FIGURE 3: IoT’s continued growth makes it an undeniable influence for the
BAS and BACnet. Image source. Digital Engineering Magazine.
July/August 2019 I 41
$7.065B
$30.7B
$151B
$470B
Global IoT revenue
will reach $7.065
billion by 2020, up
from $2.712 billion
in 2015.
The installed base
of IoT devices will
reach $30.7 billion
in 2020 and $75.4
billion in 2015.
The industrial
internet of Things
(IIoT) market will
reach $151 billion
by 2020.
Annual revenues
for IoT vendors
could exceed $470
billion by 2020.
“IDC Market in a Minute:
Internet of Things”
“IoT platforms: Enabling
the internet of Things,”
IHS, March 2016
“Industrial IoT Market by
Technology, Software &
Geography, Markets,”
Mind Commerce, LLC
“How providers Can
Succeed in the Internet of
Things,” Bain & Company
IP-driven systems and related IP
devices. These devices need to be
carefully configured. For example,
a thermostat may be sending out
updates on every small incremental
change of temperature, which means
it will constantly send out data,
adding to traffic overload, slowing
the network, and potentially making
the devices unresponsive or erratic.
Consider the case at Princeton
University. ”For weeks, the school’s
football stadium lights would
suddenly turn on in the middle
of the night. Each time, these blazing
lights would wake up residents
on campus. Controls engineer
Gary Brancato would get a phone
call at 1 a.m., and his staff would
have to drive down to reset panels
and turn off the lights. Gary discovered
serious problems with the
Princeton network. There were almost
200 Global Who-Is broadcasts and
14 unresponsive devices. Too much
communication was flooding the
network with activity, causing denial
of service and bringing devices down.
Not only does this sort of network
activity cause problems in daily
operations, it can also be dangerous
for cybersecurity.”3
Furthermore, when BAS devices
are not configured properly, important
data collection suffers. The
purpose of collecting data on devices
is to better understand the devices
and their role in the building system.
How can the building become more
energy efficient? How can systems
better fit the needs of the occupants?
For example, data may be collected
about what time people begin
coming into the office (via the access
control system) so that the HVAC
starts up earlier in the day and is
at an optimal temperature when
people arrive. Through proper data
collection, the building at every
level, from occupancy to energy use,
patterns in behavior, maintenance,
and more can be used to develop
the optimal smart building. Without
this knowledge, many buildings
will be stuck in the 20th century.
As facilities engineers and man-
agers are embarking on new IP-
enabled technologies, many IT
departments are also treading
on unfamiliar territory with little
in-depth knowledge of a BAS and
BACnet protocols. BACnet and other
OT protocols do not always integrate
well with IT protocols, such as address
resolution protocol (ARP). Naturally
protective of their networks, many
IT departments are reluctant to
provide IP addresses or help control
engineers get their devices online
and generating data because of the
security risks. They worry about
a hacker overloading the network
with traffic causing a distributed
denial of service (DDoS) attack.
They worry about a perpetrator
being able to hack the IT system
through a chiller or thermostat.
Therefore, many of the BAS devices
do not get assigned IP addresses
and do not get properly integrated
into the building network.
Since IoT is here to stay and
growing (Figure 3), there needs to be
increased collaboration between IT
and facilities management to make
the most of the technology.
IP connectivity brings both
dangers and opportunities, but
it cannot be avoided in the BAS
industry any longer.