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KNX and BACnet

Intelligent building automation

KNX is a standard protocol for intelligent control

and supervision of all systems in a building.

The KNX standard has already been used success

fully for over 20 years in the building automation

segment. ABB has a huge number of KNX devices

in the portfolio and great experience with KNX solutions.

By adding the KNX protocol to AC500 V3. ABB can

now offer a powerful and freely programmable

KNX building automation controller with flexible

expandable I/O modules. With KNX and BACnet

the AC500 product portfolio is now also available

for innovative building automation.

The proven ABB AbilityTM Automation Builder

engineering tool is integrated with the ETS and

ETS apps to assist you in building your application.

IEC61850

Substation communication

IEC61850 is a standard defining TCP/IP protocol

for electrical substations. The protocol is well

known and widely used. Using that TüV certified

protocol, AC500 PLC can act as an IED providing

an IEC 61850 MMS server for standardized data

exchange or use GOOSE publisher/subscriber

communication for higher priority data.

ABB’s ABB AbilityTM Automation Builder engineer

ing suite integrates the IED configuration and

data mapping for seamless and easy combination

with the application program.

Better support on portable devices with HTML5

web server technology

All AC500 V3 CPUs come with an integrated web

server based on the HTML5 technology. This

technology is supported by nearly all browsers,

and is therefore also available on devices with

OS and/or Android. Web visualization enables

easy and convenient remote access, monitoring,

service and diagnosis of a system over the inter

net. Web visualization offers a large number of

basic elements and controls with many adaptationoptions.

Using these, the user can quickly and

easily create attractive and high-quality visualiza

tion interfaces for widely varying applications in

the automation industry. State of the art visual

ization can be created using standard tools suit

from ABB AbilityTM Automation Builder.

Within the AC500 portfolio, the control panel

range CP600 can be used to display the integrated HTML5 WEB visualization.

OPC UA server

Data connectivity

OPC UA, Unified Architecture, is a protocol for

information exchange for industrial communica

tion. This means that OPC UA is a standardized

vendor-independent Ethernet protocol, scalable

for a lean data access between a client and server.

OPC UA is widely adopted in many different

industries like automotive, food and beverage,

utilities and infrastructure.

OPC UA fulfills the requirements of IoT and

Industry 4.0. Security is established based on

certificates. AC500 V3 supports the OPC UA

services “Data access”, “User management” and

“Alarm and conditions”.

MQTT

Cloud connectivity

MQTT is a TCP/IP messaging protocol mainly

used for lightweight messaging to the cloud.

In the environment of MQTT, edge devices like

controllers act as clients and communicate with

a broker situated in the cloud.

They publish data based on events using topics.

Other clients like SCADA systems or monitoring

applications can subscribe to these topics and

receive data as they arrive. This enables the easy

and low-bandwidth connection of many devices.

AC500 V3 uses TLS encryption to establish secure

communication.

Secure connectivity

Remote units

AC500 works as edge-gateway and is directly

connected to the cloud. Security is established

through TLS encryption.

• No additional gateway required

• Low latency

Application:

Small systems with non-critical data transfer.

Network security

Connection of the whole AC500 network to the

cloud using a separate gateway. Enhanced

security is provided through additional firewall

and/or VPN.

• Advanced level of security

• Easy integration of many edge devices

Application:

Large systems with many devices which need

higher protection.

Built-in communication

 • Two Ethernet interfaces for use as switches or  independent ports

 • Onboard Ethernet protocol as Ethernet IP

 • CANopen master interface, CAN2A/2B, J1939

 • KNX and BACnet

 • OPC UA server, OPC DA alarm and event

 • IEC 61850

 • IEC 60870-5-104 Telecontrol

 Reuse & compatibility 

 • Reuse with AC500 platform:- S500/S500-eCo I/O modules – Communication modules

 • Project conversion and code re-use

 Improved engineering and debugging

 • Professional version control with subversion

 • Application project management

 • Object-oriented programming

 • Optimized IEC 61131-3 editors

 • Offline simulation capabilities