LonWorks Routers and Smart Energy Managers
Smart Infrastructures Need Smart Routing
Within a LonWorks based smart infrastructure, routers and smart energy managers serve multiple purposes and are the key component used by intergrators and system manufacturers to provide high network reliability, isolate faults, enable a mixed physical media (channel types, in the LonWorks world), and provide IP integration and system-level controls. At a higher level, routers connect the LonWorks based smart control infrastructure with applications such as enterprise energy management (EEM), remote asset management, and demand response.
Routers for LonWorks Networks
Within a single LonWorks network, and especially as they increase in size, routing from an FT-10 to TP/XF-1250 channel becomes commonplace with a need for faster communications. Multi-port routing or single-port routing (78 to 1250 kbps) or repeating to increase distance and to support network segmentation is good practice among all LonWorks integrators.
In multi-story buildings and locations where the resident IP backbone is the fastest incumbent means of moving data, peer-to-peer IP routing is enabled via the i.LON 600 LonWorks/IP Server. Most multi-story or multi-facility control infrastructures use IP routing.
The i.LON SmartServer bridges the functionality between a LonWorks control infrastructure and remote applications. Within the local control environment, the SmartServer provides crucial scheduling, alarming, and trending functions, as well as a bridge to legacy equipment and other control protocols.
The i.LON SmartServer
EEM applications such as centrally managed energy use or environment control are accomplished by smart energy managers connected to enterprise apps. The SmartServer is Echelon's smart energy manager.
The SmartServer is key to your business’s energy conservation strategy. It controls, monitors, and manages virtually any electronic device in your network, and offers energy-saving benefits for many industry segments. For EEM strategies for retail stores, quick-service restaurants, branch offices, schools, server rooms, and more, the SmartServer lets you quickly connect your facilities, no matter what you already have on premise. And for high-value assets in the field like gen sets, the SmartServer lets you install high-performance connection management applications across any IP connection, and avoid deploying a purpose-built communications network.
The SmartServer can act as a network manager for standalone applications. It also supports custom applications and drivers to help you expand your business and build higher-value solutions. For street lighting systems, the SmartServer, operating in standalone mode, has unique repeating technology that ensures reliable communications in even the harshest electrical environment. Learn more.