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Quick Poll: The Future of Wireless Building Automation
Five questions for experts:
1. Which wireless technologies for building automation are the most promising?
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 in the Russian market?
Victor Gutman
Technical Director
«InternetDom Company»:
In my opinion, the clear favorite is Wi-Fi. Although this standard is poorly «tailored» for 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 contribute to its distribution.
The EnOcean technology is very promising, the main advantage of which is battery-free sensors. It uses the energy of photocells or piezoelectric transducers, in rare cases — batteries, but very economically. This technology cannot provide communication over long distances, but is very attractive for the «last meters».
The radio bus of the Insta group 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, i.e. some devices can retransmit signals from others, helping to significantly increase the coverage area. But there are still problems with the stability of operation.
Z-Wave is being developed as a cheaper alternative to ZigBee: with a similar construction principle, but less functionality
Wireless technologies dramatically reduce the number of cables. As a result, labor costs for installation at the facility. Wireless solutions are very flexible. The system can always be installed at a finished facility, and changes can be made. Wireless systems can potentially replace wired systems almost everywhere, but today the direction of creating various wireless sensors is developing most actively. 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 at every facility. And mainly to ensure the operation of portable touch control panels. Sometimes as a backbone level or a «bridge» between different buildings. Sometimes for IP video cameras.
Battery-less EnOcean sensors have been used frequently by us recently and at all sites. Most often, these are magnetic contact sensors (reed switches) with solar cells and key sensors on piezoelectric elements.
The radio bus of the Insta group 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 to which, for some reason, a cable is not connected.
We tested ZigBee equipment about a year and a half ago together with Luxoft. Unfortunately, both the hardware and software were very raw at that time, so we had to abandon practical use. We are waiting for complete solutions and for reasonable money, since the standard seems promising to us.
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 (control of valve drives at a distance with a broken cable). Further use has been suspended for now due to shortcomings in the automatic retransmission mechanism. Another disadvantage is that almost all manufacturers of this standard work in the Do It Yourself genre, which sharply worsens the marketing appeal for our consumer.
The main problem with wireless technologies is 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 cable to the device for power, it is no longer a wireless solution. Therefore, you have to look for either a compromise between the operating speed and battery life, or alternative energy, as in EnOcean. But there are difficulties there too. Price is another barrier. Wireless equipment is either very expensive or made 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 the Europeans and Americans «get the hang of it», we will quickly catch up with them in wireless technologies. And maybe even overtake them, 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 transfer, low power consumption.
Among the promising standards, I would note ZigBee (which is called the younger brother of Bluetooth), EnOcean (technology without using an internal energy source), RFID (movement control systems).
What are the advantages? In the simplicity of network expansion, in the low cost of network infrastructure (absence of cable communication lines), in the possibility of use in places difficult to access for cable or where its installation is impossible or unprofitable.
Honeywell has equipment and solutions that support wireless technologies, and has accumulated extensive experience 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 factors include technological limitations of the implemented solutions, security issues, electromagnetic compatibility with other equipment, the cost of the system, where the low cost of the network infrastructure is offset by the high cost of the end devices, where the cost of operating such systems also increases.
And the main local obstacle is the State Committee for Radio Frequencies (SCRF), 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 compared to the European and American ones. With the availability of 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 facilitating the development of wireless and wired building automation technologies in Russia.
Pavel Kokorev
Director of Industry Projects
RTSoft CJSC:
First of all, this is wireless GSM technology with the most optimal — in terms of cost — method of transmitting information over the GPRS network.
Radio communication channels using radio modems can also be noted, where GSM communication channels are the most promising, in my opinion.
When solving the problems of providing communication channels for 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.
ZAO RTSoft developed a project for an automated dispatching system for boiler houses of the MUP Orekhovo-Zuyevskaya City Heating Network. The automated dispatching system united five boiler houses located within the city limits and a dispatcher's workstation located in the administrative building. Technological parameters of the boiler houses, as well as energy consumption records, 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; the lack of interchangeability of communication modules from different manufacturers; with the possibility of implementing standard wired communication lines, the rather high cost of transmitting a kilobyte of information over a wireless line. Add the need for infrastructure changes to the implemented wireless communication lines due to the reconstruction of the building, the emergence of all sorts of 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 is just beginning. And if the trend of decreasing traffic costs continues, these technologies have real prospects when used together with wired LANs.
However, erasing the boundaries between wireless local area networks (WLANs) and wired ones today seems to be quite a difficult task in terms of implementing WLANs.
