JOURNAL OF SOFTWARE, VOL. 6, NO.

11, NOVEMBER 2011 2209

Integrating Building Automation Systems based

on Web Services
Bai Jianbo*, Hao Yuzhe, Miao Guochang
College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Hohai University, Changzhou, Jiangsu, China
baijb@hhuc.edu.cn

Abstract—It is of great advantage to integrate building Now there are two international organizations to
automation systems (BAS) in intelligent buildings using promote the development of Web Services in BAS
networks (LAN or WAN).This paper addresses three domain. One is the Organization for the Advancement of
technical issues in the integration of BASs. One is the Structured Information Standards (OSAIS), and the other
integration between BASs and existing enterprise
applications. The second is the integration of BASs which
is the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and
adopt different international standardized protocols. The Air-conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE).
third is the integration of building automation subsystems. In May 2004, OASIS announced the formation of an
The “intelligence” of intelligent buildings is still more of a Open Building technical committee (oBIX). The purpose
promise than a reality. As a new generation of Internet of oBIX is to “develop a publicly available Web Services
communication technologies, Web Services are becoming interface specification that can be used to obtain data in a
an increasingly popular middleware technology, which simple and secure manner from HVAC, access control,
provides new solutions to overcome above problems. The utilities, and other building automation systems, and to
paper analyses the development history and current provide data exchange between facility systems and
problems of the BAS industry, proposes that Web Services
based on XML, SOAP, WSDL and UDDI are the best
enterprise applications.”[4] Comprised of representatives
answer in solving the integration problems of BASs. The from the entire spectrum of the buildings systems
framework model and realization principles of BAS based industry, oBIX includes professionals from the security,
on Web Services are also described. The technologies have HVAC, building automation, open protocol and IT
been used to develop a building management system (BMS) disciplines. In 2002 September, ASHRAE’s Standing
for a real intelligent building successfully. Standards Project Committee 135(SSPC135) which is
responsible for the BACnet’s (A Data Communication
Index Terms—Building automation system, intelligent Protocol for Building Automation and Control Networks)
building, Protocol, Web Services, System integration technical support and update announced the formation of
BACnet-XML working group, the earlier work of the
group was to define the XML application of the BACnet
I. INTRODUCTION systems. At present BACnet has made stripe towards the
A building automation system (BAS) is designed to integration with Web Services [5].
monitor and control the mechanical and lighting systems In October 2004, ASHRAE SSPC135 announced that
in a building. With the development of computer “BACnet Web Services Initiative Goes to Public
technology, digital communication technology and Review”, the proposed draft was the addendum C to
control technology, BAS industry has got great success standard 135-2004 of BACnet [6]. The new addendum is
in past two decades. But nowadays most building divided into two parts. The first proposes an Annex N to
automation systems are isolated islands of information; it BACnet that defines the BACnet Web Services interface
is difficult to realize the integration between building (BACnet/WS). This has been accomplished by defining
automation systems and existing enterprise applications. Application Program Interfaces (API) to read and write
At the same time there are several standard international the common elements of BAS such as values, schedules,
protocols in BAS industry; so it is also difficult to realize trend logs, and alarm information. The second part of the
the integration of building automation systems which addendum contains an addition to BACnet’s Annex H,
adopt different communication protocols, and BAS “Combining BACnet Networks with Non-BACnet
subsystems can’t work together conveniently. Web Networks”, which prescribes the gateway mapping
Services which are emerging IT technologies give us a specifically to and from BACnet messages.
new way to solve the above problems. The international In the paper, Web Services are used to develop a new
experts of BAS industry have paid more and more generation of building management system (BMS). Web
attentions to the Integration technologies of BAS based Services support Extensible Markup Language (XML)
on Web Services [1-3]. Web Services technology will message-centric approach, allowing us to build loosely
bring forth BAS industry new innovation and coupled and highly distributed systems on the Internet,
development. such as BASs. The proposed BMS has been applied to an
intelligent building whose BASs are all within a
BACnet network [7].
Manuscript received October 1, 2009; accepted October 15, 2009.
*Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 519 85191992. This work is supported by the
The rest of the paper is organized as follows:
Training Programme Foundation for Youths by Changzhou Municipal People’s Section 2 presents the development history of BAS
Government and Hohai University Doctor Startup Fund (08B007-003).

