Safer, more powerful building automation
Automation in buildings, based on Local Operating Network (LON) technology, is currently implemented in places such as airports, hospitals and office towers. However, technical advances and increased safety concerns require a more secure and robust system than what is currently available. The EU-funded project 'Development of an interoperable platform technology for safety related data transfer and secure communication in local operating networks' (Safetylon) aimed to upgrade current technology in line with new security standards. The new protocol was designed to be compatible with the existing infrastructure and with other systems such as the Lonmark framework. It was also designed to ensure simultaneous operation of what is known as safe and non-safe communication. The project conceived of a system featuring dual processor architecture whereby one serves as communication and application processor, and a secondary processor or chip is considered a redundant processor for extra security. Both chips are meant to check each other's 'sanity' and results. Studies conducted by the project team showed that very powerful architecture is required to conduct ongoing self-testing of hardware, considering also the bandwidth required for such a system. The team designed a system with all the requirements, including several independent safety mechanisms, dual safety processor architecture, a simple safety scheduler, two identical core modules and features that are ideal for use by small enterprises. The final design featured three-processor architecture and was much more powerful in many ways to initial designs. The project partners plan to perfect the design and exploit the technology soon, with the prospect of making buildings and infrastructure more secure than ever before.
