Designing new construction projects with BACnet/SC

In new construction projects, BACnet/SC allows IT and OT to collaborate early in the project and design the entire building IP infrastructure with network security strategy, and any IT/OT convergence points required for smart building applications established early. This approach to IT/OT network convergence allows for better network monitoring and management workflow and optimized network security while also enabling smart building applications which require data to flow throughout the organization.

New building automation networks will initially be designed using both, currently available BACnet devices as well as newly available BACnet/SC-native or BACnet/SC-ready devices, with a plan to upgrade unsecured parts of the network as new devices and firmware updates are released to market.

BACnet/SC’s security does not extend to unsecured network segments outside of the BACnet/SC logical part of the network. Traditional methods of securing unsecured OT network segments, such as VLANs and VPNs, still need to be used until the entire network is secured with full BACnet/SC compatibility. The traditional methods of securing networks should be kept in place to provide an additional layer of security even after a full BACnet/SC system is deployed, so long as they do not prevent interoperability and data accessibility that support smart building goals.