Wireless Zone Controllers for Building Management
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Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional building management systems lack the ability to optimize control across multiple zones efficiently, as sub-systems cannot communicate directly and must rely on a central integrated platform for information transmission, limiting their capacity for optimized control and management.
Innovation Solution
A wireless management and communication network system utilizing smart nodes (SNs) and zone controllers (ZCs) that establish self-organized networks for zone control and information exchange, allowing for optimized control and analysis of each zone while enabling communication between zones for comprehensive building management.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a central integrated platform is used to integrate sub-systems, then information transmission capacity is huge and all information must pass through the central platform, but the system cannot accomplish optimized control for one or more zones of the building
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the building management system into multiple independent zones, each with its own controller that can autonomously process information and control local sub-systems. This segmentation eliminates the bottleneck of centralized information processing while enabling zone-specific optimized control.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a hierarchical control structure with both centralized and distributed control dimensions. Zone controllers operate independently at the local level while maintaining connectivity to the central platform, adding a spatial dimension to information flow that reduces transmission burden on the central system.
2Reliability
If sub-systems transmit information through the integrated platform, then the system provides monitoring function for the whole building, but the sub-systems cannot communicate with each other directly
Solution Approach 1:
The zone controller acts as an intermediary between sub-systems within the same zone, enabling direct communication without requiring central platform intervention. This intermediary layer maintains system reliability for building-wide monitoring while facilitating easy local communication.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent merges the functions of multiple sub-systems into a unified zone control unit that can process information from fire safety, HVAC, lighting, and other sub-systems locally, enabling direct inter-subsystem communication while maintaining central monitoring capabilities.
3Adaptability or versatility
If all information transmissions pass through the integrated platform, then the system integrates all sub-systems, but the capacity of information transmission is very huge
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments information transmission into local and global components, with zone controllers handling local information exchange and only transmitting aggregated or critical data to the central platform, thereby reducing overall transmission capacity requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements partial centralization where only certain critical functions require central platform involvement, while routine information exchange occurs locally. This partial action approach reduces the burden on the central system without compromising integration capability.
Data Source
AI summary
A network system in multi-zones comprises a plurality of smart nodes (SNs) and a plurality of zone controllers (ZCs). Each of the plurality of SNs is electrically connected with one of the plurality of ZCs respectively, and arranged in different zones of a building. Each of the plurality of ZCs is connected wirelessly with zone apparatuses in same arrangement zone through a self-organized network, so as to control the zone apparatuses and receive feedback information from the zone apparatuses of the arrangement zone. Each SN extracts the feedback information from the ZC connected thereto to execute analyses and calculations, so as to optimize the environment of the arrangement zone.