The ISO (International Organization for Standardization) developed a standard defining a model for a general purpose data communications architecture.
Each of the seven layers of this model is implemented in the LonTalk protocol. Each has a purpose to make the technology robust and provide room to grow the network. The most important benefit of this approach is that each layer performs services for the next higher layer so that details are hidden to the higher layer. Changes can be made in a layer without changing any of the other layers.
This layer addresses specifics of wiring and connections. The specification of the 78 kbps twisted pair media with 2000 meter range, 64 nodes per network segment, and network isolation characteristics is an example of one physical layer type of media. LONWORKS technology provides many different communications media options including 1.25 Mbps twisted pair, power line, fibre optic, and RF transceivers. This provides you with a wide range of choices for communicating your data.
This layer defines the rules of access to the physical layer. For example, this corresponds to the dial tone on the telephone network.
Services provided by this layer include:
This layer specifies the destination of a message on the network. This corresponds to the area and long distance codes on the telephone network. Services provided by this layer include:
This layer establishes the type of services required for the node messages depending on the level of reliability required by the application.
The services provided are:
The level of service required by the application is established when each node is installed on the network. This is all handled by a network management installation tool, and the node’s design.
This layer provides the communications to request action from another node.
Examples of the services include:
This layer provides translation of the network data for the application.
Examples of services provided in this layer include:
The standard data representations are important to assure interoperability between products from different manufacturers.
This layer includes services to simplify development of application programs to interface to specific sensors, actuators, and external microprocessors.
The services provided in this layer include the following:
We hope this has been a useful introduction to Echelon Corporation’s LONWORKS® technology, and not too technical.
Davmark Group make things work. We do the hard work, not you.
Davmark Group provides advanced solutions using LONWORKS.
Extensive portions of this article were quoted verbatim
from Motorola document BR1108/D, LONWORKS Product Line Brief
and EB161/D, LonTalk Protocol
. Davmark Group wishes
to express their grateful acknowledgment to both Echelon and
Motorola Semiconductor for these reference documents.