BACnet level 5 or OPC?

[dapper]

I have a job spec that states that the web-based system must be BACnet level 5 or OPC capable and the controllers must be lonworks. Can anyone explain what BACnet level 5 is and what makes a system OPC capable?

[tlp261]

Sounds like someone had no idea what they were specifying.

Level 5 might refer to the original Conformance Classes 1 to 6 in BACnet. Today most specs refer to BIBBs - BACnet Interoperability Building Blocks.

OPC is Ole for Process Control. It's more of an industrial standard.

Neither of these has anything to do with Lon but the specifier may have been trying to describe a system level interface capability to other systems using protocols other than Lon.

[misternorth79]

tlp261 is right...the specification you have sounds EXTREMELY out of date. It's very possible that the spec may have been created around a specific manufacturer that has multiple integration route through a building controller/area controller. I would tell the spec writer to get with the times...BACnet stopped using Conformance Classes well over 3 years ago when the 135-2004 standard was published by ASHRAE.

The spec may revolve around Niagara Framework based systems used by multiple vendors in the industry (Honeywell WEBS, Stafea TALON, American Auto-Matrix INTEGRA, etc.). The Niagara product is essentially a BACnet Building Controller, LonWorks Building Controller (not sure what the right lingo term for Lon is..) and has OPC capabilities from the Windows software side. It's very possible that other manufacturers that use BACnet or Lon have a proprietary front-end that have these capabilities through gateway type product.