Some Aspects about Smart Building Management Systems [600225]

Some Aspects about Smart Building Management Systems
– Solutions for Green, Secure and Smart Buildings

POPESCU DANIELA E.*, PRADA MARCELA F. **,
Department of Computer Science*, Department of Civil Engineering**
University of Oradea
Str.Universitatii n r.1, Oradea
ROMANIA
[anonimizat]*, [anonimizat] **

Abstract: – In this paper we present some aspects related with the impact of the new digital, communication and
facilities technology development in the implementation of Smart Building M anagement Systems (SBMS) –
integrated tools for monitoring , controlling and ensuring the control, comfort and efficiency in use of
Intelligent Buildings integrated in Intelligent Campus. The integration becomes possible due to the
applications of advanced IT technologies such as Web Services. The Smart Building Management Systems can
be integrated and managed at enterprise level or even at campus level [ 10] . So, taking into account the
advantage of integration, we e stimate that we will assist to the replacement of individual BMS as key elements
for green buildings with SMBS, that integrates functions of multiple BMS through a single platform system that can be implemented in a private cloud.

Key-Words: – Building M anagement Systems, green building, s mart building management systems, smart cities

1 Introduction
A city is a collection of individuals who live and
work together. It is important to point out their
cohabitation goal, which is to obtain results greater
than the sum of their individual actions. It is defined
by a dynamic work in progress, with progress as
main objective.
In fact, a city is an interconnected system of
systems, which is made and defined by infrastructure, operations and people. “A tripod tha t
relies on strong support for and among each of its
pillars, to become a smarter city for all” (IBM –
http://www.ibm.com/smarterplanet/us/en/smarter_ci
ties/overview/index.html).
Cities generally have advanced systems f or waste
management, utilities , trans portation, health,
security etc. The great IT companies have already promoted the concept of Smart City.
In [Fig. 1 ] the smart city is defined by the
following important elements: intelligent Energy,
intelligent s afety, intelligent buildings, smart water,
intelligent transport, smart healthcare. It can balance
its social needs, environmental needs, and commercial needs – by optimizing resources at
its disposal.
On the other hand, i n order to provide the
facilities necessary for maintaining a comfortable,
secure and efficient energy consuming working
environment , the buildings must be provided with some form of mechanical and electrical services.
These services must be controlled by some means to
ensure that th eir functions are conforming the
necessities.

Fig. 1. T he smart city concept

In the frame of the smart city concept, a Smart
Building is the place – house, office, holiday house –
that use modern technology for its automation
systems and equipment in order to ensure the
security, com fort, efficient energy consuming and
even efficient task scheduling for the building activities. It is important to point out that these
Smart Buildings must also provide the needed Intelligent
Energ y

Intelligent
Buildings Intelligent
Safety

Intelligent
Water

Intelligent
Transport

Intelligent
Healthcare

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functions imposed by the Smart City. All these
functions will be integrated at the city level in order
to permit the realization of the Smart City.

2. Intelligent building pyramid
The b asic controls of a building can be realized
in the form of manual switching, time clocks or
even temperature switches that provide the on and
off signals for enabling pumps, fans or valves etc.
In [ 10] is given a proper representation for the
Intelligent building pyramid, which express very
well the evolution of intelligent buildin g systems
(Fig. 2 ).

Fig. 2 Intelligent building pyramid [ 10]

With the rapid evolution of technology, smart
building management systems are becoming more
and more advanced, and the level of integration is being developed progressively from the subsystem
level to total building integration and convergence
of information systems [ 10]. At the beginning the
automation of building systems were achieved at the
level of individual equipment, but after 1980 these equipment began to be integrated. So, at the stage of
building level integrated systems, the automations
elements and the communication systems were
integrated at building level as building automation
system (BAS) and integrated communication system (ICS). The system could be accessed remotely via
telephone network using a modem, while the cellular phone for voice and data communication
was introduced to the market [ 10].
At and after the stage of computer integrated
building , due to the intensive use of Internet
Protocol and to the increase of communications
capacities, convergence networks became available
and were used in practice progressively. T he
integration was at the building level , with r emote
monitoring and control achieved via the Internet . At
the last stage the smart building management systems can be integrated and managed at enterprise level or even city level [ 10].
SBMS of one building are merged with SBMS of
other buildings as well as other information systems
via the global Internet infrastr ucture (these systems
are not enc losed within buildings); Integration and
management at this level become possible due to the
applications of advanced IT technologies such as
Web Services, XML, remote portfolio management
and helpdesk management. It is important to point
out that a great impact in all our lives have the high
development of communications, that permitted the image communication via cellular phone to be
brought into practical use [ 10]