© 2011 ACADEMY PUBLISHER

doi:10.4304/jsw.6.11.2209-2216
2210 JOURNAL OF SOFTWARE, VOL. 6, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 2011

communication protocols. Section 3 describes the current puzzled the industry experts. They wonder if BAS
problems of BAS industry and the corresponding industry is toward the right development direction or not.
solutions. Section 4 presents the principles of Web A few problems about BAS industry were put forward in
Services technology. Section 5 describes the framework followed paragraphs.
and realization of BAS based on Web Services is. At first, in the early 1980s, there was none protocol
Furthermore, an example applied to a real intelligent which could satisfy BAS industry’s needs. But nowadays,
building is presented. Finally, conclusions are presented there have been several protocols which can meet needs
in Section 6. of building automation systems. In the market, BAS
manufacturers always need to develop the products
II. THE DEVELOPMENT HISTORY OF COMMUNICATION which support one or more of the standard protocols that
PROTOCOLS OF BAS are available. But it is often difficult for BAS to integrate
the products which adopt different protocols. We can
In the early 1980s, microprocessor-based direct digital bridge these products using special gateways, but it is
controllers began to be used in the products of HVAC- complex to develop these gateways and will waste
related equipment. The earliest of these controllers were manpower and material resources.
designed to be stand-alone, and they didn’t have The Second, at present building automation systems
communication functions. With the network demand for are often separated from Information Technologies (IT)
BASs, many equipment manufacturers began to add systems, and BAS is an isolated island of information.
communication functions to their stand-alone controllers, Now most of building owners, facility managers and
and then a few communication protocols began to appear tenants hope to integrate BAS with their own enterprise
in BAS industry. application systems [9], and then BAS become one part
In the beginning, these communication protocols were of the enterprise information systems. In order to realize
proprietary to the equipment manufacturers. With the the goal, BAS manufacturers pay more attentions to
demand for serial communication ports in the mechanical develop the products which can support TCP/IP network
and electrical equipments of building automation protocol. For example the BACnet/IP technology of
systems, a few common protocols became the BACnet [10] and the DDE technology of Lonworks [11]
communication standards, e.g. Modicon’s MODBUS and can realize interconnection and interactive operation
OPTO22’s OPTOMUX. Later a few companies between BAS and desktop applications. Compared with
recognized the need for common protocols as good other network applications, building automation systems
business opportunities; they developed their own confront with many obstacles in TCP/IP networks, e.g.
protocols (e.g. Bosch’s CAN and Echelon’s Lonworks) Routers, firewalls, security and compatibility. Also the
and supporting products to supply to the industry. traditional integration of building automation systems
Nowadays there have been several international emphasizes particularly on interactive operations among
standardized protocols which were defined by some the systems. So the system’s coupling is strong, and then
industry standard bodies; these protocols (e.g. the infrastructure of the system is apt to fragile. It is far
ASHRAE’s BACnet, OPC foundation’s OLE for Process away from the goal of real-time and seamless integration
control (OPC) [8], and so on) could be available to be in BAS industry.
deployed without licenses or royalties. The third, from the appearance of the first Intelligent
Initially the data structures of these common protocols Building (IB) in 1980, the concept of IB is always
were flat. In a flat data structure, each data’s information discussed by people[12], but the goal of intelligent is far
is stand-alone. With the wide application of the object- from us with the twenty years development yet, one of
oriented method in computer and communication the fundamental reasons is the absence of cooperative
domains, the object-oriented communication protocols work ability among BAS systems. The products of
appeared. The object-oriented communication protocols HVAC system, lighting system, security system and fire
adopted the object-oriented data structures. For example, alarming system may adopt different protocols or be
in a object-oriented data structures the temperature value produced by different manufacturers, these products are
unit and the name of sampled area would be grouped into always incompatible, they can’t be connected each other.
a temperature object. Also multiple objects can be Also it is relevant with that BAS systems can’t be
grouped into another object in a hierarchical structure. integrated with enterprise applications conveniently.
These object-oriented communication protocol’s typical The fourth, while BAS industry is still developing, the
representations were BACnet, LonMark and KNX. At development step of IT moves faster than BAS and the
present, the three protocols have been widely accepted gap between them becomes larger than ever. From the
and used in BAS industry. 1970s, the infrastructure of IT systems has experienced
several evolvements. From the earliest host disposes
III. THE PROBLEMS AND CORRESPONDING SOLUTIONS concentratively, and then the infrastructure developed to
OF BAS INDUSTRY
the distributed processing network. Originally the
BACnet, Lon Mark and KNX protocols have got great structure of the distributed processing network is
success and development in past one decade, and they Client/Server(C/S) mode. In the C/S mode calculation
play more and more important roles in BAS industry. tasks are processed by client and server separately. Then
But the development procedure of BAS industry has the structure of distributed processing network comes to

