BACnet is a communications protocol for building automation and control networks. It is an ASHRAE, ANSI, and ISO standard protocol.
BACnet was designed to allow communication of building automation and control systems for applications such as heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning control, lighting control, access control, and fire detection systems and their associated equipment. The BACnet protocol provides mechanisms for computerized building automation devices to exchange information, regardless of the particular building service they perform.
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The development of the BACnet protocol began in June, 1987, in Nashville, Tennessee,[1] at the inaugural meeting of the Standard Project Committee (SPC). The committee worked at reaching consensus using working groups to divide up the task of creating a standard. The working groups focused on specific areas and provided information and recommendations to the main committee. The first three working groups were the Data Type and Attribute Working Group, Primitive Data Format Working Group, and the Application Services Working Group.
BACnet became ASHRAE/ANSI Standard 135 in 1995, and ISO 16484-5 in 2003. The Method of Test for Conformance to BACnet was published in 2003 as BSR/ASHRAE Standard 135.1. BACnet is under continuous maintenance by the ASHRAE Standing Standard Project Committee 135.
BACnet had an almost immediate impact on the HVAC controls industry. In 1996 Alerton announced a complete BACnet product line for HVAC controls, from the operator's workstation down to small VAV controllers. Automated Logic Corporation and Delta Controls soon followed suit. As of December 2, 2011, 547 Vendor IDs have been issued and are distributed internationally . Those vendor identifiers can be viewed at the BACnet website.
H. Michael (Mike) Newman, Manager of the Computer Section of the Utilities and Energy Management Department at Cornell University, served as the BACnet committee chairman until June, 2000, when he was succeeded by his vice-chair of 13 years, Steven (Steve) Bushby from NIST. During Steve Bushby's four-year term as committee chair the BACnet standard was republished twice, in 2001 and 2004, each time with new capabilities added to the standard. The 2001 version featured, among other things, extensions to support fire / life-safety systems. In June, 2004, 17 years after the first BACnet meeting and back in Nashville, William (Bill) Swan (a.k.a. "BACnet Bill") from Alerton began his four-year stint as committee chair. During his term the number of committee working groups grew to 11, pursuing areas such as support for lighting, access control, energy utility/building integration and wireless communications. In June 2008, in Salt Lake City, Dave Robin from Automated Logic Corporation took over the reins as the new committee chair after serving 4 years as vice chair.
In January 2006 the BACnet Manufacturers Association and the BACnet Interest Group of North America combined their operation in a new organization called BACnet International.
The BACnet protocol defines a number of services that are used to communicate between building devices. The protocol services include Who-Is, I-Am, Who-Has, I-Have, which are used for Device and Object discovery. Services such as Read-Property and Write-Property are used for data sharing. The BACnet protocol defines a number of Objects that are acted upon by the services. The objects include Analog Input, Analog Output, Analog Value, Binary Input, Binary Output, Binary Value, Multi-State Input, Multi-State Output, Calendar, Event-Enrollment, File, Notification-Class, Group, Loop, Program, Schedule, Command, and Device.
The BACnet protocol defines a number of data link / physical layers, including ARCNET, Ethernet, BACnet/IP, Point-To-Point over RS-232, Master-Slave/Token-Passing over RS-485, and LonTalk.
The standard specifies 50 types of objects
| Access Credential | Access Door | Access Point | Access Rights | Access User |
| Access Zone | Accumulator | Analog Input | Analog Output | Analog Value |
| Averaging | Binary Input | Binary Output | Binary Value | Bit String Value |
| Calendar | Character String Value | Command | Credential Data Input | Date Pattern Value |
| Date Value | Date Time Pattern Value | Date Time Value | Device | Event Enrollment |
| Event Log | File | Global Group | Group | Integer Value |
| Large Analog Value | Life Safety Point | Life Safety Zone | Load Control | Loop |
| Multi-state Input | Multi-state Output | Multi-state Value | Network Security | Notification Class |
| Octet String Value | Positive Integer Value | Program | Pulse Converter | Schedule |
| Structured-View | Time Pattern Value | Time Value | Trend Log | Trend Log Multiple |
BACnet Testing Laboratories was established by BACnet International to test products as per BACnet standard and support compliance testing and interoperability testing activities and consists of BTL Manager and the BTL-WG. The general activities of the BTL are:
The BTL also provides testing services through its managed BACnet laboratory. BACnet International and BTL have reached an agreement with SoftDEL Systems to establish and maintain a test lab for BACnet products.[2] SoftDEL is headquartered in Pune, India where the test facility operates BTL. The BTL Manager and BTL working group of BACnet International will administer the test lab. This BACnet lab is ISO 17025 accredited [3]