Active device management for use in a building automation system
A building automation system (BAS) comprising a plurality of end devices, at least one communication network, and a server engine comprising a communication state manager for actively managing the state of various devices in building automation system and an associated reconnect manager to reestablish communication with off-line devices. The communication manager and the reconnect manager coordinate the interaction between the server engine and the devices in order to minimizing the load on the communication network, while also working to establish the working state of any of the end devices and to transition off-line to an on-line state.
1. A computer-implemented method for managing the connection status of a plurality of end devices in a building automation system (BAS) comprising:
providing a server engine communicatively coupled to the plurality of end devices by a network, the server engine including a connection manager;
transmitting, by the connection manager, a first verify message to a one of the plurality of end devices via the network and incrementing a message count of the number of verify messages sent;
waiting, by the connection manager, for a response to the verify message for a predefined wait-time period proportional to an amount of time the end device has been off-line, wherein the predefined wait-time period is defined by a decay algorithm including a plurality of states, at least some of the plurality of states each corresponding to a predefined range of time for which an end device is off-line;
incrementing, by the connection manager, the wait-time period if no response to the verify message is received, checking if the message count has reached a maximum message value, transmitting another verify message if the maximum message value has not been reached;
setting, by the connection manager, the wait-time period to a preconfigured minimum-time and clearing the message count if an affirmative response to the verify message is received; and
discontinuing, by the connection manager, the transmission of verify messages to the one of the plurality of end devices if the message count has reached the maximum message value.
2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising limiting communication to end devices that are off-line to verify messages by checking, by the connection manager, an on-line/off-line status indication before non-verify messages are transmitted to end devices.
3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising sharing notifications between two components embodied in the server engine that include an indication if an end devices has transitioned from the off-line status to the on-line status or from the off-line status to the on-line status.
4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the connection manager comprises a reconnect manager.