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three layers mode (Browser/ Application • It can realize the cooperative work among
Server/Database Server - B/S/S).In three layers mode, HVAC system, lighting system, security system,
the functions of client in C/S mode are acted by Internet fire alarming system and enterprise application
Explorer’s thin client and application logics which runs (e.g. Hunter management system ),It can make
in Application Server side. The structure of three layers building automation systems more intelligent
mode is easier to maintain, upgrade and extend to than ever;
Internet environment than the structure of two layers • Web Services are supported by all of the major
mode. With the development of Internet technologies in Enterprise Software vendors, including
recent years, Web Services technology becomes the Microsoft.NET, IBM WebSphere, Sun
developing trend, where calculation develops to service Microsystems, HP Web Services platform and so
and the relation between client and server develops to the on.
relation between client and network. Web Services will • Using the interfaces provided by Web Services
be the certain tendency of the next generation of network all kinds of users can develop their own
calculation because of the special technology advantages applications suitable for themselves;
and concepts [13]. Now the Web Services has got • Web Services have made great success in
successful application in Enterprise Application Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) and
Integration (EAI) and Electrical Business (EB) domains. Electrical Business (EB) domains, and it is the
Web Services bring us new solutions to overcome certain development tendency of IT industry.
upper problems. Web Services make it easier to integrate
enterprise application systems with building automation IV. THE PRINCIPLE AND KEY TECHNOLOGIES OF WEB
systems and integrate BAS subsystems which adopt SERVICES
different standardized protocols than ever before. The
experts of BAS domain come to one opinion that the Web Services are self-contained, self-describing,
convergence of BAS industry and IT industry will be the modular applications that can be published, located, and
certain tendency [14-17]. This mean that BAS and its invoked across the Web. The main objective of Web
integration technologies based on Web Services will Services is to build a technical layer which is
bring forth BAS industry new flight and developing independent of platforms and programming languages in
chances. existing heterogeneous configuration platforms,
Web services are the newest research achievement in depending on the technical layer the applications of these
distributed calculation domain; Web Services are based different platforms can implement the interlink age and
on some open IT standards which include eXtensible integration between each other[18]. Compared with
Markup Language (XML), Web Services Description traditional Web application technologies, Web Services
Language (WSDL), Simple Object Access Protocol are intended to be used by other programs or applications,
(SOAP), Universal Discovery Description and not by a human user. It is a network accessible interface
Integration (UDDI), Web Services Flow Language to application functionality, built using standard Internet
(WSFL) and so on. The openness, extendibility and technologies. It acts as an abstraction layer, separating
security of Web Services are better than former Web the platform and programming language specific details
technologies. The fundamental notion of Web Services is form how the application code is invoked.
to realize interactive operations among heterogeneous The architecture and protocol stack of Web Services
configuration systems which use IT platform standards, A Web Service can be considered as a kind of object
e.g. Hypertext Transfer Text (HTTP) and so on. Web which is deployed on the Web. It describes interfaces of
Services have many advantages including platform- the object’s operation sets, and then we can use the
independent, transparent to users and easily traversing interfaces to access the object in the network by
fire wall, it is an ideal calculating model to realize the standardized XML message. A Web Service realizes a
integration of heterogeneous-configuration systems. special task or a set of tasks. A Web Service is described
Introducing Web Services into BAS domain will change using a standard, formal XML notation, call its service
the infrastructure of building automation systems and the description that provides all the details necessary to
mode of BAS’s data access and inter-operation, realize interact with the service, including message formats,
seamless and real-time integration among BAS transport protocols and location. The interfaces hide the
subsystems, between building automation systems and implantation details of the service so that it can be used
enterprise applications, among building automation independent of the hardware or software platform on
systems which adopt different communication protocols. which it is implemented, and independently of the
BAS and its integration technologies based on Web programming language in which it is written. This allows
Services have followed advantages: and encourages Web Services based applications to be
• It can realize seamless and real-time integration loosely coupled, component-oriented, and cross-
between enterprise application systems and technology implemented. A Web Service can be used
building automation systems; alone, and also it can be used in conjunction with other
• It can realize the integration of BAS systems Web Services to carry out more complex tasks or
which adopt different standardized protocols business transactions.
without additional gateway facilities; Web Services are based on a “Service-oriented”
architecture. Three distinct roles are present in the

