XML and Web Services as a Facility Management Tool

Paul Ehrlich, PEBusiness Development Leader

Trane Global Controls

2

Buildings need to be an information source

– Energy– Comfort / productivity– Safety– Asset tracking– Required repairs

3

The Need is for… Knowledge and Building System Integration

Knowledge Knowledge Based SolutionBased Solution

Knowledge Knowledge Based SolutionBased Solution

MachineMachine

ControlControl

MachineMachine

ControlControlSystemSystem

ControlControl

SystemSystem

ControlControl

4

Open Standards

• Open standards are an expectation by owners today– Single seat operations and the need for

future options are driving forces

• BACnet and LonTalk are great solutions - but neither was designed for the web and are not readily integrated with business systems

5

Internet Standards

• Internet standards (XML / Web Services) are the future. These include– Physical - Ethernet, TCP/IP– Human readable - HTML, JAVA, Active X– Machine readable - XML, SOAP, SNMP,

SMTP, .NET, J2EE, SQL

• Web pages for user interface• IT data standards for open

communications between devicesThese standards will dominate in the future

6

Proposed architectureClient PC’s

with Web Browser

Intranet

EnterpriseApplication

Servers

Network based

controller

RoomController

Room Controller

LonTalk Controller

LonTalk Controller

Other XML based

system

Controller

Controller

oBIX (Ethernet / TCP/IP/XML / HTTP)

Network based

controller

BA

Cnet

LonTalk Controller

LonTalk

Other P

rotocols

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XML/Web Services Benefits

• IT compatible, secure communications• Easy access for a wide variety of users• Easy integration with enterprise

applications– Enterprise energy management– Real time demand control– Maintenance management (CMMS)– Classroom scheduling– Asset tracking