Mikhail Makarov
Product Manager for Automation
Schneider Electric:
Today, available wireless technologies based on the application of radio frequency modulation of transmitted digital data can be used for the automation of buildings. The most applicable in this case will be a frequency of several megahertz and data coding with division by access code (CDMA – Code Division Multiple Access), as well as the allocation of several frequency channels for the transmission of 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 verification of communications on the “request-response” principle and other necessary procedures for maintaining the proper functioning of communications.
In a similar way, it is possible to use data transmission technologies not via the air, but via power lines. Today, there are many devices that use this principle, including those that transmit signals with virtually no loss or distortion even through conventional classic transformers at substations.
Reduction or elimination of labor costs required for laying specialized communication cables, simplified access to the serviced facility, both at the installation and commissioning stage, and during maintenance, 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 control, 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 dispatching system. Objects containing such devices can be heat supply control systems, energy distribution, climate control systems in the building. And if necessary, it is possible to connect both the elevator system and the access control system to the general dispatching control system. Control of external 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 — here are some more options for geographically dispersed control and management objects for which an effectively configured wireless access system will allow to obtain an economic effect, both at the design and implementation stage, and at the stage of operation and possible routine maintenance.Some advantages are also disadvantages. For example, the use of radio frequency access presupposes the presence of multiple repeaters in different places in order to ensure uniform coverage of the entire facility with communications, but at the same time imposes restrictions on their power in accordance with sanitary standards. Or the use of coded radio access and other standard means of access control allows not to focus on the issue of penetration into the control system, but does not remove this issue. Moreover, an intruder is able, if not to intercept the data he needs or make changes to the control actions, then simply jam the radio signal, isolating certain zones from the central control and dispatching system for a certain time.
Combining transmitted data with cable support 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 its mark on the qualifications of service personnel, the use of additional equipment, the use of specialized power plants that have a minimal effect on the quality of 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 against each other. 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 Ethernet in their production was the argument about possible potential harm from intruders who could make their own malicious contribution to the operation of the technological installation, coupled with mistrust of the operation of the Ethernet network itself and, in particular, the lack of determinism. Today, more and more customers are paying attention to the advantages provided by communications on the Ethernet network and are using them in their projects. Moreover, the argument about openness and ease of access, which used to be sharply negative, has become extremely positive today. And everyone noted this fact as an undeniable advantage over other communications.
Alexander Pozdnyakov
Head of Wireless Networks at KROK:
For use in offices, the most promising networks are still the Wi-Fi standard, which is intensively replacing the outdated DECT standard. Wi-Fi provides a wireless environment for transmitting not only data, but also voice traffic, and already with the function of quality of service (QoS) management. With 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 cheapness of terminal equipment (handsets). Wi-Fi provides a fast and cheap data transmission medium, but the deployment of voice services in these networks requires additional costs for the corresponding infrastructure. 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.
Currently, 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 halls, meeting rooms, restaurants, Internet cafes, airports.
Also, wireless solutions are used in private homes or to solve some additional local problems in addition to the cable system.
The use of wireless technologies for large-scale (outside office) networks is constrained by government regulation of frequency use and suboptimal use of already acquired frequency resources by commercial companies. There are many small networks that do not require a system integrator to deploy. However, large installations can still be counted on the fingers of one hand. This is due to the relatively high cost of design, pre-project radio survey, optimization of radio coverage for seamless roaming when subscribers move, as well as the need to coordinate the use of radio frequencies.
In the West, wireless technologies are developing faster and more actively due to the availability of specially allocated 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 of EcoProg:
Of great interest are the technologies: EnOcean and ZigBee. And if ZigBee is much talked about, but mostly prototypes are shown, then devices with EnOcean support are already present on the market and have successfully passed tests in the EcoProg test laboratory. In addition to specialized wireless technologies, it is necessary to note such general-purpose technologies as various modifications of wireless Ethernet and GSM.
The main advantage of using wireless technologies is manifested in situations where other technologies cannot be used to solve certain problems. For example, there is a need to control the microclimate in a building, but it is prohibited to carry out work related to laying cables on walls and ceilings.
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.
Currently, EcoProg is working on implementing an equipment monitoring system at one of the sites in Moscow using wireless Ethernet’a. In addition, a pilot project successfully tested an equipment monitoring system via GSM networks and is preparing for mass application of this solution in other EcoProg projects.
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 steadily grow.
Another restraining factor is the very essence of the technologies — their «wireless», i.e. the propagation of a signal in space and the associated possibility of its unauthorized interception. In this regard, the use of wireless technologies in especially hazardous industries, financial institutions and enterprises associated with state secrets is unlikely.
Our forecast for the building automation market is favorable! |
