Johnson Service Company

Johnson Controls Technology Company

James K Stark

David E Rasmussen

Karen L Woest

Clay G Nesler

Michael E Wagner

Gaylon M Decious

Robert R Singers

Gregory A Pascucci

Otto M Mageland

Paul W Madaus

Darrell E Standish

David L Koch

Dan J Spacek

Vairavan Vairavan

Susan M Hyzer

Dennis E Burkhardt

James R Garbe

Donald A Gottschalk, Jr

Donald A Gottschalk

Vairavan E Vairavan

A networked system having a wide variety of applications and particularly applicable to facilities management systems has multiple levels of software in processing nodes. The levels include a 'features' processing level which communicates requests for data to a software object level containing databases of processes and attributes and database managers. The database managers in the software object level operate to provide data to the high level features in the same format. The software object level communicates with a hardware object level which also contains databases and database managers to mask differences between operational hardware units. By categorizing operational units by type, additional units of a known type can be added with only low level hardware object database changes. Adding units of a new type is facilitated by software changes confined to the lower level hardware and software objects, avoiding software changes at high level features. Individual software objects are tailored for typical types of inputs and output devices encountered by facilities management systems. Universal drive circuitry also provides applicability to a broad range of devices.

Networked facilities management system

A networked system having a wide variety of applications and particularly applicable to facilities management systems has multiple levels of software in processing nodes. The levels include a 'features' processing level which communicates requests for data to a software object level containing databases of processes and attributes and database managers. The database managers in the software object level operate to provide data to the high level features in the same format. The software object level communicates with a hardware object level which also contains databases and database managers to mask differences between operational hardware units. By categorizing operational units by type, additional units of a known type can be added with only low level hardware object database changes. Adding units of a new type is facilitated by software changes confined to the lower level hardware and software objects, avoiding software changes at high level features. Individual software objects are tailored for typical types of inputs and output devices encountered by facilities management systems. Universal drive circuitry also provides applicability to a broad range of devices. Nodes store restoration characteristics of loads controlled by the nodes. After being shed to limit energy consumption, software local to the node restores the loads under predefined circumstances independently of the load shed commands to achieve distributed load management.

Networked facilities management system having a node configured with

A networked system having a wide variety of applications and particularly applicable to facilities management systems has multiple levels of software in processing nodes. The levels include a 'features' processing level which communicates requests for data to a software object level containing databases of processes and attributes and database managers. The database managers in the software object level operate to provide data to the high level features in the same format. The software object level communicates with a hardware object level which also contains databases and database managers to mask differences between operational hardware units. By categorizing operational units by type, additional units of a known type can be added with only low level hardware object database changes. Adding units of a new type is facilitated by software changes confined to the lower level hardware and software objects, avoiding software changes at high level features. Individual software objects are tailored for typical types of inputs and output devices encountered by facilities management systems. Universal drive circuitry also provides applicability to a broad range of devices. An optical isolator is connected between signal line outputs from a node and a line driver connected to a pair of lines on a bus. Similarly, an optical isolator is connected between signal line receiving inputs and a line receiver. The signal lines can be biased to predetermined levels to reduce node sensitivity to noise.

Networked facilities management system with optical coupling of local

A networked system having a wide variety of applications and particularly applicable to facilities management systems has multiple levels of software in processing nodes. The levels include a 'features' processing level which communicates requests for data to a software object level containing databases of processes and attributes and database managers. The database managers in the software object level operate to provide data to the high level features in the same format. The software object level communicates with a hardware object level which also contains databases and database managers to mask differences between operational hardware units. By categorizing operational units by type, additional units of a known type can be added with only low level hardware object database changes. Adding units of a new type is facilitated by software changes confined to the lower level hardware and software objects, avoiding software changes at high level features. Individual software objects are tailored for typical types of inputs and output devices encountered by facilities management systems. Universal drive circuitry also provides applicability to a broad range of devices. Nodes are provided with ports which may accommodate a non-configured device. When a non-configured device is identified on a port, a drop identifier specifying the port is transmitted to the non-configured device for use in establishing a network address by which the non-configured device can be accessed.

