
Of promising standards, I would note ZigBee (which is called the younger brother of Bluetooth), EnOcean (technology without the use of an internal energy source), RFID ( motion control systems).
What are the advantages? The ease of network expansion, the low cost of network infrastructure (no cable communication lines), the possibility of use in places that are difficult to reach for cable or where laying it is impossible or unprofitable.
Honeywell has equipment and solutions that support wireless technologies and has accumulated extensive experience in using wireless solutions at various sites. Such solutions are not yet used in Russia.
All factors hindering the development of wireless technologies can be divided into two types: global and local. Global ones include the technological limitations of implemented solutions, security issues, electromagnetic compatibility with other equipment, the cost of the system, where the low cost of network infrastructure is compensated by the high cost of end devices, where the cost of operating such systems also increases.
And the main local obstacle is SCRF (State Radio Frequency Committee), an organization that issues permits for the operation of radio equipment.
The Russian building automation market is developing according to general laws, but with some delay relative to the European and American ones. If there are permits for the use of such systems, the Russian market will be able to develop more actively.
The Building Automation Bulletin creates an information field, thereby promoting the development of wireless and wired building automation technologies in Russia.
Pavel Kokorev
director of industry projects
ZAO RTSoft:
First of all, this is GSM wireless technology with the most optimal — from a cost point of view — method of transmitting information over the GPRS network.
You can also note radio communication channels using radio modems, where, in my opinion, GSM communication channels are the most promising.
When solving problems of providing communication channels to control posts with remote controllers for collecting and processing information, in some cases it is simply impossible or very expensive to communicate via wired lines. Using existing LANs for data transmission at sites is not always possible. Therefore, it is advisable to use wireless technologies here.
CJSC RTSoft developed a project for an automated dispatch system for boiler houses of the Orekhovo-Zuevskaya City Heating Network municipal unitary enterprise. The ASD united five boiler houses located within the city and a dispatcher's workstation located in the administrative building. Technological parameters of boiler houses, as well as energy consumption accounting, were transmitted through the controller to the workstation using GPRS modems with a built-in TCP/IP stack. This decision was due to the high cost of laying wired communication lines in the city.
The main problems are the dependence of information transfer on network providers; lack of interchangeability of communication modules from different manufacturers; If it is possible to implement standard wired communication lines, the cost of transmitting a kilobyte of information over a wireless line is quite high. Add the need for infrastructural changes in implemented wireless communication lines due to the reconstruction of the building, the emergence of various structures, etc., as well as the variability of the radio channel during actual operation of the network.
As for the use of wireless technologies for building automation in the Russian market, it it's just beginning. And if the trend towards decreasing traffic costs continues, these technologies have real prospects when used together with wired LANs.
However, blurring the lines between wireless local computing systems (WLAN) and wired ones today seems to be a rather difficult task in terms of implementing WLAN.
Mikhail Makarov
product manager
automation Schneider Electric:
Today, for building automation, you can use available wireless technologies based on the use of radio frequency modulation of transmitted digital data. The most applicable in this case will be a frequency of several megahertz and data coding with division by access code (CDMA — Code Division Multiply Access), as well as the allocation of several frequency channels for transmitting adjacent but not intersecting data (for example, ventilation control and lighting control) . At the same time, it remains possible to use the necessary means of access control, information encryption, periodic checking of communications on the “request-response” principle and other necessary procedures for maintaining the proper functioning of communications.
In a similar way, you can use data transmission technologies not over the air, but through power wires. Today there are many devices using this principle, including those that transmit the signal with virtually no loss or distortion, even through conventional classic transformers in substations.
Reducing or eliminating the labor costs required for laying specialized communication cables, simplifying access to the serviced facility, both at the installation and commissioning stage, and during the maintenance process, i.e. throughout the entire life cycle of the facility. An additional advantage is the ability to simply, quickly and without excessive costs and without disturbing other participants, add new automation units, as well as exclude old ones from management, if necessary.
The building itself has a large number of different and similar, constantly changing devices that must be connected, if not to the control system, then to the dispatch system. Objects containing such devices can be heat supply control systems, energy distribution systems, and building climate control systems. And if necessary, you can connect both the elevator facilities and the access system to the general dispatch control system. Control of outdoor lighting at night, intelligent control of lighting inside the building have simple and at the same time popular functions. Video surveillance, monitoring the condition of pipelines and automatic roof heating systems in winter — these are a few more options for geographically dispersed monitoring and control facilities, for which an effectively configured wireless access system will allow you to obtain an economic effect, both at the design and implementation stage, and at the operation stage and possible routine maintenance.
