LonWorks Protocol

LonWorks is a protocol developed by Echelon Corporation for manufacturers who wish to use an open protocol with off-the-shelf chips, operating systems, and parts to build products that feature improved reliability, flexibility, system cost, and performance. LonWorks technology is accelerating the trend away from proprietary control schemes and centralized systems by providing interoperability, robust technology, faster development, and scale economies.

A major goal of LonWorks is to give developers, from the same or different companies, the ability to design products that will be able to interact with one another. The LonWorks protocol provides a common applications framework that ensures interoperability using powerful concepts called network variables and Standard Network Variable Types (SNVTs).

Communication between nodes on a network takes place using the network variables that are defined in each node. The product developer defines the network variables when the application program is created as part of the Application layer of the protocol. Network variables are shared by multiple nodes.

The use of Standard Network Variable Types (SNVTs) contributes to the interoperability of LONWORKS products from different manufacturers. If all manufacturers use this variable type in their application when a network variable for continuous level is defined, any device reading a continuous level can communicate with other devices on the network that may be using the variable as a sensor output to initiate an actuator.