3. SBMS – the new trend in designing
smart buildings BMS
The purpose of a Building Management System (BMS) is to automate and take control of all facilities operations in the most optimal and
efficient way, within the constraints of the installed devices. A Building Management System (BMS) is
a computer -based control system installed in
buildings that controls and monitors the building’s
mechanical and electrical equipment such
ventilation, lighting, power systems, fire systems, media systems, communication systems and security
systems. A BMS consists of software and hardware;
the software program, is usually configured in a hierarchical manner, and can be proprietary using
protocols as C -bus, EIB/KNX, Profibus (PROcess
Fieldbus), EIBnet/IP etc. As the interest for BMS
was increasing, vendors are producing BMSs that
integrate using Internet protocols and open
standards like DeviceNet, SOAP, XML, BACnet,
Lon and Modbus [ 1] [ 2 ] [ 4]..
BMS systems are delivered as fully integrated
systems and services through companies like
Siemens, Honeywell, Johnson Controls, Rockwell
Automation, Delta, TAC and others. There were
also developed some more flexible solutions that link BMS systems to enterprise management
software like SAP, OpenView, Archibus, Maximo,
Augusta Systems, GridLogix, Network Harbor,
North Building Technologies Ltd, and Tridium [ 5]
[ 6][ 7].
The level of control via the BMS is dependent upon the information received from its sensors and the
way in which its programmes tell it to respond to
that information. As well as offering a precise
degre e of control to its environment, it can be made
to alarm on conditions that can’t meet specification or warn of individual items of plant failure [ 9].
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BMS is ba sically a solution which is inte grated into
a facili ty to ensure an environment that is safe,
secure, comfortable and energy efficient [ 11]. In
order to be efficient, the BMS must be properly integrated into the facilities,
Typical applications of BMS in a buildi ng are given
in Fig. 3. Taking into consideration that BMS can be
used for minimizing energy consumption and maximizing indoor comfort, it results to be an
important tool for any sustainable design. A fully
optimiz ed BMS can save energy cost to the extend
of 15-20% as compared to a building without BMS [
11].
A green building can have the best of systems,
lighting, efficient glass etc; however, optimization
of performance can be ensured only through regular monitoring with the help of BMS. BMS can help
real-time monitoring and record of past data. This
enable diagnosis in the event of any non-performance [5].

Fig. 3 Typical application for BMS , SBM S
SBMS, having like BMS the role of ensuring an
integration platform, they are different from a
conventional BMS system, because it brings together three key technology frameworks [ 8]:
• Enterprise Application Integration
• Business Process Management
• Service Portal
The Internet is fast becoming the default enterprise network, driving business transformation in every
area of activity. Wireless & broadband technologies
are leading to the development of mobile technologies, that change consumer expectations
and use dramatically. The Systems for managing the
buildings, are evolving from an integration platform
sitting inside the building to a service platform
sitting in Internet, and the SBMS functionality become delivered as service. The Internet enables the development of mobile cloud technologies with
high implications in the development of SBMS,
enabling the delivery of new types of services that exploit the ability to aggregate, consolidate and
streamline process es, services and systems across
multiple buildings, people and geographic locations. Also, real -time information from any site can be
captured in real time and turned into actionable business intelligence [ 14].
SBMS provide a foundation for new forms of
services. SBMS eliminate the requirement for the
multitude of expensive BMS, improve functionality
and overall performance of systems by integrating
them into an enhanced IT infrastructure.
Furthermore, the implem entation of client defined
Business Process Management across the entire
integrated Electromechanical and IT Infrastructure
is giving an important satisfaction to the costumer.
Buildings today are provided with multiple
proprietary networks for various BMS , and
telephony and data networks. It leads to complex
and expensive network management issues, high
installation costs with limited functionality and
automation. Thus, a Managed Services Platform that
provide a Single Management System with integrated, in telligent functionality is the solution
for a SBMS [ 8].

Fig. 4 BMS integration on the Internet – LAN-
integrated Internetaccessible [ 10 ]
The use of Internet technologies for developing the
management software for SBMS has the following advantages [ 10]:
• It allows developing quickly the software at a low
cost ( many standard functions and tools can be used and adopted directly).
• the developed software packages for management
are more open in terms of protocol and
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technologies. So, it becomes easier for ordinary
users to use them
• software packages can easily adopt the management functions of new ‘third – party’ devices
and systems – many of the hardware devices are
developed to be Internet compatible. When is considered the integration of SBMS with
the Internet at management level, current
applications can be illustrated by two typical
categories – which are different in terms of the
degree of integration [ 10].

