Industrial Communication Systems

26-1

26.1 Introduction

Building automation systems (BAS) provide automatic control of the conditions of indoor environments,

with a focus on large functional buildings. e historical root and still core domain of BAS is the control

of heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems, where automation helps to yield signi-

cant savings in energy (and thus cost). Yet, the reach of BAS has extended toward integrating information

from all kinds of building systems, thus paving the way for “intelligent buildings.” Since these systems are

diverse by tradition, the integration of heterogeneous systems is an important issue. e eld of bui