[Debian-OASIS] Fwd: [OASIS members] OASIS TC Call For Participation: oBIX TC

Thu, 13 May 2004 16:10:06 -0400

----- Forwarded message from "Karl F. Best" <karl.best@oasis-open.org> -----
    Date: Tue, 11 May 2004 10:47:04 -0400
    From: "Karl F. Best" <karl.best@oasis-open.org>
Reply-To: karl.best@oasis-open.org
 Subject: [OASIS members] OASIS TC Call For Participation: oBIX TC
      To: members@lists.oasis-open.org, tc-announce@lists.oasis-open.org,
xml-dev@lists.xml.org, new-work@ietf.org, obix@lists.oasis-open.org

A new OASIS technical committee is being formed. The OASIS Open Building 
Information Exchange (oBIX) TC has been proposed by the following 
members of OASIS: Dave Clute, Cisco Systems; Paul Ehrlich, Trane; John 
Petze, Tridium; Toby Considine, University of North Carolina; Byron 
Hill, Johnson Controls; Jeremy Roberts, LonMark International; Sam Yang 
and Richard Blomseth, Echelon; and Anto Budiardjo and Anno Scholten, 
Individual members.

The proposal for a new TC meets the requirements of the OASIS TC Process 
(see http://oasis-open.org/committees/process.shtml), and is appended to 
this message. The TC name, statement of purpose, scope, list of 
deliverables, audience, and language specified in the proposal will 
constitute the TC's charter. The TC Process allows these items to be 
clarified (revised); such clarifications (revisions), as well as 
submissions of technology for consideration by the TC and the beginning 
of technical discussions, may occur no sooner than the TC's first meeting.

As specified by the OASIS TC Process, the requirements for becoming a 
member of the TC at the first meeting are that you must 1) be an 
employee of an OASIS member organization or an Individual member of 
OASIS; 2) notify the TC chair of your intent to participate at least 15 
days prior to the first meeting; and 3) attend the first meeting of the 
TC. For OASIS members, to register for the TC using the OASIS 
collaborative tools, go to the TC's public web page at 
http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/obix and click on the button for 
"Join This TC" at the top of the page. You may add yourself to the 
roster of the TC either as a Prospective Member (if you intend to become 
a member of the TC) or an Observer. A notice will automatically be sent 
to the TC chair, which fulfills requirement #2 above.

OASIS members may also join the TC after the first meeting. Note that 
membership in OASIS TCs is by individual, and not by organization.

Non-OASIS members may read the TC's mail list archive, view the TC's web 
page, and send comments to the TC using a web form available on the TC's 
web page; click the "Send A Comment" button. The archives of the TC's 
mail list and public comments are visible at 
http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/

Further information about the topic of this TC may be found on the Cover 
Pages under "XML and Web Services for Facilities Automation Systems" at 
http://xml.coverpages.org/facilitiesXML.html

A FAQ for the TC is available on the TC's web page at 
http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/obix/faq.php

-Karl

================================================================
Karl F. Best
Vice President, OASIS
office  +1 978.667.5115 x206     mobile +1 978.761.1648
karl.best@oasis-open.org      http://www.oasis-open.org

Name of the Proposed TC:

OASIS Open Building Information Exchange (oBIX) TC

Statement of Purpose:

The purpose of the OASIS Open Building Information Exchange (oBIX) TC is 
to define a standard web services protocol to enable communications 
between building mechanical and electrical systems and enterprise 
applications. This protocol will enable facilities and their operations 
to be managed as full participants in knowledge-based businesses.

The oBIX specification will utilize web services for exchange of 
information with the mechanical and electrical systems in commercial 
buildings.

Presently most mechanical and electrical systems are provided with 
embedded digital controls (DDC). Most of these devices are low cost and 
not enabled for TCP/IP. They are installed with dedicated communications 
wiring. Larger DDC controllers provide network communications for these 
dedicated controllers. There are several well established binary 
protocols (BACnet, LonTalk, Modbus, DALI) that are used on these 
dedicated networks in addition to numerous proprietary protocols. While 
these binary protocols can be used over TCP/IP networks - they have 
challenges with routers, firewalls, security, and compatibility with 
other network applications. There is an added challenge in that the 
industry is split between several largely incompatible protocols.

