Distributed object-oriented building automation system with reliable asynchronous communication

An asynchronous communication method for supporting applications in a computer-implemented building automation system, comprising:

• defining a plurality of common objects in a computer readable memory through instantiation such that said common objects have attributes for storing data and have methods for processing stored data;
• defining a communication connection between a first control attribute of a source common object and a second control attribute of a destination common object;
• performing a first control method of said source object, such that a first control attribute being changed based on said first control method;
• registering said second control attribute with said source object upon instantiation of a connection common object, such that a communication connection being established between said source object and said destination object, wherein said connection object comprises a mapping data structure for storing a source object identifier, a destination object identifier, an attribute identifier, and an attribute value;
• transmitting a message containing the value of said first control attribute from said source object to said connection object, wherein the transmission of said message is based on a change in the value of said first control attribute;
• and
• writing the value of said first control attribute to said second control attribute of said destination object by said connection object in response to said message, whereby said destination object performs a second control method using said second control attribute.

A computer-implemented building automation system for supporting interaction with building automation devices, comprising:

• a common object superclass stored in a computer readable memory that defines a plurality of common objects through instantiation such that said common objects have attributes for storing data and have methods for processing stored data;
• a source common object for performing a first control method, having a first control attribute, a reliability attribute indicative of the dependability of said source object, a reporting method for transmitting a message containing the value of said first control attribute and said reliability attribute;
• and
• a destination common object for performing a second control method, having a second control attribute and a writing method for receiving said message and updating said second control attribute with the value of said first control attribute, whereby said reliability attribute being used by said destination object to prevent propagation of unreliable attribute values in the building automation system.