10 October 2002 BACnet ® Today | A Supplement to ASHRAE Journal BACnet Today Significant New Features And Future Enhancements By Steven T. Bushby, Member ASHRAE, and H. Michael Newman, Fellow ASHRAE ith nearly non-stop increases in com- puting power and decreasing hardware costs, the last seven years have been exciting for the computing and data communication industries. It also has been an exciting time for BACnet, with thousands of new installations worldwide, new sources of supply, and greater acceptance on the part of engineers, contrac- tors, and building owners. One of BACnet’s greatest strengths is its abil- ity to adapt to new networking technologies and the evolving needs of its users. The chal- lenge for ASHRAE Standing Standards Project Committee (SSPC) 135, responsible for BACnet’s ongoing development and en- hancement, has been to embrace the changes brought by these two forces without unduly affecting existing implementations of the pro- tocol. Backward compatibility has been one of the committee’s greatest concerns since it began work in 1995, the year BACnet was originally published as ANSI/ASHRAE Stan- dard 135-1995, BACnet—A Data Communi- cation Protocol for Building Automation and Control Networks. Since that time the SSPC has processed BACnet goes to Washington. Capitol Hill buildings will have BACnet installed during the next few years. W W W United States China Japan Korea The following article was published in ASHRAE Journal, October 2002. © Copyright 2002 American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, Inc. It is presented for educational purposes only. This article may not be copied and/or distributed electronically or in paper form without permission of ASHRAE.