Knowledge
is empowering.
is empowering.

Glossary of IoT building automation and its systems
No other industry uses as many technical terms as in IT / ITK. What terms are used regularly in IT / ITK and what do they mean? Is there a special IoT vocabulary that you should know and need for a good understanding? We have compiled a list of the most important technical terms and explain their meaning.
Glossary of IoT terms for building automation
Overview
adaptive
Easy to adopt in case of changes or enhancementsadaptiv agile
Kind of working in an short period fashionagil Ambient Assisted Living (AAL)
Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI)
Application Centric InfrastructureApplication Programming Interface (API)
An interface for developersautomation
Fully automatic handling instead of error prone human handlingAutomatisierung Business Continuity Management (BCM)
Concept to avoid operational disruptions or total failuresBetriebliches Kontinuitätsmanagement (BKM )black box
A part of an application, which does work in an unknown fassionBlack-Box Building Automation and Control Networks (BACnet)
xxxcluster
An interacting group of systemsConstrained Application Protocol
Constrained Application ProtocolConstrained Application Protocol (CoAP )Consumer Electronics Control (CEC)
Consumer Electronics ControlController Area Network (CAN) bus (CAN bus)
CAN Bus - high quality technology for industry & production
With such its possible to capture measurement data flexibly, control digital inputs and outputs, flexibly expand systems, internal error management, design production processes sustainably - all this and much more can be implemented quickly and easily with CAN Bus.Controller Area Network (CAN) Bus (CAN-Bus )decentalised
When services or functionality is locally provideddezentral digitizion
Providing a digital sibling for all real objectsDigitalisierung Do it yourself (DIY)
A synonym for technical experienced makers.Edge
A special way of data processing at the edge of the company.Emergency recovery
A digital disaster recovery techniqueETS
ETS is the programming software for KNX / EIB systemEvent Driven Architecture (EDA)
Event Driven ArchitectureEventBus
A kind (loosely coupled) communication by messages between componentsEvent-Bus Far UV-C
Fern UV-CFern UV-C Building management system (BMS)
Building management system (BMS)Gebäudemanagementsystem (GMS )grid
An interacting group of systems- German: HKV (Heizkreislauf verstellung)
Heizkreislauf Verstellung (HKV ) Home Energy Management System (HEMS)
Home Energy Management SystemHuman Centric Lightning (HCL)
Generic term for lighting adapted to human needs (bright white light in the morning, warm light dimmed in the evening)open (ITC)
An abroviation for IT and communication. Mostly prefered in producing environmentsInformations- und Kommunikationstechnik (ITK )information technolgy (IT)
A term for all kind of systems and components which are used for information and data handlingInformationstechnik (IT )infrastructure repository (ISR)
A central datastore, where the setting is been stored for all kind of systems and componentsInfrastruktur Repository (ISR )International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC)
International Electrotechnical Commission is a standard for ...Internet of Things (IoT)
A term for all kind of systems and machines which are communicating between the internetinteroperability
interoperabilityInteroperabilität KNX® (KNX)
KNX® is a (worldwide & free) standard system, which is used to interconnect specific smart home devices
Last but not least, KNX systems are characterized by a high level of convenience and have been proven to reduce operating and energy costs.
See also: KNX AssociationLegacy
A legacy software ore system is a older / longer used software or systemlevel of control
Level of automation- Level 1: Remote Control
- Level 2: Programmed Sequences (Macros)
- Level 3: Conditional Control
- Level 4: Interactive
- Level 5: Self-learning
Optical Fiber (LWL)
Optical fiberLichtwellenleiter (LWL )lock-in
vendor lock-inloose coupling
When software components are coupled by just exchanging messages and eventslose Kopplung monolithic
Single and locally operating systemmonolitisch MQ Telemetry Transport (MQTT)
MQTT is an open OASIS and ISO standard for interconnecting devices via publish-subscribeMultiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS)
Multiprotocol Label SwitchingNetwork access control
Network access controlNetzzugangskontrolle (NAC )Object Linking and Embedding for Process Control (OPC)
OPC StandardObservability
Observabilityopen
An interface or program which can be used and enriched by everybodyoffen Privileged Access Management (PAM)
Privileged Access ManagementProduct Data Management (PDM)
Product Data ManagementProfinet
Profinetproprietary
Vendor dependent lock instead of an open and standardized technology or systemproprietär Publish/Subscribe
Publish/Subscriberedundancy
RedundancyRedundanz terminal blocks
A terminal block is an electric mounting point, for cable installation purposeReihenklemmen representational state transfer (REST)
A de facto standard for using IT-services over HTTP/HTTPSResidual Current Device (RCD)
Residual Current DeviceRetrofit
Retrofitplumbing, heating and air conditioning (SHK)
SHK is a German term for the crafts of plumbing, heating and air conditioningSanitär / Heizung / Klima (SHK )layer
Applications and their data flow are divided into different technical horizontal partsSchichten Service-Level-Agreement (SLA)
Service-Level-Agreement (SLA)Single Board Computer (SBC)
Single board computersmart cluster
A group of loosely coupled modules, which are working like on intelligent piecesmart grid
A connected group of mostly electrical components which can be easily reoganizedSoftware Defined Networks (SDN)
Software Defined Networks (SDN)programmable logic controller (PLC)
A programmable logic controllerSpeicherprogrammierbare Steuerung (SPS )standard
A clearly defined and adoptable kind of interfaceactuator
actuatorStellantrieb system
A term for IT components which are providing some kind of serviceSystem Engineering (SE)
System Engineeringtransparency
Full overview of the IT landscape an all its ongoing services and dataTransparenz umapi (umapi)
Adaption of OPC UA standard as a brand of the mechanical engineering associations VDMA and VDWuniversal machine technology interface (umapi )Zigbee Light Link (ZLL)
A Zigbee 2.x profile for the light controlZigbee®
Zigbee® is an wireless protocol standard, which is used to interconnect specific smart home devices
In addition to the low energy requirement, ZigBee impresses with its high flexibility and simple application. The participating IoT devices manage the network completely independently and communicate using IoT sensors and digital signals.
See also Philips HUE® and ZLL