Some advantages are also disadvantages. For example, the use of radio frequency access requires the presence of multiple repeaters in different places in order to ensure uniform communication coverage of the entire facility, but at the same time imposes restrictions on their power in accordance with sanitary standards. Or the use of encrypted radio access and other standard means of access control makes it possible not to focus on the issue of penetration into the control system, but does not eliminate this issue. Moreover, an attacker is able, if not to intercept the data he needs or make changes to control actions, then to simply jam the radio signal, isolating for a certain time certain zones from the central control and dispatch system.
Combining transmitted data with cable-supporting systems has undeniable advantages in that we still do not know how to transmit energy except through wires. That is, cable electrical facilities exist de facto at any facility. But the use of cables for data transmission leaves an imprint on the qualifications of maintenance personnel, the use of additional equipment, and the use of specialized power plants that minimally affect the quality of the transmitted data, which in turn leads to an increase in the initial cost of implementing not so much an automated system as a power distribution system.
My forecast pits the advantages and concerns associated with the use of wireless technologies in automation. But of course the advantages are obvious. I can draw a parallel with the use of Ethernet in industrial automation. Five years ago, the main objection of automation specialists to the proposal to use the Ethernet network in their production was the argument about possible potential sabotage from intruders who could make a harmful contribution to the operation of the process plant, coupled with distrust in the operation of the Ethernet network itself and, in particular, in lack of determinism. Today, more and more customers are paying attention to the benefits provided by Ethernet communications and are applying them in their projects. Moreover, the argument about openness and ease of access, which used to be strongly negative, has now become extremely positive. And everyone noted this fact as an undeniable advantage over other communications.
Alexander Pozdnyakov
head of wireless networks at CROC:
For use in offices, Wi-Fi networks are still the most promising, rapidly replacing the outdated DECT standard. Wi-Fi provides a wireless medium for transmitting not only data, but also voice traffic, and already with the quality of service (QoS) management function. With the further development of the Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11n standard, the connection speed for wireless users will increase several times — from the existing 54–108 Mbit/s to 300–400 Mbit/s.
The main advantages of using DECT are the ease of deployment in small installations and the relative low cost of terminal equipment (tubes). Wi-Fi provides a fast and cheap data transmission medium, but deploying voice services on these networks requires additional infrastructure costs. They quickly pay for themselves in medium and large installations where there is no need to maintain two different infrastructures for data and voice transmission.
Nowadays, we practically do not use wireless solutions for technological equipment of office buildings, but they are used where the use of cable systems is difficult. For example, in office buildings that are architectural monuments, in guest access systems, in warehouses, retail premises, hotels, conference rooms, meeting rooms, restaurants, Internet cafes, airports.
Wireless solutions are also used in private homes or to solve some additional local problems that have arisen in addition to the cable system.
The use of wireless technologies for large-scale (out-of-office) networks is hampered by government regulation of the use of frequencies and suboptimal use of already obtained frequency resources by commercial companies. There are a lot of small networks that do not require a system integrator to deploy. But large installations can still be counted on one hand. This is due to the relatively high cost of design, pre-design radio survey, optimization of radio coverage for seamless roaming when moving subscribers, as well as the need to harmonize the use of radio frequencies.
In the West, wireless technologies are developing faster and more actively due to the availability of specially designated radio frequency ranges for use by all interested organizations. Our market is ready for the use of wireless technologies in building automation, but further development of this area depends on government policy in the field of radio frequency regulation.
Alexander Fabrichnev
Director of the Engineering Systems Department at EcoProg:
Technologies of great interest are EnOcean and ZigBee. And if there is a lot of talk about ZigBee, but mostly prototypes are shown, then devices with EnOcean support are already on the market and have been successfully tested in the EcoProg test laboratory. In addition to specialized wireless technologies, it is, of course, necessary to note such general-purpose technologies as various modifications of wireless Ethernet and GSM.
The main advantage of using wireless technologies occurs where other technologies cannot be used to solve some problems. For example, there is a need to control the microclimate in the building, and work related to laying cables along walls and ceilings is prohibited.
The most promising areas of application of wireless technologies are luxury housing (villas and cottages), museums (and other “cultural heritage” buildings) and remote monitoring of equipment via GSM networks.
EcoProg is currently working on implementing an equipment monitoring system at one of the facilities in Moscow using wireless Ethernet. In addition, the equipment monitoring system over GSM networks was successfully tested in a pilot project and mass application of this solution in other EcoProg projects is being prepared.
The main problem is the novelty of the technologies and, accordingly, the small number of implemented projects using them. With the advent of successful implementations, the number of projects using wireless technologies will grow steadily.
Another limiting factor is the very essence of the technologies — their “wireless” nature, i.e. propagation of a signal in space and the associated possibility of its unauthorized interception. In this regard, the use of wireless technologies in particularly hazardous industries, financial institutions and enterprises associated with state secrets is unlikely.
Our forecast for the building automation market is favorable!