by Ana María Restrepo
One of the disadvantages of this system is that the alarm had priority over the use of the telephone line, so that if an event occurred and the line was occupied by the client, the alarm cut off the call to be able to transmit the signals. Likewise, the large sending of signals to the central intensified the number of impulses in the telephone line and therefore the bill for telephone consumption arrived with increasing figures. At the end of the 90s, this type of transmission reached 95% of the monitoring market, leaving only 5% to the radial spectrum.
Transmission modalities
As is well known, alarm systems currently have several types of transmission - such as radio frequency, GSM / GPRS and TCP / IP - for reporting events to the company that provides the service, in many cases to the police or to the same security department of the company. These systems have displaced to some extent the renowned telephone line, although not completely, as many subscribers continue with this modality.
Each of these means of transmission have evolved as users demand greater speed, security and technology in the sending of events.
At the end of the 90s, having home, commercial and business Internet was a luxury that very few countries in Latin America had; and those who had it assumed large installation costs in addition to an increase in the value of their telephone services, since in countries such as Colombia the first signs of the Internet were registered through telephone lines, which was also costly for users.
However, ISP (Internet Service Provider) companies began to expand their range of action and their data transmission technologies by lowering the costs for customers a little. By the early 2000s, the Internet was already encoded as a new form of communication that led to rethinking the forms of data transmission in the security industry. Thus arose the monitoring by TCP / IP, the communication protocol most used for its security at the time of sending the data; although it is not the only one, since many protocols coexist in the network (UDP, HLDC, HTTP, FTP, etc).
Since Arpanet was born in 1970, a cluster of protocols have been developed that work together or independently within the network to take information wherever it is requested. The TCP is the one that takes care of the security of the connection, checks that all the complete data arrives and that they compose the final shipment, while the IP disarms the shipments and routes them to where the recipient is.
The advantages offered by this mode of transmission have forced companies to migrate or begin to migrate to IP monitoring, either by broadband (ADSL) or by a LAN or WAN network.
IP Coverage
Several years ago, security professionals did not look very favorably on the switch to IP monitoring systems, due to the high costs of the service, the poor quality of local ISPs and the low transmission speed, since high connection speed is required to ensure the proper functioning of this security solution.
The massification of the Internet in the world has presented a rapid growth from 2000 to last year, especially in the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, where the number of users grew by 920%, 883% and 600% respectively.
According to internetworldstats it is estimated that as of December 2007, there are 1.32 billion Internet users in the world, of which 126.2 million are in Latin America; this is presented as a good scenario for companies that monitor alarms in the region, since Latin countries have considerably increased the use of the network, being able to say that many homes already have broadband, and not to mention the companies.
Data running through the network
Due to the increase in Internet penetration in Latin America and the migration of alarm monitoring from telephone line to IP, industry professionals consider that this is a technology that, although very recent, has important characteristics that combined with the advantages of network connections allow to achieve very short transmission times n of events. The same procedure that the alarm performed when communicating by telephone line is now performed on the Internet, so that it does not occupy the phone, does not cause calls to fall and consumes minimal bandwidth.
"The transmission of alarms via IP has as its main feature that the alarm panels transfer in TCP/IP protocol as the main communication and as an alternative communication in a telephone communication protocol, such as CONTACT ID and SIA", according to Manuel Rebagliati, regional manager for South America of LRG International.
In the same way, it ensures that when a protocol is used that allows communication via LAN or WAN network, a PC that has software is the receiver of the event; also most manufacturers will have an IP receiver center, which in that case will combine the efficiency of the software with the capacity of the receiver, resulting in a transmission-reception of the event of very high quality and with the possibility of synchronization with the automation software.
To ensure that a subscriber has an IP transmission system, it must have broadband and a 24-hour Internet connection, to allow the constant sending of alarm signals to the central to report, and even more when an event occurs.
As stated by Alberto Mattenet, of Robert Bosch Argentina Industrial S.A., managing director Bosch Security Systems (ST/SAR), this Internet connection must be provided by a responsible company. However, it specifies that when the level of availability required is very high, corporations install their own communications systems or contract directly with telephone companies for what is required, as happens in banks when operating with their own LAN / WAN network.
Challenges and opportunities
Like users, the alarm monitoring provider must have some specifications in order to provide its customers with the quality of service required to meet their needs. Before providing this service, the company must choose the alarm equipment and identify by which protocol it will send the signals, since it can be done by TCP or also by UDP.
When implementing the transmission of alarm events via IP, the service provider company has as an internal challenge to remain in constant updating, in addition to having a specialized technical staff at a higher level than it had for simple telephone connections migrating, of course, at a higher level of technology, as Rebagliati asserts that "the success of this new venture will depend to a large extent on training and proper training."
Mattenet affirms that an opportunity for those who operate in the alarm segment is the range of business possibilities that this technology offers, allowing to provide high security in remote environments, while guaranteeing the constant monitoring of the status of the alarm systems connected to the network.
