BACnet/IP Networking

Overview

Motion Hub is fine-tuned for performant communication with your BACnet devices. As an older protocol, however, BACnet can present a few unique challenges. But armed with the right information, you should be able to get up and running with little to no trouble at all.

BACnet Considerations

MSTP Support

BACnet MSTP devices must be connected to a BACnet router with which Motion Hub can communicate.

Ports

As of this writing, Motion Hub supports BACnet/IP communication over port 47808 (0xBAC0), the default port for BACnet/IP communication. Support for different ports will be offered in a future release.

Broadcast + Device Discovery

BACnet device discovery relies on broadcast communication, which could be deliberately blocked by some local routers or other network equipment.

Fortunately, while broadcast-based discovery operations may be blocked on larger, more complex networks, there are alternative ways to add devices without broadcast communication support.

Here are some things to keep in mind if you're having trouble with device discovery:

• Devices connected to subnets other than that to which the Motion Hub is connected are generally prevented from being discovered using automatic device discovery, even if there is a route configured for Motion Hub and those devices to communicate.

• Device discovery is a very "chatty" operation, so you may actually prefer to forego it for manual device creation.

• Device discovery failure does not indicate that any other operation will fail or be impacted. In fact, networks that block broadcast-based operations like device discovery are likely better tuned for performance, which can end up enhancing reliability for all other BACnet operations.

• Device discovery through a BACnet router is supported, but is still subject to the broadcast operation limitations described above.