KNX Association is the creator and owner of the KNX technology – the world’s only open STANDARD for all applications in home and building control, ranging from lighting and blind control to systems for heating, ventilation, air conditioning, monitoring, alarming, water control, energy management, metering as well as household appliances, audio - AV and lots more. The technology can be used in new as well as in existing home and buildings.

For members of the KNX Association the system is royalty-free, moreover can be implemented on any processor platform. All products bearing the KNX logo are certified in order to guarantee system compatibility, interworking and interoperability.

KNX is the only global standard for home and building control with

• A single, manufacturer independent design and commissioning tool (ETS).
• A complete set of supported communication media (TP, PL, RF and IP).
• A complete set of supported configuration modes (system, easy and automatic mode).
• See more advantages.

KNX is approved as

• European Standard (CENELEC EN 50090 and CEN EN 13321-1).
• International Standard (ISO/IEC 14543-3).
• Chinese Standard (GB/Z 20965).

This standard is based upon more than 15 years of experience in the market including its predecessors, EIB, EHS and BatiBUS. Over 100 member companies worldwide from different application domains have almost 7000 KNX certified product groups in their catalogues. The KNX Association has partnership agreements with more than 21,000 installer companies in 70 countries and more than 50 technical universities as well as over 100 training centres. 

As mentioned in the above introduction interworking is a major asset of the KNX technology.

An interworking model and extensive functional block descriptions for many application domains are an integral part of the KNX specifications (Volume 3 Part 7 and Volume 7). This is backed up by a certification process, in which next to the conformity to the defined system profiles, compliance to at least the standardised data types or additionally the defined functional blocks is one of the cornerstones (as symbolised by the KNX Trademark).

Interworking is defined in the KNX Interworking model as : 'the situation where products sending and receiving messages can properly understand signals and react on them without additional equipment'.

In order to profit to the full extent of the use of a Home and Building Control system, it is indispensable that products of different manufacturers ("multi-vendor interworking") and products of different application fields ("cross-discipline interworking") interwork.

The advantages of such interworking are :

• it enhances the OEM market amongst KNX solution providers;
• it gives easy market access for niche products
  (commonly made by smaller companies)
• it allows to set up a common market infrastructure for KNX compatible products
  (e.g. training measures) 

The agreement on common standardised data types and functional block specifications is reached in Application Specification groups of KNX members active in a certain application field (e.g. HVAC), after which the consistency of these proposals with the general interworking model is checked by the KNX Task Force Interworking.