Award for Bachelor’s Thesis on the Optimization of BACnet Networks
Aachen, March 2026 – The BACnet Interest Group Europe (BIG-EU) showcased its presence at Light + Building 2026 in Frankfurt with a joint booth and a special occasion: 30 years of BACnet. In addition to current solutions and technologies in building automation, the focus was also on supporting young researchers. A highlight of the trade show appearance was the presentation of the BIG-EU Award for outstanding student projects related to the open BACnet communication standard.
This year’s award—worth €1,000—went to Thomas Fessler from the Cologne University of Applied Sciences for his bachelor’s thesis on the analysis and optimization of network performance in BACnet MS/TP networks, a widely used form of communication in building automation.
Fessler investigated how data traffic is organized in such networks and which factors influence performance. Although BACnet generally enables reliable and collision-free communication, administrative data—so-called overhead—causes delays in the exchange of actual user data.
The award-winning thesis analyzes these relationships and develops methods to reduce the proportion of administrative data and configure networks more efficiently. In addition, the author developed a software tool based on the Python programming language that can automatically evaluate recorded network traffic. This tool allows changes to systems to be simulated and their effects on network performance to be estimated—a valuable aid for the planning, analysis, and optimization of BACnet networks.
With the BIG-EU Award, the BACnet Interest Group Europe regularly recognizes particularly innovative student research projects that contribute to the further development of the standard and its application in building automation. The award at Light + Building also underscores the close connection between research, practice, and the international BACnet community.