Fig. 5 BMS integration on the Internet – information
and services integration using middleware
technology [ 10]

situation represented in Fig. 5 , a kind of data and
services integration on the Internet, is the real
“information and services integration” on the
Internet. In this case, different BMSs communicate
over the Internet using middleware technology, with
BMSs and
Devices exchanging data and information. The
middleware components communicate by standard
protocol, such as Extensible Markup Language
(XML)
protocol, providing a series of Web Services to be
accessible by customer’s applications. The
applications can request data and control data points
of various BMSs by the Web Services method. It is
important to point out that BMS software may also
invoke other Web Services on the Interne t to
achieve specific functions (a weather bureau could
offer a Web Service that allows a BMS to
automatically retrieve temperature forecast data).
On the other hand, the BMS itself could offer a Web
Service [ 10].
In our days, due to the development of communications capacities, all networks are beginning to converge and the total integration of
BMS into the SBMS it is now a reality. New technologies now make it not just possible but
convenient to route voice and video phone calls over
an enterprise’s data network, as well as over the
Internet. Voice can be transferred by VoIP technology on the Internet or intranet.. The video
systems (CCTV) and audio system can also be
integrated into the IP networks of BMS and
therefore merged easily into the enterprise network.
The enterprise network usually performs as the data
network for office automation systems, and provides
e- mail and Internet access, telephone network
(VoIP), videoconferencing network, video on
demand network and digital TV network on the
same network. In such a way the total integration of
building management systems can be carried out
and the total integration of SBMS (i.e. building automation, communication automation and office
automation) is achieve d easily on the basis of IP
technologies and an enterprise network [ 10].

3. Existing Platform Solutions for
Implementing SBMS
In [ 13], Ariel Schwartz says that “t he prototypical
smart building project comes from IBM, which is
turning its 280,000 square foot headquarters in
Armonk, New York into a pilot for the company's Smart Building initiative. Features of the system
include a building management system that keeps
track of 7,600 points of data about system
performance (i.e. hot water, HVAC, security),
automatically generated energy and operational alerts, and security badge scans that keep track of
how many people are in a building at any given time (to optimize lighting and heating). Companies like
IBM and Johnson Controls that focus on smart
building projects can expect a windfall in the coming years as building managers realize that these
high-tech, ultra- complex systems actually pay off”.
The ability to collect, analyze and sort building data quickly is critical to the real- time energy and
performance optimization of a smarter building.
IBM, was one of the first important Companies
interested in developing solutions for smart cities and also for SBMS. So, IBM implemented the IBM
TRIRIGA Energy Optimization solution.
IBM TRIRIGA Energy Optimization provides [
12]:
• Real-time data gathering and analysis of energy
and operational metrics of all infrastructure assets.
• A consolidated, role- based dashboard view of
building data. It can be visualized energy,
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environmental and portfolio performance
metrics.
• Integrated energy and facilities operations to
help increase building management effectiveness, staff productivity and energy efficiency.
• Support for multiple building management
systems to provide a comprehensive, integrated
building management solution [ 12].
Another solution offered by IBM is IBM TRIRIGA:
Facilities Management. It provides a single, integrated workplace management system to
manage the life cycle of facilities. It delivers business analytics, critical alerts and automated
processes to increase visibility, control and
automation of real estate management, capital
projects, space management, facility maintenance
and energy management [ 12]. The third solution for SBMS offered by IBM is IBM
Maximo: Enterprise Asset Management [ 12 ].
Actionable Business Architecture for Smarter Cities, an IBM product, consists of a set of operating
models, including a model for the city ecosystem (city ecosystem model), models for individual
systems of cities and models for shared functions
like finance, HR, and payroll. All these models, can
be further examined using performance metrics,
process models, IT models, business solutions and
project initiatives. This is a solution for aligning
business elements with the city’s priorities and for
reducing their complexity to a manageable level [
13].
There are also other propprietary solutions on the
market. The iViva.works EAI Framework ( Fig. 6 ) is
quite different from the integration capabilities of other commercially available BMS systems [ 8 ]:
• iViva.works EAI works across virtually any
system or application including control systems, enterprise business applications and transaction based systems
• iViva.works EAI Framework is object –
oriente d. The Framework provides the ability to
create an integrated application
structure/middleware of hierarchical components
(Application Objects) using object -oriented
workflow methodology
Distinctive features of the iViva.works EAI
Framework include [ 8 ]:
• Global application changes can be
propagated from Application Object templates
• It is possible to configure objects centrally
while run time processing can be distributed
• An Application- Level Security Gateway
enable s the isolation of subsystems and applications within a private network, behind a router and firewall so that no public IP address is exposed.
• Application Objects can be configured to
build relationships between disparate applications and subsystems enabli ng condition- based/event –
based management of processes iViva.works BPM
Framework includes tools and functions for management providing business visibility in
operations and maintenance: Event Recognition,
Process Initiation, Process Tracking, System Associ ation, Exception Reporting, Process
Modelling, Generating Statistics [ 8 ].

