A Service-Oriented Alarms System for Intelligent

Building Management

Alexandra Cernian, Radu Iancu, Serban Petrescu Faculty of Automatic Control and Computer Science

“Politehnica” University of Bucharest Bucharest, Romania

Abstract—In the constantly evolving smart building context, an important aspect to address is devices and applications interoperability. The FCINT project provides a service-oriented management framework for smart building facilities through the use of ontologies, intelligent controllers and a Web-based portal. The alarms system presented in this paper is part of the effort to provide a proper framework for enhancing devices and services interoperability in smart buildings environment. Users will benefit of increased comfort, since actions can be taken as soon as an alarm occurs. Alarm conditions and policies can be easily customized and adapted to different scenarios, such as providing support to elderly people or monitoring patients with various medical conditions in their smart home environments. The alarms service provides real time feedback, thus allowing immediate action to be taken.

Keywords—alarms system; service oriented; smart building; service composition

I. INTRODUCTION . In recent years, the smart home concept has significantly

evolved and various research and development projects have been initiated around the world, by both universities and companies. In this context, an important aspect is for the user to be constantly aware of how the system is performing. The user must be notified in real-time should any unexpected event occur in the smart building applications. Therefore, powerful alarms and notification systems must be integrated in smart home and workplace frameworks.

This paper presents a Web service based alarms system, developed in the context of smart building in the FCINT project [1] (Ontology-based Service Composition Framework for Syndicating Building Intelligence), which works in composition with other FCINT Web services. The purpose of this project is to provide a service-oriented management framework for smart building facilities through the use of ontologies, intelligent controllers and a Web-based portal. The alarms system proposed hereby is part of the effort to provide a proper framework for enhancing devices and services interoperability in smart buildings environment. Users will

benefit of increased comfort, since actions can be taken as soon as an alarm is triggered.

The paper in structured as follows: Section 2 introduces the architectural design of the FCINT Web service based alarms system and its composition with other FCINT Web services; Section 3 describes a use case scenario for the SOA based alarms system; Section 4 draws the conclusions of this paper.

II. FCINT ALARMS SYSTEM DESIGN The FCINT project proposes a service-oriented platform for

creating an appropriate smart building infrastructure for people to share their building control services. This project leverages Web 3.0 principles, by using an ontology based approach for Web services composition and reasoning techniques. [9] Figure 1 depicts the overall architecture of the FCINT infrastructure.

Fig. 1. Overall FCINT Architecture [9]

The FCINT portal gathers several Web services which

control all devices in the smart building. The smart building controller (SBC) is will be installed in buildings in order to connect to the FCINT portal, to remotely configure, control and manage various devices.

The FCINT alarms system is a Web service integrated in the FCINT portal which aims at monitoring parameters from different input devices (air conditioners, lights, windows, sensors) in order to notify users as soon as one of the monitored parameters reaches an alarm condition FCINT alarms service works closely with other portal services, as illustrated in Figure 1

2013 19th International Conference on Control Systems and Computer Science

978-0-7695-4980-4/13 $26.00 © 2013 IEEE

DOI 10.1109/CSCS.2013.64

425

2013 19th International Conference on Control Systems and Computer Science

978-0-7695-4980-4/13 $26.00 © 2013 IEEE

DOI 10.1109/CSCS.2013.64

425

Fig. 2.The integration of the alarms system in FCIN

The alarms service is connected to themonitor real-time values of the alarm variablThe list of monitored variables is defined alarms configurator (see Figure 3).

Fig. 3. Alarms Configurator

Whenever a parameter value receivedreaches the alarm condition set by the confwill be generated and users will be notifiedused to store the alarm handling operatorsusername and email address will be stored inEnvironment Manager is the user interface fservice parameters in the portal. The Clienconsole application which is able to connservice and provide the user an interface forThe user can see the alarms logs over a speciand acknowledge active alarms. The funapplication emulate the Environment Manage

A more detailed architecture of the alarmcommunication schema ares depicted in Figu

NT portal

SBC in order to es for each device. with a dedicated

d from the SBC figurator, an alarm d. A Users file is . For each user, a n text format. The for configuring the nt Application is a nect to the alarms r alarms handling. fied period of time

nctionality of this er alarms module.

ms system and its ure 4.