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architecture: Service Provider, Service Requestor and invoking mechanisms provided by it. A Web Services
Service Broker (Fig.1). don’t care who will use it.
The Service Provider is the owner of the service. From 3) Findable
an architectural perspective, this is the platform that There is an important role “Service Broker” in Web
hosts access to the service. It is responsible for creating, Service architecture. The Service Broker provides a
publishing, and providing the service. mechanism which is convenient for the Service Provider
The Service Requestor is the party that requires to publish services and for Service Requester to find
certain functions to be satisfied. From an architectural these services.
perspective, this is the application that is looking for and 4) Using standard protocol criterion
invoking or initiating an interaction with a service. Standard IT protocols are used by Web Services to
The Service Broker is a searchable registry and is realize service description, transport and data coding.
responsible for advertising service. Most services Clients can use Web Services conveniently.
registries provide classification schemes allowing users 5) High capabilities of integration
to look up services. Some registries even provide a set of Simple and understandable standard Web protocols
APIs for programming access. Service requestors can are adopted by Web Services as the rules of component
find needed services and obtain binding information interface description and cooperation description; it can
from the service descriptions either at development time shield the differences among different software platform
or run-time. completely. Whatever Common Object Request Broker
Architecture (CORBA), Distributed Component Object
Model (DCOM) or Remote Method Invocation (RMI)
can use the standard protocols to operate among each
other; it reveals high capabilities of integration.
Web Services are realized by standardized Internet
protocols. These protocols include Transfer Control
Protocol/ Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), HTTP, XML and
other existing Internet protocols, and they also include
SOAP, WSDL and UDDI specialized for Web Service
technology. Table 1 gives actual architecture of Web
Services protocols stack in heterogeneous architecture. It
reveals the fundamental of openness and standardization
of Web Services adequately. The protocols stack
Figure 1. Web Services architecture contains the key technologies adopted by Web Services.
Somewhat similar to the Open System Interconnection
There are three main tasks involved in creating and (OSI) model, the upper protocols of Web Services are
using Web Services: based on the capabilities which the lower protocols
Publish: The service provider creates a service and provide.
registers it with a registry; the service is then advertised
by the registry. The most registry scheme is UDDI. TABLE I.
ARCHITECTURE OF WEB SERVICES PROTOCOLS STACK
Find: The service requestor searches the registry and
finds corresponding services. A service description The name of technology Layer location
document can then be retrieved, which provides WSFL Service Flow layer
Static->UDDI Service Discover layer
information on communication protocols, service Direct->UDDI Service Publication
location, input/output parameters and so on. This layer
document is often defined in WSDL format that defines WSDL Service Description
the service and binding information in an XML layer
document. SOAP XML-based Messaging
layer
Bind: The service requestor can write the client access XML Schema Data Modeling layer
code to locate, contact and invoke the service according XML Data Presentation layer
to the binding details contained in the service description HTTP,FTP,SMTP Network Transport
document. layer
Web Services have followed advantages: A. XML
1) Good encapsulation
Web Services can be considered as an object which is XML plays an essential role in Web Services, which
disposed on the Web, the object has good encapsulation. sometimes is also called XML Web Services. XML is
What users can only find are the functional lists provided the universal format for structured documents and data
by the object. on the Web. Unlike HTML, XML isolates the data
2) Loose coupling structure from the presentation mark-ups. It represents
The realization details of a Web service are not content in a textual format that is platform and language
relevant with the programs which will invoke the service. neutral. Thus it is suitable for defining upper layer
A Web Services can be accessed by the APIs and standards used in Web Services.

