In Review
- LonWorks is a very important technology, not only because it addresses most of the technical concerns of Industrial Networking, but also because it is supported by major players in the Building Automation Industry; Siemens, Honeywell, and Johnson Controls.
- LonWorks is a completely peer-peer network. Instead of moving data through a “Master” device, any device can exchange data with any other LonWorks device on the network.
- LonWorks is not tied a single physical communication layer.
- Network data exchanged on LonWorks is configured by a network configuration tool. This operation called “binding” ties an input of one device to an output of another device independent of the operation or application software in either device.
- The Neuron chip contains three CPUs, which allows the application to still send and receive messages even if the network processor gets very busy.
- LonWorks utilizes information in the protocol and message headers to predict message traffic and dynamically increase or decrease the number of randomization slots. This means when traffic increases, the probability of two or more devices picking the same randomization slot remains low, so there is a lower collision rate between devices.
- LonWorks has four different message types which are not coded as part of your application, so at installation time you can determine which delivery method is most appropriate. Or at some later time you can come back and change the delivery method without changing your application code.
- LonWorks’ design allows it to operate over any type of media.