Minnesota-based MultiTech’s Conduit AP gateway now supports the Bacnet communication protocol for building automation and control networks widely used in the scada sector.

The Conduit AP harnesses the power of LoRaWan to provide in-building penetration and connectivity to thousands of IoT assets. The protocol is suitable for commercial buildings such as hotels, convention centres, offices, retail facilities, hospitals, stadiums and airports, providing low cost, wireless coverage within difficult to reach areas where cell towers or rooftop deployments may not penetrate.

Bacnet is the protocol standard for many, if not most, mechanical and HVAC systems and it is usually used to enable the communication between these wired equipment and a BMS (building management system) installed inside the building. The BMS is comparable to the brain of the building and the challenge was to enable the communication between the BMS and the wireless sensors using a more recent radio technology such as LoRaWan.

The Conduit AP with Bacnet is a link between the BMS and the LoRaWan sensors installed in the building and lets the integrator propose services such as energy management, comfort monitoring, access control, safety and security. The cellular 4G Conduit AP also gives the building manager the possibility to control the BMS from the cloud and provides extra remote maintenance. Leveraging LoRaWan and Bacnet allows facilities to reconfigure and expand complex built environments at lower cost, but with greater capabilities.

“The industry needs cost effective LoRaWan sensors that can monitor more parts of the building and streamline operations, such as leak detection and parking,” said David Tincher, product marketing manager at MultiTech. “The LoRaWan ecosystem of sensors is growing every day and, as our solution is compatible with any LoRaWan sensors, it will help the integrators to diversify their service offering. With the Conduit AP’s new support for Bacnet, LoRaWan end nodes can look and behave like Bacnet nodes, introducing more options for sensors usage, ultimately reducing maintenance and management costs.”

The Conduit AP supports eight uplink and one downlink LoRa channel capable of supporting thousands of LoRaWan end points, including the MultiTech MDot and XDot LoRaWan-certified modules connected to remote sensors or appliances.