The LonWorks 2.0 Platform

A Complete Platform for Smart Control

LonWorks 2.0 lets OEM product manufacturers and integrators create and implement control solutions for cities, buildings, and homes. With LonWorks 2.0, you can embed intelligence and communications into any device with an electronic heartbeat, and then network these devices — even if they’re from multiple manufacturers — so they can work together to sense, monitor, and control. Their embedded intelligence allows them to work without a master controller or PC, and work with enterprise applications and other services. LonWorks 2.0 eliminates the software royalties and other fees usually associated with distributed software applications.


The LonWorks 2.0 platform includes:

  • A communications protocol.*
  • Signaling technology (twisted pair wire and power line).*
  • Several varieties of dedicated microprocessors.
  • An IP channel.*
  • A network operating system.
  • Installation and management software tools.
  • Smart energy managers.
  • A standard Web services interface to the network.

*Global, regional, and national standards maintained by ISO/IEC, EN, ANSI, IEEE, SEMI, IFSF, and GB.

 

An Infrastructure You Can Build On

While other networks are better at moving large amounts of information or doing so at extremely high speeds, none are better at control than LonWorks 2.0. The LonWorks platform works with existing and emerging control and networking technologies, offering unmatched flexibility for your next project. For example:

  • Want to integrate your facility assets across a private IP-based WAN? Connect them with an i.LON SmartServer, which uses a SOAP/XML Web services connection to let you monitor and control everything in your remote facilities.
  • Do most of your restaurants have old Modbus-based HVAC equipment and circuit-controlled lights? Integrate and Internet-enable them with a LonWorks smart energy manager.
  • Need to uniformly control your devices to reduce energy costs? Start transitioning from your BACnet supervisory system, one LonWorks based subsystem at a time.

The LonWorks platform provides the reliability that wireless networks lack. You can add any wireless sensor network — such as EnOcean or ZigBee — to a LonWorks network to suit your needs.

A worldwide ecosystem of product and system suppliers, network integrators, and service companies supports the LonWorks platform. This means you can build an entire project, such as a fully integrated LEED Platinum building — complete with subsystems for heating and cooling, blinds, lighting (indoor, outdoor, parking, and emergency), elevator, CO2 sensing, access, security, fire detection and suppression, and solar arrays — all with LonWorks 2.0.


A Constantly Evolving Open Platform

Our newly updated LonWorks 2.0 platform is more powerful than ever, featuring:

  • New dedicated silicon that’s up to eight times faster than previous generations.
  • Lower costs — up to 50 percent — for manufacturers.
  • New free, streamlined, and transparent ways to install LonWorks 2.0 devices.
  • The elimination of software credits.
  • An optimized set of development tools, network installation tools, and a network database that together ensure robust, reliable solutions across your markets.
  • The new SmartServer energy manager for buildings, enterprises, and cities.

Since a LonWorks based device might be in service for decades, the LonWorks 2.0 platform is completely backward compatible. This lets you add LonWorks 2.0 devices to existing LonWorks networks and vice versa, so you can make the transition at your own pace.


What’s Next?

New LonWorks applications are constantly emerging, thanks to the vision and creativity of Echelon and its manufacturers, integrators, and end users.

  • Smart streetlights.Managed street lighting systems feature smart ballasts that dramatically lower energy and maintenance costs while improving street safety. The system can eventually include micro-environment sensors, traffic and pedestrian sensors, and more.
  • Intelligent branch offices. Rapid deployment energy solutions can integrate with enterprise management applications and produce an ROI measured in months, not years.
  • Alternative energy. Key solar industry companies are using the LonWorks platform to manage solar inverters, as well as monitor the health and performance of the arrays.
  • Smart grid applications. LonWorks networks enable automatic demand response by using energy pricing and availability data to control devices and systems in buildings, homes, factories, and cities.