What is the BACnet FDR licence for?

BACnet FDR (Foriegn Device Registration) can be used in situations where a headend server only supports a maximum amount of devices directly connected to it. It can also be used in situations where there are multiple IP subnets throughout a building all containing BACnet devices in conjunction with the BBMD functionality included with the licence.

In typical situations, BACnet messages are not routed, instead they are broadcast onto the local network that they are connected to. This is where a BBMD (BACnet Broadcast Management Device) can be used.

A BBMD works by taking a BACnet broadcast message, and converting it to a unicast message which is then forwarded to other BBMDs on other subnets based off the BBMD's BDT (Broadcast Distribution Table). This table contains the IP address of every other BBMD on site and is configured in each BBMD.

When using this functionality within a zencontrol installation, the following needs the be considered:

To activate the feature after the BACnet Server licence has been enabled, the first step is to apply the BACnet Server firmware. This is done within Grid view -> Add-ons -> BACnet. Under the Installed firmware column, select BACnet server for the required controllers.

Note: As this requires a firmware change, you may recieve a notification to temporarily enable firmware updates at the top of the user interface. To ensure that the BACnet server firmware is applied, click on this notification to allow this.

After this firmware has applied, other BACnet devices can now be pointed at the BACnet Server via the FDR server fields.

In the below screenshot, a zencontrol application controller with the BACnet inputs licence and firmware activated on it is pointed to an FDR server at IP address 10.1.1.84 which is the application controller on row 1.

With this configuration in place, the controller running the BACnet Inputs firmware is now sending its BACnet data via the controller running the BACnet Server firmware.

To extend upon this, the controller running the BACnet server firmware can forward the recieved BACnet messages to a BBMD server on the same network via the following fields.

The IP field should be filled in with the IP address of the BBMD server with its port number. The subnet setting should be used to configure the size of the IP network used by the controllers on this network.