Integration is required in almost every project from housing to shopping mall, from hotel to airport. The increase in the electronic systems used in buildings, the rapid development and decreasing costs in the information technologies, the widespread use of the internet and the effect of conscious user preferences that closely follow the developments in the world are indisputable. Well, is it an issue that is a main topic on the agenda really known by the investor/operator/end user?
We want to raise awareness on this issue through some questions and answers that we frequently encounter in our interviews with the investors, contractors, operators and end users. We are also pleased for you to contribute with different questions.
"Can you integrate your systems with each other?"
The answer to that question has been YES for almost 20 years. Of course, 20 years ago, the number of buildings in Turkey where electronic systems were used was low enough to be expressed in 2-digit figures, but integration used to be demanded for these buildings also at that time and the systems used to be integrated with each other.
"Is it possible to integrate all electronic systems with each other?"
The answer to this question is YES. Technically, it is possible to integrate all electronic systems with a communication port on them. All systems that use one of the open communication protocols designed for integration (BACNet, LON, ModBus, KNX, OPC, SNMP, etc.) can be integrated with each other.
"If an electronic system does not use an open protocol, is integration still possible?"
The answer to this question is YES, it is possible. You can also integrate an electronic system that does not use an open protocol into other systems. Several different solutions are implemented here, and which solution will be applied is completely related to the integration request. The first method is carried out by communicating with the devices at the field level, for this purpose, the field devices manufacturer must be able to give the SDK file of the device, the software developers write a special driver to the field devices by using this SDK file. The second method is integration at the software level, and API (Application Interface) is used in this solution. An API is written to communicate with the application software of the system to be integrated. If the SDK or API solution cannot be implemented, the integration solution with database sharing is applied.
"Do all systems have to be of the same brand in order to make integration?"
The answer is NO. Regardless of the brand and model, you can integrate all of your electronic systems with each other by applying one of the solutions mentioned in the previous questions.
