What Comes Next—and How to Get There
LonWorks systems have been running real buildings for decades—reliably, quietly, and at scale. I’ve spent much of my career working with these systems in environments where uptime, serviceability, and interoperability are not abstract goals, but daily operational requirements.
Today, the LonWorks community is at an inflection point.
With the Neuron chip now end-of-life and the industry accelerating toward IP-based and software-defined architectures, owners and integrators are asking a fair and necessary question:
How do we modernize LonWorks systems without abandoning the investments that still deliver value?
At the 2026 AHR Expo in Las Vegas, I’ll be presenting an educational session titled “LonWorks Migration Playbook & Next-Gen Options.” The intent is to cut through the noise and provide a practical framework for navigating LonWorks modernization in a post-Neuron world—without hype and without assuming that “rip-and-replace” is the only answer.
The reality is that many LonWorks systems are still doing exactly what they were designed to do. They are deeply embedded in operations, and they cannot simply be taken offline while new architectures are sorted out. At the same time, building owners are under growing pressure to extract more value from their systems and align with modern digital, energy, and sustainability expectations.
That tension is where this session lives.
We’ll focus on how to think clearly about migration: what can stay, what should evolve, and how LonWorks fits into a future increasingly defined by open architectures and interoperability. This evolution is not happening in isolation. LonMark is in the process of aligning with the Coalition for Smarter Buildings (C4SB) under the Linux Foundation, reflecting a broader industry shift toward open, community-driven building technology frameworks.
LonWorks is not disappearing. It is evolving—technically, organizationally, and strategically. Understanding that trajectory, and making informed decisions along the way, is the purpose of this session.
If you’re responsible for a LonWorks system today, or expect to encounter one tomorrow, I hope you’ll join the discussion.
LonWorks Migration Playbook & Next-Gen Options
AHR Expo 2026 · Las Vegas
Monday, February 2 | 8:30–9:30 AM | Room S227