Fig. 6 iViva.works EAI Framework [ 8 ]

4 Our Proposed Platform Solutions
SBMS
In present we have already implemented at University of Oradea a BMS for a laboratory for
teaching Intelligent building facilities to our students enrolled in a Master Program named:
Engineering Building Management Field. It was
developed in the frame of an HU RO Project,
together with University of Debrecen. We intend to develop at University of Oradea a SBMS, for
managing the building facilities of our Campus A.
Our solution is based on a private Cloud implemented with Eucalyptus Framework [ 15] [
16]. We already have implemented such a Cloud at the Computer System Architecture Laboratory, and
we intend to use it in order to realize an integrated
building management solution for the entire Campus.
Eucalyptus is easy to install and flexible for
integrating. The software is very modular,
combining various Web services that inter -operate
using standard communication protocols. It
implements machines and virtuali zed storage
resources which are interconnected via a network level 2 OSI (Open System Interconnect).
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From the perspective of an applications running at
client level, the application programming interface
is compatible with AWS interface, with support for
both SOAP and REST. Other interfaces can be also integrated by customization.
Each high- level component is implemented as an
independent web service that exposes a
programming interface as a WSDL document that
contains the operations that the web service can
perform and the structures of the input and output
data. It permit s also to integrate existing Web
service features (such as policies for secure
communication between components).

Fig. 7 Eucalyptus Architecture [ 17 ]

According with [ 17], the Eucalyptus architecture includes five components ( Fig. 7 ): Cloud Controller
(CLC), Walrus, Cluster Controller (CC), Storage
Controller (SC) and Node Controller (NC).
The private cloud was deployed using the binary
packages of Eucalyptus 2.0.3 open source for CentOS operating system, as presented in [ 15 ].
At present, we use the KNX protocol, an OSI –
based network communications
protocol for intelligent buildings . KNX is designed
to be independent of any particular hardware platform. A KNX Device Network can be controlled
by anything from an 8 -bit microcontroller to a PC,
according to the needs of a particular implementation. The most common form of
installation i s over twisted pair medium.
KNX is approved as an open standard to: International standard (ISO/IEC 14543 -3), Canadian
standard (CSA -ISO/IEC 14543- 3), European
Standard (CENELEC EN 50090 and CEN EN 13321-1), China Guo Biao (GB/Z 20965).
We have to ensure t he security facilities for 8
buildings, which includes, the detection systems, the
CATV monitoring systems, and the fire detection
systems. We intend also to develop an energy
monitoring system, that will monitor the energy
consumed for these buildings and will balance the energy source from geothermal, to solar and
electrical. We already have a geothermal plant at
our university, and some projects that are ongoing
for renewable energy sources.

4 Conclusion
The goal of our research was to identify the new trends for managing smart buildings in order to
identify a potential solution for implementing
SBMS in our university. The efficiency of using
SBMS instead of using individual Building Management Systems (BMS) at a campus level is
obvious.
In conclusion, as the integration is essential for most
functions of intelligent building systems (such as
automatic monitoring and management, and
building performance optimization and diagnosis),
the integration of Intelligent Building components
and subsystems has been the trend of the new
technology development. The integration of the
automation and control systems is the basis for
function integration, which increases the flexibility
and possibilities of intelligent management of buildings.
Systems that consist of traditional technologies have
many constraints in terms of information exchange and integration. So, the development of digital and
communication technologies have a very important role in the integration process. The cloud
computing, and even the mobile cloud computing
providing high power in computation,
communication and in information processing, is the
key element of the new SBMS generation.
Distributed intelligence is a major philosophical
solution to ensure the reliability of complex SMBS.

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