Fig. 4. FCINT alarms system archi

Alarms will be defined bConfigurator and afterward mManager or the Client Applicthe user to specify the monitoenrolled in the FCINT portal, trigger the alarms. Alarms Alarms.xml file. Here is an exdefined in the xml alarms file. <alarm>

<name>WIFInode0</ <conditions> <condition> <deviceName>WIFIn <DID>1211006</DID <property>Tempera <operator><![CDAT <value>27</valu </condition> <condition> <deviceName>WIFIn <DID>1211006</DID <property>Tempera <operator><![CDAT <value>20</value> </condition> <status>Ack</status> <time>180</time> </alarm>

The time attribute indicatesfor acknowledgment before notmanagers file. Depending on thcan specify a shorter or a lattribute.

The alarms service is conSBC, in order to monitor theparameters values. When an alawill be triggered and users wSMS. Alarms will be stored instructure:

- Alarm description - Date - Time - Device that generated the a- Status: handled / unhan

value: UnAck. - List of users which have b

itecture

by the user using the alarms managed through Environment cation. The Configurator allows ored parameters for each device

along with the conditions that conditions are stored in the ample of 2 alarm conditions, as

/name>

node0</deviceName> D> ature</property> TA[>]]></operator> ue>

node0</deviceName> D> ature</property> TA[<]]></operator> >

s the timespan the system awaits tifying the next user in the alarm he severity of the alarm, the user longer period of time for this

stantly communicating with the e devices state and to receive arm condition occures, an alarm

will be notified by email or by n a log file having the following

alarm ndled (Ack / UnAck). Default

been notified

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- The user who acknowledged the alarm (by changing the UnAck status into Ack)

Figure 5 depicts the UML use case diagram for the FCINT alarms service. The interactions between the user, the SBC, the portal which contains several Web services (air conditioner services, energy service, database log service) and the alarms service can be easily noticed.

Fig. 5. FCINT alarms service use case diagram

The lifecycle of an alarm has four states, as presented in the UML state diagram in Figure 6. The initial state of an alarm is Inactive UnAck. When the alarm condition is met and the alarm isoccured, its state changes to Active UnAck. The users notification process is started and when a user acknowledges the alarm, its state becomes Active Ack. In order for a specific alarm to become inactive again, the system must ensure that the condition which triggered the alarm is resolved and that all functioning parameters are under control. When the alarm condition is no longer detected as true, the alarm trasitions into its final state, Inactive Ack, which ends its lifecycle.

Fig,6. Alarm statechart diagram

The users notification procedure is the following:

0. The alarm is generated by the system.

1. The SBC is queried to check whether there is any user connected to the application at that moment.

Case 1: There is no user connected to the FCINT portal

• The alarm will be sent by email to the first user in the list of alarms operators from the Users file

• The alarms log file will be updated with the details of the triggered alarm.

The default value for its status is UnAck, and it will be automatically changed to Ack when a user acknowledges the alarm.

• If the notified user does not acknowledge the alarm within a predefined period of time, the one defined in the alarm configurator, the alarm will be automatically sent to the next user in the alarm managers list.

• The process continues until the alarm is acknowledged or the last operator in the Users file is informed.

• If the alarm is not acknowledged by the time the end of the list of users is reached, the alarms service will restart the notification process.

• If, in the meantime, the alarm is acknowledged in the Environment Manager, the email notification process is stopped and the log file will be updated with the status change into Ack. UserN is the username that acknowledged the alarm.

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Fig. 7. Alarms history

Case 2: There is a user connected to the

• The connected user is retrived from th

• The alarm is displayed in the Enviuser interface.

• The alarm is logged into the alarms lo

• If the logged user does not maacknowledged in a predefined timeemail notification procedure is startedscenario defined in Case 1.

Fig. 8. Acknowledge alarm

III. THE RELEVANCE OF SERVICE ORIESYSTEM

In real life systems various deviceapplications contain notification modulefeatures. Most of the times, their main drawbopenness and flexibility to allow the user tconditions and monitor the entire lifecycletriggered alarms.

The service oriented approach proposed into fill this gap, by providing a highly foriented alarm system for smart buildings eauthors of [4] and [5] also discuss the advanof developing service oriented approachesystems. In [4], the author focuses on prooriented prototype for deployable SMnotifications.

