Customer Background
Our customer is a Finnish multinational and a global leader in the elevator and escalator industry, providing some of the world’s leading solutions for automatic doors and gates, escalators, elevators, turnstiles, and moving walkways. The 100+-year-old company operates in 60+ countries with sales in excess of Euro 10 billion.
Customer Need
Elevators and escalators have been an integral part of buildings for decades, but they have always operated in silos. The customer needed to establish connectivity between elevators and the building management system (BMS) for improved field service and better efficiency. The customer engaged with Softdel to implement BACnet support for their Open Platform Communications (OPC) interface for increased interoperability and real-time diagnostics.
Softdel’s Solution
- To meet our customer’s business needs, we developed a gateway solution that implemented support for escalators and elevators and adhered to the latest BACnet standard. The solution integrated elevators with BACnet systems, allowing alarms and events from elevators to be passed to the BMS and enabling BMS-based operations control.
- The BACnet-compliant building management system was able to discover, monitor, and regulate elevators and escalators. Support for alarms, faults, and scheduling was added to the solution.
- Softdel performed functional and BACnet pre-certification testing on the new solution, allowing the customer’s product line to be listed with the BACnet Testing Laboratories (BTL).
Standards and Technology
ASHRAE Standard 135-2016: BACnet (PR-19/PR-14)
Technology: Docker Containers | REST API | MQTT | Licensing | OEO
Front End: Angular.JS | PHP
Back End: C++ 11 | Boost
Database: SQL
Simulating Tool: BOSS (Softdel’s BACnet Simulator)
Operating System: Linux – Ubuntu 16.04 | 18.04 | 20.04 | 32/64 Bit Architecture
Benefits
- Distinctive honour: The implementation of Softdel's solution turned the customer into the world's first elevator company to implement native support for BACnet in their advanced controller systems.
- Increased operational control: Softdel’s solution helped eliminate the need for external third-party protocol translators and the complexities involved during field commissioning.
- Seamless integration: The solution worked smoothly with the BMS and the customer's legacy environment, enhancing interoperability among devices.
- Sustainable solution: The solution’s modular, scalable, and future-proof design extended the life of the customer's elevator control systems.
