Nonproliferation and national security needs often require that weapons material and devices are left in unattended facilities. To overcome this problem, unattended facility monitoring typically integrates a variety of sensors into systems that communicate back to the supervisory facility in nonstandard, low-speed, and usually expensive ways. This project will develop a method for unattended facilities to send monitoring data from local LonWorks networks to anywhere in the world using standard, wide area networking technologies. The Phase I project will investigate current and emerging Internet communication standards and define ways in which these standards may be compatibly used with the LonWorks network. Next, prototypes for key portions of the project will be created to demonstrate feasibility, and a report will be written that describes the alternative means to provide high-speed, remote access to facilities. The report will also make specific recommendations for sending the messages, routing the messages through the network, and accessing the remote facilities through the Internet. Phase II will consist of a report containing the design of all components of the project as well as a computer program that sends LonTalk messages using standard Internet protocols, the description as well as an implementation of the routing protocol for the messages, and a compatible version of the LonTalk communication protocol written in Java. This computer program will make it possible to monitor LonWorks networks with any standard Internet browser.
Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by the awardee:The completion of this project would result in technology that can be used across all segments of the control and monitoring markets. Promotion of this approach as a standard should encourage multiple vendors to develop solutions based upon the standard, which would, in turn, lower costs and increase capabilities for remote monitoring.
