New U.S. Department of Defense Criteria Incorporates LonWorks® Technology for Open Utility Monitoring and Control Systems

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DoD’s Unified Facilities Criteria Helps Military Facilities Deploy More Open Building-Level Control Systems

SAN JOSE, CALIF., June 5, 2012–LONMARK, a non-profit association for the certification, education and promotion of interoperability standards for control networking, today announced that the Department of Defense (DoD) has published the new Unified Facilities Criteria (UFC) 3-470-01, which supports Unified Facility Guide Specification (UFGS) 25 10 10, LonWorks® Utility Monitoring and Control System (UMCS) and the UFC 3-410-02, which supports UFGS 23 09 23, LonWorks Direct Digital Control for HVAC and Other Local Building Systems. Both documents provide in-depth detail on the requirements to utilize LonWorks control networking technology into Federal facilities.  The UFC 3-470-01 LonWorks Utility Monitoring and Control System (UMCS) criteria enhances the openness of design of the LonWorks UMCS, which will be used to achieve utility cost, energy, and manpower savings for electrical systems, heating, ventilating and air-conditioning (HVAC), and other utility systems and equipment across all U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and Air Force Civil Engineer Support Agency (AFCESA) projects.

The UMCS is part of a two-tier set of open guide specifications developed by the United States (U.S.) Army Corps of Engineers and provides detailed guidance on the design of a supervisory monitoring and control (front-end computer and network) system based on LonWorks technology. A UMCS based on LonWorks technology – currently deployed in a number of bases across the United States, including Fort Bragg, Fort Bliss and Fort Hood – permits connection of open and interoperable control systems, reduced reliance on sole-sourced, closed proprietary systems, and increases the value and sustainability for the U.S. Government. The criteria identifies the requirements for the design and procurement of a UMCS that supports the integration of multiple vendors’ control systems.

Core requirements in the facility criteria include:
•    Usage of LNS (LonWorks Network Services) – an open network management platform for installing, commissioning, and accessing the devices on the network supported by hundreds of companies.
•    LonMark Certified products – ensures interoperability, reduces engineering and installation time, and provides a very high level of interoperability compliance.
•    Products are required to comply with ISO/IEC 14908 – ANSI/CEA 709.1 LON® (Local Operating Network) open protocol communications for all field devices to ensure a common networking platform.
•    Open integrated front-end network architecture using well defined IT-based standards for network data access to ensure sustainability, reliability, and lower cost of ownership for the DoD.
•    The UFC 3-410-02 LonWorks Direct Digital Control for HVAC and Other Local Building Systems, provides detailed guidance on the design of digital control systems for HVAC. The new criteria focuses on using LonWorks technology to obtain open and interoperable control systems. The design concept described in this UFC provides definitive guidance intended to streamline DDC system design and installation leading to maintainable, interoperable, extensible, and non-proprietary control systems.
•    Core requirements in the facility criteria include:
•    Competitive procurement, most notably at the building and sub-system level.
•    An operator workstation/user interface that provides for the same look and feel for monitoring and control regardless of which vendor’s DDC system or sub-system an operator is viewing.
•    An operator workstation/user interface (software) that provides for management of base-wide system operations
•    A whole-building approach to systems integration. This includes the efficient inter-connection of HVAC control sub-systems.     
                          
“Standards-based solutions reduce overall program risk for the government by freeing the organization from the entrapment of proprietary solutions,” said Will White, technical deputy, USACE. “LonWorks solves the interoperability issue by providing connectivity of all systems to a single supervisory monitoring and control system and delivers increased value, improved energy efficiency and the advanced capabilities needed to ease the operation and maintenance of a system.”

According to LONMARK International’s Executive Director, Barry Haaser, “We have a long and successful history working with the DoD and are closely aligned with the DoD’s objectives. With the release of the latest Unified Criteria documents, the DoD is taking advantage of a robust and evolving industry standard that permits communications data exchange between different manufacturers’ control products, sub-systems and systems.”

The detailed prescriptive requirements and design methodology described in the criteria are necessary for the procurement of interoperable and non-proprietary systems. It also provides typical designs for the control of common HVAC systems, establishing a degree of commonality in systems designed and procured through different channels. To download the complete criteria reports, please visit: http://www.wbdg.org/

About LonWorks Technology
To date, hundreds of thousands of LonWorks platform-based systems and tens of millions of LonWorks devices have been installed worldwide. LonWorks platform-systems have saved companies tens of millions of dollars in energy costs, installation time and money, and long-term service costs. Case studies have shown that a LonWorks platform-based system can save as much as 50 percent on the initial installation costs of a traditional home-run wired system, while integrating systems and reducing system complexity can provide additional savings through energy reduction. A single-system interface is smarter, more cost-effective, and easier to maintain than multiple, non-integrated systems – and that's one of the reasons why organizations large and small are choosing LonWorks open systems over closed systems.

About LonMark International
LONMARK International is a non-profit corporation supporting the testing and certification of products, people and companies supporting the ISO/IEC 14908 body of standards. Its nearly 400 members manufacture, distribute, develop, install or use systems based on these standards. LonMark International provides peer-review based certification guidelines and testing for products, people and companies. There are over 550 interoperable products certified and listed on the LonMark website and nearly 600 people have been trained and certified as LonMark Certified Professionals. For more information about LONMARK International, please visit www.lonmark.org. LON and LONWORKS are U.S. registered trademarks of Echelon Corporation.