The FCINT alarms system has a flexidesign, so users can easily customize according to their needs. The alarms service to the policy service published on the Fpolicy service allows users to configure oper

e FCINT portal

he SBC.

ironment Manager

og file

ark the alarm as e interval DT, the d, according to the

ENTED ALARMS

es and software es and archiving back is the lack of o configure alarm

e and feedback of

n this paper comes flexible and user-enhancement. The ntages and benefits s for notification oposing a service MS and email

ible and modular its functionalities is closely related

FCINT portal.The rating rules for the

smart building. For example, shthe windows open. The alarmpolicies and detects if one of tMoreover, individual alarm coalarm Configurator. Thereforintegrated the policy and aladegree of flexibility and deviadaptive to any smart building The smart building context is to improve the comfort anworking spaces. Moreover, undertaken and working spacehave been undertaken in ordelderly and medically impairehealth approaches with smart significant benefits to patient han alarms component reacting The system must react at onceoccur, and further notify himmediate action can be taken

Let us consider the followinutritional disease diagnosis (by his doctor and he receives ahis diet and medication. Moreintelligent environment, there constant monitoring and contrthe physician in case some predefined range. In this wayimmediately take action in ordsituation. What does the patiento achieve the proposed goal?intelligent devices, sensors blood pressure monitor, smaapplications to monitor the nuparameters or to make sure medication. Through the FCINdevices and applications interoBy using a Web-based appconstantly connected to the Fcan receive data in real time frdefine the set of rules (policiespecific ranges for each patparameters goes outside its ranthe physician will be notified walarms system. Depending odifferent measures can be taphone call can be made to the e

hut down the air conditioning if ms system interprets the set of the policy rules fails to happen. onditions can be defined via the re, the FCINT portal, having arms services, provides a high ice interoperability, being fully context. is user-oriented. Its main focus

nd security of daily living and numerous efforts have been

es. Moreover, numerous efforts der for smart homes to assist d people. The integration of e-buildings capabilities can bring healthcare. For such a scenario, on a real-time basis is critical.

e, should any unexpected event health care providers. Thus, for the patient. ing scenario: a patient with a (such as diabetes) is monitored a series of recommendations for eover, as the patient lives in an

are devices he connects to for rol, which can afterward notify parameter is detected out of a y, the healthcare provider can

der to prevent aggravation of the nt need in his living environment ? First of all, he needs several and applications: glucometer,

art phone or tablet, intelligent umber of calories or other diet that the patient has taken his

NT portal Web services, all these operate and data are centralized. plication, the doctor can be CINT portal as well, where he rom his patients. The doctor can es) and parameter values within tient. As soon as one of the nge or a policy is not respected, with an alarm, using the FCINT on the severity of the alarm, ken. In severe cases, a direct emergency services.

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Fig. 9. FCINT alarms system in e-health context At the time being, the FCINT portal and its services have

been tested and validated in an intelligent building environment consisting of several devices and sensors. Various policies have been defined in order to control room temperature, humidity and luminosity via air conditioning devices and sensors. Each device type has an associated service for configuration and control, all services being integrated into the FCINT portal. The alarms system is currently published as a service on the portal and notifies users via email. In the near future, we plan to configure the service in order to send notifications also via SMS. Moreover, the devices network will be extended for broader contexts, thus facilitating a exhaustive validation of the FCINT portal and will stress once again the benefits of service oriented approach for enhancing smart building interoperability.

IV. CONCLUSIONS This paper presented the design and benefits of a Web

service based alarms system, developed in the context of smart building operation through service composition within the FCINT project [1] (Ontology-based Service Composition Framework for Syndicating Building Intelligence).. The

alarms system described hereby is part of the powerful FCINT framework for enhancing devices and services interoperability in smart buildings environment. Users get benefit of increased and safe operating comfort, since actions can be taken as soon as an alarm occurs. The paper introduced a detailed architectural model of the SOA based alarms system and presented several scenarios which emphasize the flexibility of the FCINT system. The benefits of the FCINT architecture, together with the alarms system, have been emphasized through a use case scenario, integrating smart home environment in the context of e-health applications. This scenario underlines the interoperability and flexibility capabilities of the Web service based approach for alarms systems.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT The research presented in this paper was supported by the

EU POS-CCE project FCINT No. 181/18.06.2010.

REFERENCES

[1] FCINT project. Online, available at: www.fcint.ro [2] Katasonov A. and Palviainen, M. Towards Ontology-driven

Development of Applications for Smart Environments. In: Proc. Intl. Workshop on the Web of Things at PerCom'10 , March 29 - April 2, 2010, Mannheim, Germany.J. Clerk Maxwell, A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism, 3rd ed., vol. 2. Oxford: Clarendon, 1892, pp.68-73.

[3] W. Tsai, S. Petrescu, L. Bucur, C. Chera, “A Service-Oriented Approach for Intelligent Building Management”, Proceedings of the CSCS17 Conference, 2011.

[4] Filip Nguyen, “Advanced Notification System”, Masaryk University Faculty of Informatics, Diploma Thesis, 2012 [5] José M. Reyes Álamo, Tanmoy Sarkar, Johnny Wong, “Composition of

Services for Notification in Smart Homes”, Second International Symposium on Universal Communication, 2008.

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