Echelon Series 6000 Chip databook - Manual (Page 15)

Introduction to L
ON
W
ORKS
Networks
In almost every industry, there is a trend away from proprietary control schemes and
centralized systems. The migration towards open, distributed, peer-to-peer networks is
being driven by the need for interoperability, robust technology, faster development time,
and scale economies.
With thousands of application developers and millions of devices installed worldwide, the
L ON W ORKS system is the leading open solution for building and home automation,
industrial, transportation, and public utility control networks. A control network is any
group of devices working in a peer-to-peer fashion to monitor sensors, control actuators,
communicate reliably, manage network operation, and provide complete access to network
data. A L ON W ORKS network provides communications and complete access to control
network data from any device in the network.
The communications protocol used for L
ON W ORKS networks is the ISO/IEC 14908-1
(ANSI/CEA 709.1-B and EN14908.1) Control Network Protocol. This protocol is an
international standard seven-layer protocol that has been optimized for control applications
and is based on the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) Basic Reference Model (the OSI
Model, ISO standard 7498-1). The OSI Model describes computer network communications
through the seven abstract layers described in Table 3. The implementation of these layers
in a L ON
W
ORKS
device provides standardized interconnectivity for devices within a
L ON W ORKS network.
Table 3. L ON W ORKS Network Protocol Layers
OSI Layer Purpose Services Provided
7 Application Application compatibility Network configuration, self-installation,
network diagnostics, file transfer,
application configuration, application
specification, alarms, data logging,
scheduling
6 Presentation Data interpretation Network variables, application messages,
foreign frame transmission
5 Session Control Request/response, authentication
4 Transport End-to-end
communication reliability
Acknowledged and unacknowledged
message delivery, common ordering,
duplicate detection
3 Network Destination addressing Unicast and multicast addressing,
routers
2 Data Link Media access and framing Framing, data encoding, CRC error
checking, predictive carrier sense
multiple access (CSMA), collision
avoidance, priority, collision detection
1 Physical Electrical interconnect Media-specific interfaces and modulation
schemes
Series 6000 Chip Data Book 3