A networked system having a wide variety of applications and particularly applicable to facilities management systems has multiple levels of software in processing nodes. The levels include a 'features' processing level which communicates requests for data to a software object level containing databases of processes and attributes and database managers. The database managers in the software object level operate to provide data to the high level features in the same format. The software object level communicates with a hardware object level which also contains databases and database managers to mask differences between operational hardware units. By categorizing operational units by type, additional units of a known type can be added with only low level hardware object database changes. Adding units of a new type is facilitated by software changes confined to the lower level hardware and software objects, avoiding software changes at high level features. Individual software objects are tailored for typical types of inputs and output devices encountered by facilities management systems. Universal drive circuitry also provides applicability to a broad range of devices. In each node a time stamp indicates the most recent update of the node's data base. Periodically each node transmits its time stamp. When a node receives a time stamp later than its own, the receiving node requests the transmitting node to transmit its data base to update the receiving node with the earlier time stamp.

Networked facilities management system with time stamp comparison for

A network system having a wide variety of applications and particularly applicable to facilities management systems includes network controllers which continuously process data related to building and industrial, environmental, security and other automated system controls. Each network controller has a network address indicative of a communication link to which the network controller is connected, a local address and a node drop ID to determine whether the network controller is a configured or non-configured device. Data stored in an archive device is downloaded to a destination network controller in the absence of a routing table in the destination network controller by transmitting a download request message from the archive device to an intermediate network controller with a routing table. The intermediate network controller assumes control of the download request by transmitting the message to the destination controller. The destination controller acknowledges receipt of the message by transmitting an acknowledge message back to the intermediate network controller, which passes the acknowledge message to the archive device in accordance with the routing information stored in the intermediate network controller. Thus, as certain network controllers are connected, disconnected or disabled during the operation of the network, the control of a process is not interrupted. Additionally, the network controllers are not configured to store large amounts of routing data because a path to a device can be established through other controllers with routing information.

Method of downloading information stored in an arching device to

A timer manager for use in a network control system of one node of a connectionless communication network provides message receipt reliability. The network control system includes a buffer pool for storing messages to be transmitted from the one node and a data link stage for receiving the buffer pool storage address of a message to be transmitted and causing the message to be accessed and transmitted onto the bus. The timer manager is coupled to the buffer pool and to the data link stage and includes a table including a plurality of entry slots for storing the buffer pool storage address of a message to be transmitted with an associated timer entry index. The timer manager is responsive to an add timer request of the data link stage for locating an available entry slot in the table for a message to be transmitted, obtains the buffer pool storage address of the message from the data link stage, stores the buffer pool storage address in the entry slot, and conveys to the data link stage the index of the entry slot. The timer manager further includes a timer associated with the entry slot and starts the timer responsive to the message being transmitted onto the bus. The timer manager is arranged to convey to the data link stage a time-out message if the timer times a predetermined time period without receiving a receipt acknowledgement.

Network control system with improved reliability

A network control system controls the receipt and transmission of messages at one node of a communication network which includes a plurality of nodes coupled together on a bi-directional bus. Both short messages having a length less than a predetermined number of bytes and long messages having a length greater than the predetermined number of bytes may be conveyed between nodes. The network control system incudes a connectionless network control portion for controlling the receipt and transmission of the short messages and a connection-oriented network control portion for controlling the receipt and transmission of the long messages including establishing a connection between its node and another node before a long message is transmitted.

Combined connectionless and connection-oriented network control system

A network control system of one node of a communication network includes a data link stage and a session stage which provide a priority protocol. The network control system includes a storage and the data link stage stores received messages in the storage. When the number of stored messages reaches a predetermined limit, the data link stage limits the receipt of messages to priority messages. The session stage is arranged such that if it and a session stage of another node simultaneously initiate a session service, a connection is established, the session stage having a higher priority completes its session first, and the connection is maintained to permit the lower priority session stage to complete its session.

Network control system with improved priority protocol

A network control system for use in a communication network controls the receipt and transmission of messages between at least a pair of nodes of the network. Messages conveyed within the network include short messages having a length less than a predetermined number of bytes and long messages having a length greater than the predetermined number of bytes. The network control system is located at least at one of the nodes and includes a connectionless network control portion for controlling the transmission and receipt of the short messages and a connection-oriented network control portion coupled to the connectionless network control portion for establishing a connection with the other node for controlling the transmission and receipt of the long messages between the pair of nodes. The connectionless portion of the system includes a transport stage which provides end-to-end reliability within the system, a network stage for establishing routing of the messages, and a data link stage for providing point-to-point reliability and other control functions such as message flow control, node resynchronization, and node suspension. The connection-oriented portion of the system includes a session stage for handling the communication of long messages greater then the predetermined number of bytes in length.

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Wauwatosa, WI, United States of America

James K Stark