New addenda, new tests

One of the joys, if you can call it that, of being on both the BACnet committee and BACnet International's BACnet Testing Labs Working Group (B.I./BTL-WG) is that you'll never run out of work. No work for the BTL-WG? (Not that we've ever seen that since the group was formed almost 10 years ago...) Just write some new proposals for the BACnet committee and pretty soon there will be need for conformance tests for the subject matter of those proposals.

Previewing the agenda for tomorrow's BTL-WG teleconference I see we have reached that point -- not once, but twice!

Late last year the BACnet committee added BACnet over ZigBee wireless capability in Addendum 135q. There was a question about who should write the tests for this capability; the task was finally handed to the BACnet committee's Wireless Networking Working Group (WN-WG) because, after all, they were the experts. Reviewing the agenda it seems they have provided a set of test for the BTL-WG to review and, if approved, to be recommended to the entire BACnet committee for inclusion in the BACnet Testing Standard, ASHRAE 135.1. Not to mention to figure out how to actually implement the tests so that the BTL can perform them.

Roughly about the same time the committee added new means to deal with IP/NAT firewall in Addendum 135o. Interestingly, the author is not proposing new tests for the capability but instead he proposes modifications of existing tests. This will require some study to see if I agree.

Looks like a fun BACnet afternoon ahead.