COMPLEX EVENT PROCESSING IN BUILDING
MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS — A PROTOTYPE
System architecture overview Building and technology
passport
Passports are spatial databases containing
information about facilities and devices
that university uses. Each item in
the databases is identified with unique
code with hierarchic structure.
Building management
data semantics
Joining data from BMS and from passport
allows as to add „machine-readable“ information
about semantics (meaning) of
data points (i.e. inputs, outputs, control
variables) in BMS. In addition to the information
from technology passport we add
information about measured quantity
(temperature, pressure, humidity, actual
current, voltage...) of each data point.
Adam Kučera, Faculty of Informatics, Masaryk University
Introduction
Complex Event Processing (CEP) is set of tools and techniques allowing us to handle events from large systems in real time. CEP in commonly used in network security, algorithmic stock-trading, fraud
detection or business process monitoring for correlating, aggregating and analyzing various events.
Modern ("intelligent") buildings are often equipped with BMS – network of interconnected devices that ensures integrated building operation, control and monitoring. Building operators and maintenance
staff are easily overwhelmed by large amounts of data and events produced by the BMS. In this way BMS are similar to other fields where CEP is successfully used (network monitoring, credit
card fraud detection, algorithmic stock trading etc.).
Test environment — BMS at Masaryk University
 Integrates monitoring and control of University Campus in Brno—Bohunice (first phase of
construction ended in 2007) and other university buildings in Brno.
 Uses BACnet as common communication protocol
 Over 700 native BACnet devices by approximately 10 vendors
 Integrated systems/technologies: HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air-conditioning), Fire
alarms, Security system, Access control system, CCTV, Power systems, UPS monitoring, university
information system (controlling door locks according to lecture room timetables)
The goals
Aim of this research is to adapt existing CEP framework (Microsoft StreamInsight) to
work with data from intelligent buildings and provide building operators with the easily
understandable outputs that help to optimize building operation and detect various
types of faults that occurs in a building. The CEP framework was extended to be able to
work with specific features of building management data (location, source device,
measured/controlled quantity). A prototype of the system was implemented and tested
in real operation environment.
Attribute Value Meaning
Data point 102.AV145 ID of data point
in BMS
Location BHA12P01005 Room 005 in the
basement of
building 12 at
university camDevice
BAPK Energy meter
Quantity ESS0 Electricity con-
sumption
Selecting, filtering, joining,
aggregating data
Using building management data semantics,
we are able to perform selections, filtering
and computations (average, summa,
maximum, minimum) over the data from
the BMS. The system uses time windows for
performing continuous computations of the
data characteristics. We can utilize hierarchy
of passport databases and use masks to
gather related data into separate groups.
System prototype — Data analysis and visualization
System runs continuous user-defined queries that transform input data from BMS using various methods (selection, filtering, joining,
aggregation, grouping). Results of the computations performed by the system can by further analyzed automatically (e.g. Detecting
fault on particular device) or stored for later visualization that can be examined by users.
References
D. Luckham, "The Power of Events", Addison-Wesley,
2002.
H. Merz, T. Hansemann and C. Hübner, "Building automation",
Springer, 2009.
O. Etzion and P. Niblett, "Event Processing in Action",
Manning Publications, 2010.
A. Kučera, "Complex Event Processing in Building Management
Systems", Master thesis, Masaryk University,
Faculty of Informatics, 2012.