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Echelon FAQ

How is Echelon's business structured?

Echelon has two primary businesses derived from a common technology base – Controls Infrastructure and the NES Business.

The Controls Infrastructure Business

This business encompasses the various markets for control automation, basically the business of control, sensing and monitoring. This includes automation systems within the commercial buildings industry for such things as heating, venting and air-conditioning, elevators, lighting, security, access, and other systems. Within the in Control business, Echelon is a leading supplier to OEM manufacturers of components and technology – chiefly transceiver technology, network and management software, development tools, network interfaces and connectivity, and routing hardware. Echelon is also a leading supplier of system products to integrators in the various controls markets and chiefly within the building controls industry. These products include Internet servers and routers, network installation and management tools, and network analysis tools.

The NES Business

Echelon’s NES business is built on knowledge gleaned from helping Enel S.p.A. create a nationwide smart metering solution that is delivering returns to Enel on the order of Euro 500M in operational savings per year (beginning in 2006). Based on the experience of working with Enel, Echelon created a “clean-sheet” implementation of a next generation smart metering system that we call, Networked Energy Services, or NES.

NES uses the same basic technologies used in our Controls business. Namely, NES meters use our power line smart transceivers, data concentrators that are highly customized for utility needs but in essence are analogous to our i.LON servers, and specialized system software that is based upon our Panoramix enterprise software designed to manage the monitoring of many (dozens to millions) of remote assets. The architecture of the NES system is analogous to what a facility management company would create to manage multiple buildings except in the case of NES, there are 100s of thousands or millions of meters instead of dozens of buildings.

How does Echelon make money?

Echelon makes money from two basic businesses, Controls Infrastructure and NES. For the Controls business, Echelon chiefly derives revenue from the sales of electronic components in the form of twisted pair and power line transceivers, routing products, and network management software. Echelon sells directly, through distributors, and through manufacturers’ representatives.

In the NES business, Echelon derives revenue by supplying the meters, concentrators and system software. Echelon is rarely the lead respondent to utility tenders for the NES business. Instead we work closely with selling partners with extensive project management skills such as IBM and Value Added Resellers that build system solutions utilizing the NES meters, concentrators and system software. In both cases, Echelon’s selling/VAR partner would perform the project management and applications development in response to the tender.

What makes Echelon unique?

Echelon was the first, and is the only, company in the world to recognize that controls, and more specifically, control networking is an entirely different kind of network from data networks. Control networks, unlike data networks, are about electronic devices and machines. The company recognized that there are literally many orders of magnitude more electronic things in the world that should be networked then there are data computing devices. Such things include lights, automatic doors, air-conditioners, trucks, cars, planes, speaker systems, elevators, baggage handling systems, parts supply conveying systems – literally everything and anything that helps to sense, monitor or control. Consider that in a typical home may have 50 to 100 microprocessors performing various tasks compared to 2 or 3 computing devices. This 25:1 ratio of simple electronic devices to data devices does not even factor in things that don’t have microprocessors but should – things like light switches, power plugs, and others.

Put another way, Echelon’s unique contribution, at a fundamental level, is to figure out how electronic devices that sense, monitor, and control should interact and then to bring to market an elegant technology platform to enable people to make such devices work better.

Echelon’s technology platform for control is called LonWorks. Focusing on the network, with virtually no consideration for the applications that would ultimately be built upon such networks of things, has allowed Echelon to create a uniquely valuable technology offering that spans almost all controls applications, in almost all markets.

What is a control network?

A control network is a collection of at least three devices that interact to perform, collectively of individually, sensing, monitoring or work (control). Since it is a network, the devices on a control network can work together to perform some application. In control networks that are well designed to be very reliable and high performance (the two basic features of a control network), communications among devices should be peer-to-peer. The means that there are no single “masters” on the network that determine if a message from one device should be sent to another device and in what order.

Examples of control networks include heating and air-conditioning systems in commercial buildings and homes, flight control systems in aircraft, speaker systems in auditoriums, lighting systems on Broadway, train systems for pitch and yaw – virtually every application that involves electronic devices that ISN’T directly intended to enlighten, inform, or entertain people.

What’s in a control network?

A typical control network is comprised of I/O, smart devices, a network database, routers/repeaters, and an Internet interface. Simply put, these pieces perform the following functions:

