EtherCAT communication technology has the advantages of fast transmission speed and flexibility, and is open to all mature building bus systems, suitable for a variety of application scenarios.

Modern non-residential buildings place many high requirements on building automation, including high energy efficiency, sustainable building operations, comprehensive energy management, charging GFD233A 3BHE022294R0103 infrastructure for electric vehicles, and meeting the latest legal and regulatory requirements for energy consumption data recording. All of these requirements can be achieved with Beckhoff’s EtherCat-based control technology, which enables ultra-high speed data communication and provides an efficient central automation architecture for building automation. In addition, Beckhoff can also implement various network topologies according to the specific needs of customers, and highly flexible integration of all mature subbus systems into the topology.

2023 marks the 20th year of EtherCAT technology, and its success is a testament to its value as a high-performance real-time Ethernet system and an open IEC standard in a wide range of applications: It includes applications for various functions in industrial buildings and functional buildings, such as air conditioning, lighting and shading, technical control centers for power supply and delivery systems, activity technologies, and measurement modules used in energy distribution systems.

GFD233A 3BHE022294R0103

Fast, consistent, and reliable data acquisition is becoming increasingly important. Regulations now require the recording of energy consumption data for non-residential buildings, which can only be done cost-effectively with high-performance communication technologies. Part 1 of the VDI 3814 standard (Building Automation and Control Systems (BACS) – Basics) also emphasizes the importance of high data transfer rates. It points out that the response time of a building automation system has an important impact on its availability. When a room automation system has unlimited flexibility, high-speed communication is required between various parts, rooms, and areas.

With the central automation concept based on EtherCAT, it is possible to optimize the implementation of various specifications based on the central control technology and assign control tasks to one or more industrial PCS as needed. The technology uses distributed I/O and high-speed EtherCAT communication to obtain the required data. As a result, a cost-optimized structure can be built using as few controllers as possible to operate the required number of I/O GFD233A 3BHE022294R0103 components as an alternative to complex traditional methods, eliminating the need to use a large number of controllers and operating only a few I/ OS per controller. This central control solution is supported by the openness of the EtherCat-based system solution: EtherCAT provides the technical basis for integrating all building automation fieldbus systems, thus avoiding the subsystem bottlenecks often found in traditional data transmission. For example, BACnet/IP, BACNET-MS /TP, DALI, DMX, EnOcean, KNX/EIB, Modbus, M-Bus, MP-Bus, and SMI can be seamlessly integrated through the associated EtherCAT terminal and bus terminal modules.