Virtualizing Building Management Systems

A system, comprising:

• a set of northbound APIs;
• and
• a processor communicatively coupled with the set of northbound APIs and a plurality of southbound APIs, wherein the processor is configured to:
• access and virtualize a plurality of building management systems (BMSs) by way of the plurality of southbound APIs, wherein the processor is remote from the plurality of BMSs, wherein the plurality of BMSs comprise a first BMS and a second BMS, wherein the first BMS is communicatively coupled with a first set of building systems, and the second BMS is communicatively coupled with a second set of building systems, and wherein each southbound API of the plurality of southbound APIs is associated with a corresponding BMS of the plurality of BMSs;
• receive higher-order application commands from the set of northbound APIs;
• translate the higher-order application commands to building commands, wherein the building commands comprise first BMS-specific commands and second BMS-specific commands;
• and
• deploy the building commands to the plurality of southbound APIs, wherein the first BMS and the first set of building systems are managed based on the first BMS-specific commands, and the second BMS and the second set of building systems are managed based on the second BMS-specific commands.

A method comprising:

• accessing, by a processor, a plurality of building management systems (BMSs) via a plurality of southbound application programming interfaces (APIs), wherein the processor is remote from the plurality of BMSs,
• wherein each southbound API of the plurality of southbound APIs is communicatively coupled with a corresponding BMS of the plurality of BMSs, and
• wherein a first BMS of the plurality of BMSs is communicatively coupled with a first set of building systems associated with a first set of buildings, and a second BMS of the plurality of BMSs is communicatively coupled with a second set of building systems associated with a second set of buildings;
• receiving, by the processor, higher-order application commands from a set of northbound APIs, wherein the higher-order application commands are associated with a plurality of applications;
• translating, by the processor, the higher-order application commands to building commands, wherein the building commands comprise first BMS-specific commands and second BMS-specific commands;
• and
• deploying, by the processor, the building commands to the plurality of southbound APIs, wherein the building commands are received by the plurality of BMSs, and wherein the first BMS and the first set of building systems are managed based on the first BMS-specific commands, and the second BMS and the second set of building systems are managed based on the second BMS-specific commands.