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Why use the BACnet protocol?

Pros and cons of the BACnet protocol and why you should use it

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We actually wrote a whole whitepaper on why you should use BACnet, interviewing thought leaders and technicians throughout the industry. To give you the coles notes, though, here are a few pros and cons of BACnet.

Pros: BACnet’s open and widely adopted, making it easier to integrate devices and work with many different vendors. Using BACnet Web Services, it’s possible to achieve a single pane of glass solution and manage many disparate systems in one place. You can expect better out of your vendors, because they aren’t locked in for the lifetime of a building. BACnet’s open nature has led to more partnerships between manufacturers, which leads to greater innovation in the industry. BACnet — and especially BACnet IP — is really an infrastructure that you can build on, now and into the future.

Cons: There are some issues with maintenance and management. BACnet IP can be quite chatty if you don’t configure all your broadcasts and BBMDs properly. BACnet MS/TP’s wiring is a particular frustration for technicians, when wires come loose or aren’t properly terminated. The Internet of Things is presenting new opportunities and challenges as well, with so many  data-generating devices being added to the network. Managing vendors can be a huge challenge, as you juggle devices from different manufacturers. The devices might speak the same language, but that doesn’t mean they work well together; and finger-pointing can be a significant obstacle to getting work done. We’ve also heard criticisms that BACnet doesn’t develop quickly enough for this new world of the Building Internet of Things (BIoT).  

Overall though, BACnet is the strongest, most robust option for managing all our different building automation systems.

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