Smart Buildings Are Getting Smarter. Is the Network Ready?

By Brian Ensign, Vice President Sales, Americas for Nextivity

Note: This blog was produced under WIA’s Innovation and Technology Council (ITC). The ITC is the forum for forecasting the future of the wireless industry. Participants explore developments in the wider wireless industry, from 5G network monetization trends and streamlining infrastructure deployment to future spectrum needs and cell site power issues. These views are not a WIA endorsement of a particular company, product, policy or technology.

A high school in Iowa discovered something unusual about its energy use. Every Friday night, consumption would jump by about 30%.

The school had plenty of data, but it wasn’t immediately clear what the data was telling them. The heating system was operating as designed, yet something was causing energy use to spike. When the school looked more closely at what was happening in the building, it found the answer. The gym was getting too warm, people were opening the doors to cool it down, and the heating system continued running. The building was heating and cooling at the same time.

Once the school understood what was happening, the problem was much easier to address. That example points to where smart buildings are headed. The first generation of smart-building technology was largely about automation. The next generation will be about understanding.

Buildings are collecting more information than ever before. Sensors can monitor temperature, occupancy and environmental conditions. Building systems can communicate with one another. Software can identify patterns in the data. Artificial intelligence can take that analysis further.

The building isn’t just following a set of instructions anymore. It is beginning to provide information that helps people understand what is happening and make better decisions. That is what makes a building smarter.

From Automation to Understanding

We can already see this progression in the way buildings operate today. A thermostat can adjust the temperature based on a preset schedule. Lighting can turn off when a room is empty. Access systems can recognize employees and manage entry without someone standing at a desk. Those are useful capabilities, but they are fairly straightforward. The system knows the rule and follows it.

The next step is more complicated. What if the building can recognize that a space is being used differently than expected? What if it can identify an unusual pattern in equipment performance? What if it can connect information from several systems and give an operator a better picture of what is happening?

That is where connected systems become much more valuable.

Consider a hotel. A building can already control temperature and lighting. A more connected system could combine occupancy information, environmental conditions and other data to adjust a room based on how it is actually being used.

In a hospital, connected equipment can provide information about its condition and location. That can help staff keep track of equipment and identify issues earlier.

In an office building, occupancy data can show how spaces are being used throughout the day. That information can help operators make decisions about heating, cooling, lighting and even how space is allocated.

None of these examples requires the building to be autonomous. People are still making decisions. The difference is that they have better information to work with.

The Building Can Only Be as Connected as Its Network

Every sensor, device and building system that needs to communicate depends on connectivity. As the number of connected systems grows, so does the importance of having a network that can support them.

There isn’t one answer for every building. Wi-Fi may be the right choice for some applications. Private cellular networks may make more sense for others. Some buildings will need a combination of wireless technologies to support different systems and users.

The right choice depends on what the building is trying to do.

An application that only needs to send a small amount of information periodically has very different requirements from one that depends on continuous connectivity or supports a critical operation. Coverage, capacity, reliability, security and mobility all have to be considered.

That is why connectivity needs to be part of the building conversation earlier than it often is today.

Wireless is still sometimes treated as something to solve after the building has been designed. By that point, equipment locations, pathways and power may already be determined. Making changes can be difficult and expensive.

Planning for connectivity during design gives owners and developers more options. It allows them to think about where devices will be located, how much capacity they may need and how the network could expand as the building changes.

We don’t know exactly what applications buildings will be running five or ten years from now. We do know that more devices will be connected and that more building operations will depend on the information those devices provide.

The network needs room to grow with them.

What AI Adds to the Building

Artificial intelligence will accelerate this shift.

AI can process far more information than a person can review manually. It can identify patterns across systems and flag conditions that may deserve attention. It can help operators understand why something is happening rather than simply showing them that something has changed.

But AI doesn’t eliminate the need for good infrastructure. It increases it.

The system still needs reliable information. Sensors need to communicate. Data needs to move between devices and applications. The network needs to provide the coverage and capacity those systems require.

If the information doesn’t get through, it doesn’t matter how sophisticated the software is.

That brings us back to the school in Iowa. The building already had a heating system. It already had people operating the facility. What changed was their ability to see the relationship between what was happening in the gym and the way the building was consuming energy. The building became more useful when its systems could provide that information.

That is the direction smart buildings are heading. They will continue to automate routine tasks, but they will also become better at recognizing conditions, connecting information and helping the people who operate them understand what is happening.

For building owners and developers, that means connectivity deserves more attention during planning and design. The network is becoming part of the infrastructure that makes the building smarter. The smartest building may not be the one with the most technology inside it. It may be the one that makes the best use of the information its technology provides.