BUILDING INTELLIGENCE

LEGACY BUILDING MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS, ONCE USED TO SUPPORT HEATING AND COOLING, ARE NOW TRANSFORMING INTO DIGITAL SMART BUILDINGS WITH NEW CABLING STANDARDS AND ZONE CABLING ARCHITECTURE SAYS OSAMA ABED, TECHNICAL MANAGER AT NEXANS DATA NETWORK SOLUTIONS.

The Internet of Things is no longer a hype and along with the network edge, improved wireless network platforms and improved access points, offers a wide range of use cases and opportunities for return on investment.

With rapid urbanization a global and regional trend, and the focus on connected and sustainable real estate development, both commercial and consumer, in UAE and Saudi Arabia, an area that is of importance is smart buildings.

According to Mordor Intelligence, the UAE construction market is expected to reach a value of US$134 billion by 2027, with a CAGR of close to 5% over the forecast period 2022-2027. Similarly, the size of the Saudi Arabia construction Market is US$140 billion in the current year and is anticipated to register a CAGR of over 5% during the forecast period.

As private and government investments are directed towards mega-commercial, luxury, hospitality, and lifestyle construction projects across the GCC, a key requirement is to ensure they are future technology ready. With the rapid pace of digital transformation in the consumer and business areas, service providers may need to support a wide range networking platforms and use cases in the future, that building residents demand and expect.

Traditionally, the principal purpose of a legacy building systems was to integrate the requirement of heating and cooling across a particular building. Such legacy systems have been self-contained, not always connected to the Internet, and have been put in place for the benefit of the owners of the building. Reducing the costs of operation and maintenance used to be their primary purpose in the past.

Today building management systems under the influence of digital transformation are moving towards the next generation of building management systems, typically termed as smart buildings or intelligent buildings.

Smart buildings have a wide range of digital sensors or Internet of Things and digital appliances deployed in their internal networks and support systems. This could include surveillance, face recognition, biometrics, access systems, thermal temperature distribution, energy consumption, network quality, network management, passenger monitoring systems in elevators, as well sensors for indoor air quality, among others. All these helps to build a digital persona of the building.

As an example, Power over Ethernet is now used to support and manage LED based lighting systems. Using Power over Ethernet, energy for LED lighting systems are delivered through the network, making lighting management an IT function. LED lighting systems can reduce energy consumption by up to 80% delivering the same light intensity.

In addition to energy consumption, LED lighting also has a significant impact on productivity. Productivity improvements are some of the best benefits delivered by smart buildings, and according to McKinsey, the productivity benefits from smart lighting can account for up to 75% of the financial benefit of the intelligent building environment.

While the Internet of Things sits on a future ready network infrastructure system, the life cycles of sensors and devices needs to be extended to match the life cycle of the building and the network. Another important consideration while designing smart buildings is the concept of the Service Concentration Point or SCP. SCPs are designed to around cover 16 sqm and should support 8 to 36 devices.

Smart buildings use a star-wired architecture with cables going from the service distributor to the SCP. SCPs should be deployed permanently in accessible areas and should be not designed on structures which are temporary.

There are several cabling standards to support the build-up of smart buildings. Both CENELEC and ISO are specific to distributed building services, and BICSI has an ICT design for smart buildings. The standards recommend using a zone cabling architecture to prepare for these kinds of deployments.

To summarize, smart buildings converge a wide range of use cases and technology platforms to deliver a better working environment in terms of productivity, health, safety, cost, and sustainability. Internet of Things deployed in smart buildings helps to build digital representations of physical objects, systems, and spaces.

Smart buildings through Internet of Things, digital platforms, and advanced network systems can integrate data from multiple disparate systems. This delivers improved economic, social, and environmental benefits to the tenants and owners of the building.