• I/O – the most numerous of citizens on a control network, these provide very simple data, such as the exact temperature
• Smart Devices – these comprise the second largest set (and often the largest set) of things on a control network. Smart devices perform all the distributed processing and actions on a control network. Everything from opening valves, to sending alerts about temperature fluctuations, mixing chemicals and opening windows. Control networks using the LonWorks platform currently range from as few as four smart devices to as many as 17,000 smart devices on a single network. In the case of the 17,000 device network (Rhoppongi Hills in Japan), there are well over 100,000 I/O points in the system
• Network Database – all control networks should have a database. The network database performs many functions, but it’s chief benefits are:
• Maintains an image of which devices talk to each other and how. This is very important in the case of the need to restore the functionality of the network.
• Act as a means to dynamically manage the functionality of the network, e.g., changing the way devices work together.
• Provide a means for creating applications that use the network, e.g., an energy management application that reads the local utility’s energy rate card and talks to the network database which devices can turn on and in what order.
• Routers/repeaters – these are not gateways. Routers/repeaters do not translate the protocol of a control network. Instead these ensure two things. First, they give the network fault tolerance by isolating groups of smart devices. Routers/repeaters prevent an accidental cut wire from bringing down and entire control system. Routers also allow a system to have multiple media types such as twisted pair, power line, and RF in a single network. IP routers that enable peer-to-peer communications across IP are only limited in speed by the performance of the local LAN or Internet infrastructure. This dramatically reduces installation costs and generally improves performance.
• Internet Interface – all control networks will one day be connected to the Internet. How this is done is very important. A flat peer-to-peer control network allows applications designers and service companies to access, monitor, and all the individual devices on a control network, regardless of manufacturer. Since the devices within the control network don’t use IP, the control network’s performance and reliability is maintained. In a LonWorks network, using Echelon’s i.LON 100 Internet servers, every device can be managed remotely over IP, networks can be managed over any distance, and, because the i.LON using web services (SOAP/XML) a control network equipped with i.LON servers can be transparently integrated into a business systems such as ERP, expert systems, advanced billing systems and more.

What is the LonWorks platform?

LonWorks is the name of Echelon control networking technology platform. It is described as a platform because it is made of the following things:

• Communications protocol – Once called the LonTalk protocol, the protocol underlying a LonWorks control network is an international standard – alternatively known as ANSI/EIA709.1; SEMI E56.6; IEEE 1493-L; EN14908 and others.
• Dedicated microprocessor – Known as the Neuron chip, these processors are highly optimized for LonWorks controls. Neuron chips have three 8-bit inline processors, two of which are dedicated to the communications protocol and one which is a general purpose applications processor. Multiple chip manufacturers market the Neuron family of microprocessors and Echelon’s smart transceivers include a Neuron core.
• Transceivers – Echelon’s twisted pair and power line signaling technology have been approved as ANSI/EIA709.3 and 709.2 respectively. Both are also expected to be included in EN14908.
• Network Database – Called the LNS Network Operating System, this database is the required software component of open systems that ensures an open bidding environment for extending, maintaining, and managing LonWorks based systems. It is the required network database of the US Army Corps of Engineers; US Navy; US Air Force; New York City public school district; Chicago public school district; and many more organizations and large end-users. As described elsewhere in this FAQ, the network operating systems serves critical functions in a control network. The LNS operating system also supports a plug-in architecture.
• Standard Internet Connectivity – The standardized applications (LonMark profiles) and Standard Network Variable Types (SNVTs) of a LonWorks network are ALL passed through Internet connectivity devices in a LonWorks network using web services (SOAP calls in XML format). As an international standard within the IT community, the use of web services to access and control LonWorks networks means that control networks can be integral parts of enterprise applications, services centers and more.
• Interoperability – This is the ability of multiple devices, created by differing manufacturers, to work together without any gateways translating the data from one to another and the ability of a single, standardized software tool to manage and install such disparate devices. Interoperability in the LonWorks world is governed by the LonMark International group through the maintenance of interoperability guidelines, creation of standard applications through the work of task groups, and certification testing.

What’s the difference between Echelon, LonWorks, LonUsers and LonMark?

Echelon is the creator of modern control networking. The company invented a control technology platform which they named LonWorks. Echelon describes its control networking products for OEMs, integrators, and system providers as LonWorks products. Companies that have adopted the platform for their products refer to their products as being LonWorks products. It is a trade name owned by Echelon. Products that are based on the ANSI/EIA709.1 protocol (non-Neuron based processors) are NOT marketed as LonWorks products.

LonMark is the name created by Echelon as the brand for interoperable LonWorks. Because LonWorks is such an open technology, it quickly became apparent that in order for LonWorks networks to become the de facto standard for control worldwide, a set of guidelines needs to be created, along with strict testing, to ensure that LonWorks devices from one manufacturer could communicate directly with products from another manufacturer. Products certified as LonMark interoperable have been tested to comply with the LonMark Interoperability Guidelines and are therefore manageable, installable, and configurable using a common tool. All LonMark certified products are either LonWorks based (e.g., use the Neuron Chip) or ANSI/EIA709.1 based (e.g., use non-Neuron microprocessors that have the ANSI/EIA709.1 protocol implemented in firmware).

In 2004, the LonMark Interoperability Association underwent a dramatic change in composition, purpose, and organization. First, the organization updated their vision of interoperability to include complete LonWorks based systems – creating a LonMark System Specification. Henceforward, entire building or factory control systems could be described as LonMark systems. Second, the organization became a California non-profit organization and changed its name to LonMark International (LMI). Third, LMI moved to create local affiliate organizations to expand the reach and market impact of the organization. The first set of organizations that LMI approached were the LonUsers International Groups – country based user groups of the LonWorks platform.

Echelon is a member of the LonMark International Board of Directors. There are over 16 Board members, each with one Board level vote. The organization had over 300 members and had certified over 500 products as interoperable by 2005.