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XML acts as Data Presentation layer in the containing either document-oriented or procedure-
architecture of Web Service protocol stack. It provides oriented information. Informally, a WSDL document
the description of data and information for all of Web provides the access information for the service consumer
Services upper protocols. such as the method signature, the protocols to be used,
XML provides a method to describe structured the network address, and the data format. The document
documents and data. HTML is all about what content can be logically divided into two parts: an abstract
looks like, unlike HTML XML is about describing the definition of the service being provided that is called the
content so it can be manipulated online... XML uses a set port type, and concrete endpoint binding information for
of marks to describe data element. Every element may the Port Type.
encapsulate simple or complex data.
D. UDDI
XML is simple and not relevant with platform.
Compared with HTML, one of the advantages of XML is Universal Discovery Description and Integration
that it can separate user interfaces from structured data. It (UDDI) protocol provides a standard discovery
makes it possible to integrate the data which is from mechanism for Web services. UDDI provides pointers to
different areas. XML document has followed specialties: the WSDL document that describes a service and the
1) Extendibility access point of a service implementation. UDDI, like
User can define own data marks; yellow pages, provide a registry of businesses searchable
2) Structured data by the type of business. UDDI uses WSDL to describe
Data structure can model any complex things; interfaces to Web services. To ensure most platforms can
3) Validity access UDDI’s services, the UDDI directory exposes a
Data can validate the correctness of the structure. set of APIs in the form of SOAP based Web service.
UDDI provides an open, platform-independent service
B. SOAP architecture framework that enables businesses for
Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) is a XML publishing services, discovering businesses offering
based lightweight protocol for exchange of information services and integrating business services over Internet
in a decentralized, distributed environment. SOAP (or Intranet) along with a registry with publicly listed
defines a mechanism for expressing application information. The UDDI XML schema defines four core
semantics by providing a modular packaging model and types of information which provides basic information
encoding mechanisms for encoding data within modules. on using Web Services: business information, binding
This allows SOAP to be used in a variety of systems information (information pertaining to the address of
ranging from messaging systems to Remote Procedure contact with a Web Service), and information about
Calls (RPC). SOAP provides a built-in extension specifications.
mechanism that allows additional functionality, such as
E. WSFL
security and transactions, to be added to the basic
transport. One of important advantages of SOAP is that Web Services Flow Language (WSFL) is the standard
SOAP can traverse fire walls. A SOAP message contains of Service Flow layer in the top-level layer of the Web
three XML elements: a SOAP envelope, a SOAP header, Services protocols stack. WSFL is different from the
and a SOAP body. SOAP is composed of four parts as other protocols of the protocols stack, and it mainly aims
follows: at business flow model and working flow. WSFL is used
1) SOAP envelope: a mechanism which uses XML to describe how Web Services work together in the
envelope to describe the content of information; working flow and how to deal with the communication
2) SOAP encoding rules: SOAP defines an encoding and cooperation among services. A Web services can be
mechanism to exchange data whose type is defined by one part of Web Services, also it can be added to
application program; working flow dynamically. WSFL has the capability of
3) SOAP RPC representation: SOAP defines a spanning technology boundaries as well as across
convention which is used to represent remote process business boundaries. The business process model is
call and response; represented with the WSFL flow model which defines a
4) SOAP binding: SOAP define a convention which series of activities and their execution. Once the flow
uses lower transport protocols to exchange SOAP model establishes the processing flow between activities,
envelopes among nodes. the WSFL global model specifies how the Web Services
involved in the process should interact with each other.
C. WSDL
Service Description layer (WSDL) provides detail V. BAS SYSTEM AND INTEGRATION TECHNOLOGY
methods for the call of Web Services in the architecture BASED ON WEB SERVICES
of Web Services protocols stack in table.1. WSDL has
been submitted to the World Wide Web Consortium The most important advantage of Web Services is the
(W3C) for consideration as a recommendation [19]. It good integration capability. At present Web Services
provides an abstract description of what a Web Service technology is one of the most advanced integration
can do where it resides and how to invoke it. Officially, methods for enterprise application and it has been widely
WSDL is an XML format for describing network accredited. Act as an ideal integration tool, this standard–
services as a set of endpoints operating on messages based technology enables different Web Service to

