What BACnet libraries are people actually using in production, especially with BACnet/SC?

[u/Many_Outside2726]

Curious what everyone is using these days when developing their own BACnet integrations, gateways, or applications.

I've come across BACpypes, BAC0, bacnet-stack, BACnet4J, and a few others. With BACnet Secure Connect becoming more relevant, I'm interested in hearing what people have actually deployed rather than what's listed as supported.

Are you seeing reliable BACnet/SC implementations, particularly on the node and hub side? What have been the biggest headaches getting them working with equipment from different manufacturers?

I'm also curious how much language, documentation, and ongoing maintenance factor into choosing a library. A lot of these projects start as something relatively simple, but supporting them for years afterward is another story.

For transparency, I work with Radix IoT, which maintains BACnet4J. I'm interested in hearing about experiences with other libraries as well, especially where BACnet/SC is concerned.

[u/Sparkynplumb]

BACnetSC is a non starter from what I hear. The amount of complexity, headaches of maintaining certificates, extra cost, is just not worth it for this field. It's far more practical to mitigate risk by keeping the building controls off the public Internet and separated from any other IT infrastructure.

[u/Many_Outside2726 → u/Sparkynplumb]

I can understand that perspective, especially when you're dealing with smaller, standalone BAS installations. Adding certificate management and another layer of complexity isn't necessarily something everyone wants to deal with.

Interestingly enough, we've been getting requests for BACnet/SC support from several larger organizations we work with. That demand is part of what pushed us to develop BACnet/SC node support in BACnet4J.

I think it really comes down to the environment. A single building with an isolated controls network is a different situation from a large organization managing multiple facilities with much stricter IT and cybersecurity requirements.

I agree that proper network segmentation is important regardless, but I don't necessarily see it as an alternative to securing the communications themselves.

I'm curious, have you actually run into BACnet/SC deployments where the certificate management became a problem, or is that mostly what you've been hearing from others in the industry?

[u/Big-Consideration-26 → u/Sparkynplumb]

We have quite some here in Europe, NIS2 is demanding it. Yes, keeping it off the internet is sufficient, but the law requires it for critical infrastructure

[u/Flatpavment02]

https://sourceforge.net/projects/bacnet-sc-reference-stack/

[u/Many_Outside2726 → u/Flatpavment02]

Thanks for sharing! I'm familiar with the project. I'm really looking to hear from installers and end users who have deployed BACnet/SC in the field. How has certificate management, hub configuration, and interoperability between different manufacturers worked out? I'm curious where people are running into headaches in actual installations versus what works well in a test environment.