Connected Building Solutions

Introduction
Building stakeholders are increasingly utilizing Unified Physical InfrastructureSM (UPI) principles to drive interoperability and convergence of building devices and systems that formerly would be separately deployed and managed through proprietary closed technologies. These new intelligent infrastructure design strategies reduce operational expenses with no additional capital costs to fulfill the requirements of current day building systems and provide a flexible migration path to adopt future technologies.

Specifically, connected building planning requires a coordinated communication and project management across four functional phases: organizational alignment, technology strategies, network design considerations, and financial analysis. By optimizing the planning process at each phase, stakeholders can develop a property that enables flexibility for corporate and commercial use, contributes to sustainability and security initiatives, and achieves greater operational efficiencies.

UPI-Enabled Connected Building Strategies
Almost every building system (HVAC, lighting, security, and communications) uses some form of IT networking for management and control. The technologies for connecting, managing, and automating building systems include servers for hosting management software and controllers for floor level settings. Components can include a wide variety of endpoint devices (such as lighting, variable air volume [VAV] boxes, surveillance cameras, and interactive lobby kiosks) as well as required network infrastructure (cabling, switches, connectors, and related protocols).

The growing interdependence of building system technologies and applications requires the integration of many traditionally disparate and proprietary systems. The UPI approach to physical infrastructure design helps stakeholders manage the risk within the physical infrastructure by intelligently converging physical and logical systems to build a smarter, unified business foundation. This approach uses an open standards-based framework to align, converge, and optimize critical systems – communication, computing, control, power, and security – to deliver tangible infrastructure and business process improvements.

Connected Building Solutions realize UPI design principles in the form of an intelligent infrastructure that extends throughout a property to both connect technology components and bridge stakeholder needs. These solutions enable linked facility and network systems to be built directly into the building fabric, generating and sharing data over a unified intelligent infrastructure to enhance building efficiency and effectiveness.  The completed infrastructure enables building owners and property managers to reduce occupancy costs and enhance workplace experiences for their tenants or employees, and ultimately manage property resources more efficiently.

Successful connected building projects result not from following a fixed set of instructions, but from engaging in an open dialogue between stakeholders and partners at every stage, leveraging knowledge across the organization and vendors to reduce communication gaps. Industry standards and UPI-based reference architectures can support customized approaches to deploying specific systems and technologies. However, no matter what level of customization is used, stakeholders can realize higher asset utilization from their investment by following UPI best practices at each phase of the building’s life cycle (see Figure 1). 

Figure 1.  Four-Phase Approach for Developing a Connected Building Solution.

Click here to read the full PANDUIT white paper “Functional and Financial Advantages of Connected Building Solutions.