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communicate with each other regardless of hardware and automation systems and existing enterprise application
operating system. The integration of Web Services systems according to the needs of enterprise business.
allows applications to be integrated more easily and less Fig.2 gives a sketch map of the integration between
expensively than ever before. With Web Service building automation systems and enterprise applications
technology, enterprises and users can find, describe and based on Web Services. The sketch map includes three
use these sharable services. Web Services can be types of integration. The first is the integration between
integrated into legacy application conveniently, and then building automation systems and existing enterprise
we can develop new kinds of IT solutions. Web Services applications. The second is the integration among BAC
can also help us to realize the seamless and real-time subsystems which adopt BACnet protocol, Lontalk
integration between building automation systems and protocol or other types of protocols. The third is the
enterprise applications, among BAS subsystems which integration of different functional building automation
adopt different standardized protocols or have different systems (e.g. HVAC system, fire alarming system, light
functions. system and so on). Web Services can be installed in the
The integration technology based on Web Services controllers which have strong network control functions.
can be classified into four types: In mini field-bus controllers or sensors, we can still use
1) User interface integration; standardized communication protocols (e.g. BACnet,
2) Data integration; LonTalk or KNX). BAS based on Web Services is not to
3) Business flow integration; replace the standardized protocols which have been
4) Function or method integration. widely used in field bus networks. However it adopts
most of existing filed bus networks and standardized
A. BAS system and EAI
communication protocols to realize higher level
Most of building’s owners, facility managers or integration.
tenants hope to integrate BAS systems into their own The integration between building automation systems
enterprise applications; the problem belongs to EAI and enterprise applications and the integration among
(Enterprise Application Integration) research domain. BAS subsystems always use the function or method
The integration of BAS based on Web Services is closely integration mode. This type of integration is the mode of
relevant with the integration technology of EAI based on Application-to-Application (A2A) among programs and
Web Services. it adopts synchronous pattern which is based on the
EAI based on Web Services can realize the interaction request-response mechanism between client (request
and communion of information between building program) and server (response program).

Figure 2. Integration between BASs and enterprise applications based on Web Services

z “Basic Web Services” must support remote read,

B. The realization research of BAS based on Web
write and Find Device capabilities;
Services
z “Advanced Web Services” must support alarm
BAS based on Web Services is not to replace BACnet notification, error handling and file transfer;
or LonTalk protocol, it uses existing Internet/Intranet z Combine existing standardized protocols (e.g.
infrastructure and field bus networks to realize the BACnet, LonTalk and EIB) with the integration
seamless integration between existing enterprise technologies of Web Services;
application systems and building automation systems or z Web Services must be compatible with standard
among BAS sub systems. IT security mechanisms;
1) System functions z Web Services may enhance the functions of
According to the draft put forward by BACnet-XML- services where appropriate;
WG group which belongs to the ASHRAE’s SSPC135 z Web Services must support the connection of
committee, BAS based on Web Services has following systems through Network Address Translation
functions [20]:

