This paper proposes a service-oriented communication platform enabling the provision of scalable smart community services. The proposed platform is managed using Extensible Markup Language (XML) that has advantages in terms of flexibility, cost-effective implementation and affinity with databases. In practice, the platform is embedded into distributed communication nodes, e.g. routers, switches and home gateways, and both existing IP services and smart community services are provided over public networks. In this research, as an application, a building energy management system (BEMS) using the platform is demonstrated. The feasibility of the network architecture with the platform is discussed based on experimental results of data acquisition and control in the BEMS demonstration.