Intelligent Buildings: India's Solution to its Energy Woes

What will the network of Intelligent Buildings look like?

On the outside, intelligent buildings will look like any other building. And, from inside, there will be a marked difference in the way the building operates and facilitates the building owners, tenants, occupants and the visitors.

The network will be the binding force of all services running in a building. It will carry not only the Voice/Video Data services, but also all other services including building management systems (BMS), surveillance, security networks, HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) as well as elevator systems to name a few.

In addition to the network becoming the backbone integrating all the building services, the network itself will undergo a wave of change. Organizations are working towards ratifying the standards and the network is becoming more and more stable with these newer standards.

With BYOD becoming a norm for the smart workforce, enterprises, willing to increase productivity, are looking at ways and means to increase the coverage of their network within a building. Newer Wi-Fi technologies like IEEE 802.11ac are expected to provide 1.2Gbps throughput to the wireless user at the initial phase of the solution. This will help the employees to work with their own devices but at a greater speed of access. The most critical aspect of the network is to build it with infrastructure that can integrate this technology and provide the necessary bandwidth to the mobile user. The crucial network infrastructure in this aspect is the Category 6A, which provides 10Gbps over the traditional twisted pair.

In addition, newer standards and solutions are expected soon in terms of the power over Ethernet network. (Standard organizations are looking at ways to increase the power output so that recent advanced technology devices like 802.11n/11ac/PTZ cameras can be connected using the same PoE network). The new PoE standard not only allows more equipment to be powered from the central office, but would also enhance the security to a higher level, since with remote power feed, the security officers will be able to view a larger area for surveillance.

Another solution that is fast becoming popular is intelligent lighting that enables huge energy savings.