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(NAT) devices and firewalls, SOAP based on been transfer to the client. Also local users can change the
HTTP or FTP can meet the needs [21]. client application’s configuration, and choose different
2) System architecture model and system realization realization method.
principles Web Services application server (Service Provider in
In order to use existing Intranet/Internet infrastructure Fig.3) of BAS is divided into two layers in logic:
to realize building automation systems based on Web business logical layer and data service layer. Business
Services, Fig.3 gives the sketch map of BAS architecture logical layer is responsible for the interactive operation
based on Web Services, Fig.4 gives preliminary scheme with users and analyzing the request, then operate with
of BAS internal structure based on Web Services. the background data source. The data source can be the
In Fig.3 UDDI is a virtual registry center and is real-time acquisition data from the field bus networks, the
realized in the server side. UDDI is responsible for the data source can also be traditional relational database or
publication of service description and support the real-time database, and then the distributed network can
function of service find. In BAC, all of the nodes which be formalized. At last, the response in XML format is
provide public UDDI registry service are generally called return to the requester.
as the UDDI registry center. The UDDI registry center is
a whole in logic, but it is realized by distributed control
network in physics. All of the nodes are connected by
peer-to-peer network infrastructure. So we can access the
UDDI registry center when we access any nodes in the
network. The interfaces of UDDI include query APIs and
publish APIs. The query APIs are used to locate
candidate business entities, Web Services and its details
of invoking rules and relevant message. The publish APIs
are classified into saving APIs and deleting APIs.
BAS describes services content in WSDL documents, Figure 3. BAS architecture based on Web Services
these services contain remote read, write, find device,
alarm indication, fault processing capabilities and so
on .Then the services will be sent to the UDDI registry
center for publish. When user requests for services, the
request is direct to the UDDI registry center practically.
When the detail services are found, client will be bound
up and linked with server, and then the client begins to
accept the services. The integration mode is the function
and method integration type.
The client used by users may be a common PC, a
Notebook or a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA). The
client application may be a browser or a common
Windows desktop program, even another Web Service. Figure 4. BAS internal structure sketch map based on Web Services
In Fig.4, the client program inside the Intranet queries the
Web Services registry center by the medium of UDDI
APIs, or gets Web Services location and bind the WSDL
document by intercommunicating information with the
business partner’s technician. Users who traverse the
firewall and login into the system need to be checked
permission. After being authorized users can query the
location of needed Web Services and WSDL description
which reside in the UDDI registry center. Then the
WSDL description document will be loaded
automatically to own developing platform, thus the
corresponding interfaces come into being. At the same
time, by using XML Schema the client application Figure 5. A user interface of web-based BMS based on Web Services
catches hold of data structure required by the interactive
operations quickly, then users can interact with the Web C. Example：A web-based BMS combining Web
Services by introduction of the interfaces and data Services technologies and Ajax
structure generated by the developing tool.
A SOAP client can interact with multiple SOAP A web-based BMS combing Web Services and AJAX
servers just in real-time, and bring new generative data is applied to a real intelligent building, in which BASs
into a XML file. Once the XML file is transferred to the using BACnet network. At first, public Web Services
client application, the analyzed data can be edited and methods, which can read and write BACnet data points
operated locally. On the other hand, after the data has from the BACnet network, are developed based on a
BACnet protocol stack provided by Cimetrics Company

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[22]. The main tasks of Ajax are invoking the Web [6] ASHRAE SSPC135, http://www.bacnet.org/, 2006.
Services to get real-time data from the BACnet network [7] Jianbo Bai ,Hong Xiao, Design of a Web-based Building
and displaying results on the web browser. Management System using Ajax and Web Services, 2008
Fig.5 presents a user interface of the web-based BMS International Seminar on Business and Information
Management,2008(2).63-66
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ACKNOWLEDGMENT [22] Cimetrics Technology, "BACnet: An object-oriented
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This work was supported in part by the Training Technical report, http://www.cimetrics.com/
Programme Foundation for Youths by Changzhou
Municipal People’s Government and Hohai University Bai Jianbo was born in 1974 in
Doctor Startup Fund (08B007-03).The authors are Changzhou city, Jiangsu province, China.
grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their valuable He received the B.Eng. and M.Eng.
degrees in heating, ventilation and air-
recommendations.
conditioning engineering from Huazhong
University of Science and Technology,
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