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BACnet Insight

BACnet Testing Laboratories: Maintaining the

Integrity of the BACnet Standard

© BACnet International

According to a recent market study by Fortune Busi- for Bushby’s team at NIST to develop testing software and Once a product has successfully completed testing, the man-
ness Insights, the building automation systems market methods. The consortium eventually grew to include 22 ufacturer can apply for formal BTL Certification. BTL Certified
is forecasted to grow to $150.73 billion USD world- companies. products can be identified by the BTL Mark on the physical
wide by 2032. In conjunction with industry expansion, product or by searching for their BTL Listing online. The BTL
BACnet market adoption will continue to grow. “Steve’s presence and the availability of the NIST lab was Listing of Tested Products contains over 1,430 products from
key. We needed a place where people could come together over 225 manufacturers. All products in the listing have been
The latest BACnet Market Adoption Report drawn from that was seen as neutral with the hardware and software independently tested by a recognized BACnet testing organi-
BSRIA’s Market Penetration of Communications Protocols needed to conduct the tests. NIST was the ideal place for zation with an industry-accepted test package and include a
concludes that BACnet remains the most widely specified that,” stated the late Mike Newman, also known as the Certificate of Conformance.
protocol at a global level with 77% of projects specifying “Father of BACnet.”
BACnet, up from 64% in 2018. The Benefits of the BTL Certification Program
In 1998, BACnet Interest Group North America was formed.
With the increased use of BACnet in HVAC, lighting, eleva- The following year, the BACnet Manufacturers Association With any project, manufacturers and end-users must be
tors, access controls, security and life safety, energy man- (BMA) was established by manufacturers recognizing the assured that their BACnet products implement the pro-
agement, and operations data products, it is imperative need to expand BACnet product testing. The BMA formed tocol correctly or otherwise risk project delays and cost
that the protocol is correctly implemented, particularly in a BACnet Testing Laboratories in June 2000 and created the overruns. While BACnet is an open protocol, specifica-
multi-vendor environment. BTL Mark that is still used today. In 2006, BACnet Interest tion is extensive and complex for even the best develop-
Group North America and the BMA merged to form BACnet ers. BACnet implementation errors in the field are griev-
A Brief History of BACnet Testing and Certification International. ous for both manufacturers and end-users. Resolving
interoperability problems in a multi-vendor environment
Steven Bushby, Leader for the Mechanical and Controls Overview of BACnet Testing Laboratories during BACnet system integration can be expensive and
Group Engineering Laboratory (NIST) and one of the first potentially discouraging for customers. In the event of an
BACnet pioneers, began voicing this concern regarding Today, BACnet Testing Laboratories (BTL) continues to sup- interoperability problem between a product with BTL Cer-
correct BACnet implementation in 1991. Years before port compliance testing and interoperability testing activi- tification and one without it, a common assumption is the
BACnet became an ASHRAE Standard in 1995, there was ties. BTL oversees the operation of the global product cer- product without is at fault. Whether it is or not, the burden
already an apparent need to test the implementation of tification program and administers the BTL Working Group of finding and resolving the problem tends to weigh most
early BACnet products. In 1993, Bushby established the (BTL-WG). BTL’s activities include developing and main- heavily on the manufacturer that has not demonstrated
NIST BACnet Interoperability Testing Consortium which taining the BACnet product test requirements and testing compliance through the BTL Certification program. BTL
fostered a symbiotic environment allowing manufactur- policies as well as maintaining a public listing of BTL-cer- Certification lowers integration cost and risk, which is why
ers to build BACnet implementations and products and tified products. many projects today require BTL Certification from manu-
facturers and distributers.

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