Methods and systems for discovering nodes and/or devices of a building control system using a sparkplug protocol

A non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions that when executed by one or more processors cause the one or more processors to:

• accept user input to enter a collection phase, and once in the collection phase:
• receive an NBIRTH message for each of one or more nodes of a building control system;
• receive a DBIRTH message for each of one or more devices of the building control system;
• extract from the NBIRTH messages a group ID and a corresponding node ID for each of the one or more nodes;
• extract from the DBIRTH messages, a group ID, a node ID and a device ID for each of one or more devices;
• cache the extracted group ID and node ID for each of the one or more nodes;
• accept user input to enter a discovery phase, and once in the discovery phase:
• publish a REBIRTH message for each of one or more of the nodes that have a cached group ID and node ID combination, the REBIRTH message causing the corresponding node to:
• publish an NBIRTH message for the corresponding node;
• publish a DBIRTH message for each of one or more devices that are associated with the corresponding node, if any;
• discover one or more nodes of the building control system based on the NBIRTH messages published during the discovery phase;
• and
• discover one or more devices of the building control system based on the DBIRTH messages published during the discovery phase.

A method for discovering one or more nodes of a building control system using a sparkplug protocol, the method comprising:

• receiving messages from an MQTT broker;
• extracting a group ID and a node ID from each message, wherein the extracted group ID and node ID identify a particular node of the building control system;
• determining whether the extracted group ID and node ID for each message corresponds to an undiscovered node of the building control system;
• for those messages where the extracted group ID and node ID correspond to an undiscovered node, generating and publishing a REBIRTH message to the corresponding undiscovered node using the extracted group ID and node ID, the REBIRTH message causing the corresponding undiscovered node to publish a corresponding NBIRTH message;
• and
• discovering the corresponding undiscovered node of the building control system based on the NBIRTH messages published by the corresponding undiscovered node.