Customer Background
Our customer is a leading Canadian manufacturer of building automation technologies, delivering innovative solutions for multiple market segments. With 20+ years of experience and a strong global presence in the energy management sector, this firm commands a stellar reputation as the best solution provider that empowers green buildings with better health and safety standards, better spaces, and better efficiencies.
Customer Need
The customer’s plant-level controllers communicated with a 3rd party supervisory building management system (BMS). Constant BMS updates were expected to ensure interoperability but since every controller supported a different communication protocol, this objective became complex to deliver. The customer successfully partnered with Softdel to deliver an efficient solution to test all plant-level controllers against 3rd party supervisory BMS before officially releasing new versions in the market.
Softdel’s Solution
- Softdel set up an interoperability test lab to ensure the customer’s wide range of plant-level controllers (including Air Handling Units (AHU), cooling towers, chillers, boilers etc) and 3rd party supervisory BMS communicate seamlessly.
- New test cases for interoperability, performance, scalability, and robustness were added to the existing portfolio of test suites. This ensured a thorough coverage of functional and non-functional test scenarios to identify potential anomalies.
- The Softdel team was instrumental in identifying and testing complex scenarios, particularly with MS/TP networks, and covering advanced functionalities like BACnet Secure Connect (BACnet/SC), a communication protocol that is still very new to the industry.
Standards and Technology
Communication protocols: BACnet (PR-19/PR-14) | BACnet IP | MS/TP | BACnet/SC | LonWorks | Proprietary protocols | Testing Services
Framework: Niagara
Simulating Tool: BOSS (Softdel’s BACnet Simulator)
Benefits
- Seamless communication: Softdel's test lab ensured that inter-device communication and data exchange between the BMS and the customer's plant-level controllers was robust and smooth even with 3rd party updates.
- Defect-free product launches: To guarantee effective functioning of the customer's controllers, Softdel conducted extensive testing to determine their stability and market readiness, all while maintaining adherence to current industry standards.
- Enhanced productivity: Exhaustive testing allowed the customer to ascertain the quality standards for their extensive product lines and reduce time to market, thus helping them retain their distinguished market position.
