The LonWorks platform is a powerful, pervasive solution for today’s advanced control networking systems. It's the foundation for an open, interoperable system in which products and solutions from the world’s leading companies are brought together in a simple, straightforward implementation that integrates many system components into one complete solution.

Often referred to simply as LON technology, the basic premise is to facilitate the need to integrate multiple system components using a common system architecture and infrastructure -- in essence, one wire through which all components are attached and can share common information. Data can travel from any point on the network to any other point with no single point of failure, embedding high-level security and allowing full component interoperability in a peer-to-peer fashion.

What does this mean to the market? The platform provides a fully open, interoperable system of components from multiple sources -- with no system lock-in. No single component will force owners into a proprietary, single-vendor solution; thus providing end-users with multiple products, integrators, user interfaces, and choices for service contracts. With a well-structured system, all of the proprietary hooks are removed, leaving nothing but a wide variety of options.

The LonWorks platform is now a control standard that is well-accepted around the globe and has been adopted by the world’s leading standards organizations. In an ongoing effort, the standard - variously known by its ANSI/EIA, EN, IEEE, or GB standards designation - is being enhanced to include new and useful functionality while remaining compatible with all current installations.

To date, more than 300,000 LonWorks systems and over 60 million LonWorks devices have been installed worldwide. LonWorks systems have saved companies tens of millions of dollars in energy costs, installation time and money, and long-term service costs. Case studies have shown that a LonWorks system can save as much as 50 percent on the initial installation costs of a traditional home-run wired system, while integrating systems and reducing system complexity can provide further energy savings. A single-system interface is smarter, more cost-effective, and easier to maintain than multiple, non-integrated systems -- and that's one of the reasons why organizations large and small are choosing LonWorks open systems over closed systems.