A middleware for web service-enabled integration and interoperation of intelligent building systems

This paper describes a middleware framework for integrating heterogeneous building automation systems (BAS) on the Internet. The proposed framework combines OPC (OLE for Process Control) and Web Services to integrate data and services on the Internet. It utilizes the OPC technologies in LAN and the powerful communication capability of Web Services to accommodate different communication interfaces/protocols and provide public Web Services methods. These public Web Services methods can be invoked by heterogeneous BAS or other enterprise applications to realize BAS integration and interoperation with enterprise applications on the Internet, thus filling the gap between BAS control network and data communication network. The design and implementation of the middleware technology are presented in this paper. Experiments and evaluation on performance of the middleware are also conducted and presented.