Offline device and point configuration

The EDE (Engineering Data Exchange) configuration utility, running on either a controller or PC platform, can discover BACnet devices and points from EDE configuration files, creating an offline BACnet network of corresponding devices and points with the same hierarchy and type information as described in the EDE configuration files.

Support for EDE offline discovery is built into the Framework. It does not run in the remote controller platform although it can operate on the controller station.

A bit of background

The BACnet Interest Group (BIG-EU), the European trade association for the application of the global BACnet standard ISO 16484–5, defined a format for distributing BACnet data-point lists.

In a multi-vendor system, interacting parties need to exchange engineering data. In a BACnet system, BACnet online discovery, which most server and client devices support, exchanges data, such as data point object properties, however, this data exchange, by definition, can only be accomplished online and depends on BACnet discovery functionality being available in both the server and client.

These conditions prevent this discovery and require an offline solution:

Lack of discovery functionality in both server and client
A server that was not set up with engineering data before it was installed and operational on a BACnet network
Lack of client devices for online discovery

It was with these conditions in mind that in 1999, the BIG-EU began a project to define a data format so that BACnet engineering data could be made available offline. The original concept was to provide only the BACnet data-point list in a simple human-readable form via a CSV (Comma-Separated Value) file. The general format actually consists of four different CSV spreadsheets, which collectively are known as the EDE (Engineering Data Exchange) configuration files. The BIG-EU document that defines them is the Engineering Data Exchange Template for BACnet Systems.

The latest version of the standard is 2.3 (2017) introduced the EDE table. Since this version was published, many BACnet equipment vendors have adopted the EDE file format to define and distribute device point content. To provide offline engineering programming, many include an EDE master configuration file-import mechanism in their server device.

NOTE: The data contained in the EDE configuration files are not as extensive as the data discovered online and discrepancies can occur when discovering devices and points online after initially using the EDE configuration files offline to build the engineering database in a server station. The original concept of a human-readable file containing the BACnet data-point list was never intended to be a machine-to-machine (M2M) data exchange format, but BACnet product vendors have adopted it as the de facto standard for M2M data exchange.

When to use this utility

Within the Niagara Framework you should use this utility:

When upgrading to a new controller. You can export EDE data from the station running on the old controller and use the exported EDE configuration files with a discovery job to update the station database in the new station before connecting devices.
To configure a Supervisor station. You can export EDE data from each controller station and use the exported EDE configuration files to discover and update the database in the Supervisor station.

Offline configuration

This utility configures a station that is offline, where offline means that no BACnet devices, which will be imported into the station, are currently connected to the station’s controller. The station itself is running and accessible using Workbench.

To facilitate network configuration, the station requires the Bacnet EDE Service component, which handles the appropriate job submissions for device and point discovery. Standard manager views on the BACnet network and BACnet device components manage these job submissions.

The discovery process follows the standard system process of discovery on the network for all devices and on each device for the underlying points.

Licensing

This utility does not require a separate license. A BACnet license is sufficient to use this feature.

Object export not supported

This utility supports the automatic creation of a BACnet network. Device and point data are intended to configure connections to real-world BACnet devices and points. The purpose is to import state information from the points into a running station. This utility does not support the configuration of existing components for export as point data to BACnet devices.