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oBIX stand for "Open Building Information Xchange"
The purpose of the OASIS Open Building Information Exchange (oBIX) TC is to define a standard web services protocol to enable communications between building mechanical and electrical systems, and enterprise applications. This protocol will enable facilities and their operations to be managed as full participants in knowledge-based businesses.
The oBIX specification will utilize web services for exchange of information with the mechanical and electrical systems in commercial buildings.
Presently most mechanical and electrical systems are provided with embedded digital controls (DDC). Most of these devices are low cost and not enabled for TCP/IP. They are installed with dedicated communications wiring. Larger DDC controllers provide network communications for these dedicated controllers. There are several well established binary protocols (BACnet, LonTalk, Modbus, DALI) that are used on these dedicated networks in addition to numerous proprietary protocols. While these binary protocols can be used over TCP/IP networks - they have challenges with routers, firewalls, security, and compatibility with other network applications. There is an added challenge in that the industry is split between several largely incompatible protocols.
Because oBIX integrates with the enterprise, it will enable mechanical and electrical control systems to provide continuous visibility of operational status and performance, flagging problems and trends for system analysis or human attention.
oBIX provides a technology that enables facilities operators, owners and tenants to make decisions based on a fully integrated consideration of all life-cycle, environmental, cost, and performance factors.
Scope:
The scope of the oBIX TC is to develop a publicly available web services interface specification that can be used to obtain data in a simple and secure manner from HVAC, access control, utilities, and other building automation systems, and to provide data exchange between facility systems and enterprise applications. In addition, the TC will develop implementation guidelines, as needed, to facilitate the development of products that use the web service interface. Work outside of the above will be considered out of scope for the TC.