Because oBIX integrates with the enterprise, it will enable mechanical 
and electrical control systems to provide continuous visibility of 
operational status and performance, flagging problems and trends for 
system analysis or human attention.

OBIX provides a technology that enables facilities operators, owners and 
tenants to make decisions based on a fully integrated consideration of 
all life-cycle, environmental, cost, and performance factors.

Scope:

The scope of the oBIX TC is to develop a publicly available web services 
interface specification that can be used to obtain data in a simple and 
secure manner from HVAC, access control, utilities, and other building 
automation systems, and to provide data exchange between facility 
systems and enterprise applications. In addition, the TC will develop 
implementation guidelines, as needed, to facilitate the development of 
products that use the web service interface. Work outside of the above 
will be considered out of scope for the TC.

List of Deliverables:

Release 1 (Completion date: end of 2004):
* Standard for the exchange of data between systems in a secure manner.
* Eventing of data (alarms and events)
* Logs of data for trending variables such as temperature

The intent of the committee is to complete several iterations of this 
standard, each of which will add in additional functionality. In 
addition the committee intends to address the issues of interoperability 
and conformance testing, and further revision and maintenance of the 
specification. Deliverables related to these ongoing efforts will be 
added to the TC charter in accordance with the OASIS TC Process.

Anticipated Audience:

1) Owners and managers of commercial buildings
2) Manufacturers of Building Automation products
3) Consultants and designers of buildings and their sub-systems
4) The IT community that builds and manages networks

Language:

English

The following is informational only for the purposes of starting the TC, 
and will not be part of the TC's charter:

Similar Work:

Work on this project has been under progress since 4/2003 under the 
trade group known as CABA.  Significant progress and structure is 
already complete. See www.obix.org and www.caba.org for more information.

It is anticipated by the proposers that CABA will promote the technical 
work done by the OASIS oBIX TC. Appropriate liaisons will be created 
between the TC and CABA to coordinate efforts in this area.

Other significant work in the area of HVAC and Facility management 
protocols has been achieved by ASHRAE (BACnet Standard) and also by 
LonMark International.  These are both Binary protocols and are designed 
for use over various types of networks. For more details please refer to 
www.bacnet.org and www.lonmark.org. Liaisons will be established with 
these groups as appropriate.

List of Contributions:

It is anticipated by the proposers that the current oBIX working drafts, 
completed under the CABA project, will be  contributed to the TC at or 
after the first meeting of the TC.

First meeting:

Date: 6/15/04
Time: 9:00 AM Central Time
Type of meeting: teleconference
Sponsor: Trane

Ongoing meeting schedule:

Weekly teleconferences; quarterly face to face meetings
Ongoing meeting sponsor: Tridium

Proposers:

Dave Clute, Cisco Systems, dclute@cisco.com
Paul Ehrlich, Trane, pehrlich@trane.com
John Petze, Tridium, Jpetze@tridium.com
Toby Considine, University of North Carolina, toby.considine@fac.unc.edu
Byron Hill, Johnson Controls, Byron.K.Hill@jci.com
Jeremy Roberts, LonMark International, jeremy@lonmark.org
Anto Budiardjo, Clasma, antob@clasma.com
Sam Yang, Echelon, syang@echelon.com
Richard Blomseth, Echelon, rich@echelon.com
Anno Scholten, Individual, anno@estructures.com

TC Convener:

Paul Ehrlich  Pehrlich@trane.com

Proposed TC Chair:

Toby Considine toby.considine@fac.unc.edu

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----- End forwarded message -----

____________________________________________________________
Mark Johnson      <mark@dulug.duke.edu>
Debian XML/SGML:  <http://debian-xml-sgml.alioth.debian.org>
Home Page:        <http://dulug.duke.edu/~mark/>
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