volttronbacnet

VOLTTRON reading data from multiple BACnet IP to MSTP Routers puts Building Management System down


I have a BACnet network where multiple BACnet IP to MSTP routers are used.

The network configurations are as follows:

Network Configuration sketch

Now I am trying to read data from the network using Volttron. Previously no data was read, so I tried changing use_read_multiple:false in driver configurations. Still to make the request even smaller for the network I changed max_per_request: 1,

Now it is reading data but it shows an error after some time and puts the BMS down. This means we are not able to read or even discover devices on the BMS nor it gives data in VOLTTRON.

It gives an error on the router with most of AHUs, FCUs are attached. I tried testing just that Router (Say its identifier is 4900, now most of the devices like 4900:1, 4900:3, etc.) start giving an error on both BMS and my Laptop.

I have tried grouping too by making groups of 2-5 devices and setting "group_offset_interval" in Platform Driver configurations to some really high value to know whether it is a network congestion issue on the MSTP network. Sometime it starts working but after some time (an hour), it starts giving error on both sides BMS and VOLTTRON too. Although devices are ON.

It gives error on different Routers and sometimes many routers stop working.

How can I solve this issue?

Thanks in anticipation.

Specifications:

Volttron: 7.0

BACpypes: 0.16.7 (as required by Volttron for bacnet)

Solution

  • I could be wrong here (in adding this to the mix) - but as it's relating to MSTP (- BACnet MS/TP), but you might want to also consider if there's a (half-typical) MSTP physical/wiring issue - might not necessarily be the software (or at least not alone).

    (You might end up having to consider bifurcating the network / keep 'divide & conquer'ing it into small/2-halves segments to see/locate a wiring issue.)