Rebagliati also thinks and adds: "let's be clear that alarms via IP are not only a change in the communication route, but they bring with them great advances, such is the case of the very attractive possibility of video surveillance, the option for the end user to receive messages to their phone or email indicating the events and major occurrences ."
High-level displacement
Like all equipment and systems that work in security, alarm monitoring also has advantages and disadvantages, especially if we talk about new technologies such as IP transmission.
According to Reblagliati and Mattenet, the advantages of sending data over IP for the field of alarms are innumerable, especially for banking and corporate applications which are connected via LAN or WAN.
• The transmission via IP allows a faster and cheaper communication speed, because in the case of sending the data by phone each event generates a telephone call that has a cost, while by IP it is a flat rate and therefore has no additional consto, because if it is used a lot or little, it is worth the same. In this way, the possibility of sending multiple events – such as opening of sectors, identification of users entering / leaving, remote supervision signals and control of the alarm center and door activation, among others – is obtained to the supervision and dispatch center without generating an additional cost for communication.
•The speed of alarm notification to the monitoring and dispatch center of the monitoring company allows immediate communication before an event. This is particularly necessary when it is urgently necessary to secure clearance, since the valuable first few seconds it takes for a telephone communication are, in many cases, the difference between successful protection and a late arrival at the scene.
•Internet transfer offers the possibility of continuous control through sequential interrogation, ensuring constant communication between both sites. This allows residential or commercial applications to have a level of security similar to that of the banking industry.
•With IP delivery you can use state-of-the-art alarm panel technology, with powerful software that results in more complete communication with extensive information about the event and even the incorporation of video, plans or maps that provide images and exact location of what is happening.
•Alarms transmitting over IP can send events to more than one control center at the same time; that is, they can transfer to the receiver of the monitoring center, to the PC or to a cell phone simultaneously with the advantage of saving time in decision making and even managing to transmit video to all of them at the same time.
•These devices can be monitored, controlled and even reprogrammed from great distances such as another city, country or continent through a website or an IP address, which can be dynamic or static, as long as you have the level of authority to do so.
•Alarms with IP communication capacity can be installed at points where there is no telephone line, but with a network point, as is the case with ATMs.
As for the disadvantages, the main one is the work of the monitoring system on the business network, because as we have already mentioned in other articles, there is a conflict between network engineers and security professionals at the time of transmitting data from the different solutions on the company's network.
Due to this, some users do not allow entry to it due to the inviolability of the networks and their own security, in such a way that many times it is the customers themselves who carry out the monitoring ignoring the company that previously provided this service.
Another disadvantage is that, no doubt at the moment, this service can only be provided to a small group of customers.
The last point against is directly related to the provision of Internet service by ADSL, since if there is a cut of the telephone line, the Internet link is left inactive.
Latin routes of communication
Just as the options and efficiency of mass transit systems vary according to the cities or countries in which they are located, certain places also have faster broadband speeds than others.
UN experts, meeting at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, estimate that in developed countries access to fast Internet connections is 28%, while in developing countries it only reaches 3%. However, they also consider that there is progress in the availability of the Internet, since in 2002 it was ten times greater in developed countries than in developing countries, but in 2006 it was only six times greater, which implies a growth in access and availability of the Internet.
These data, as well as the increase in Internet penetration in Latin America, show that the systems that begin to be implemented on IP communications have a future, since the advance of technologies in the region is becoming more noticeable every day.
In this regard, Rebagliati considers that "most countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have good providers of ADSL connections, what happens is that this is a service that is not economical, for the moment, so users resort to small providers, but this is changing rapidly, there are already many reasons for end users to migrate to providers that provide them with bandwidths and speeds adequate to today's needs, and one of them is the ability to have video and alarms over IP." Although he also explains that the possibility of a network being deficient or falling is real, so IP panels have a redundant system in such a way that the alarm data will use conventional protocols via telephone, cell phone or radio.
As for the network outages, Mattenet agrees with his colleague regarding the support or backup options of the systems, and states that in the event of a service outage of the IP connection, the monitoring and dispatch center of the monitoring company will be notified instantly of this situation. In this way, when the security level of the remote subscriber warrants it, the necessary contingency measures can be activated.
As for the technological advances in the region, in Latin America there are no major developments in the field of electronic security, so most of the innovations come from the international market, especially from the United States.
However, it is possible to affirm, according to Mattenet, that alarm systems operating via IP have reached an important stage of maturity, so the main advances have already been incorporated. "In particular, the encryption, anti-replacement and anti-replacement features of the IP were outstanding years ago and are currently part of a built-in standard." Likewise, and to support the operation in networks with micro-cuts, there are also special supervisions that allow to operate in those conditions.
Unlike data transmission in CCTV systems, the information packets sent by IP alarms are extremely small and their transmission does not imply network overload.
Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Peru and Venezuela are the latin american countries with the greatest development and that have better network quality, which means that the transmission of alarms via IP is implemented to a greater extent.
Nowadays the trend in the transmission of alarms over IP is to migrate to proprietary systems with proven developments and experiences, as well as from well-known manufacturers. It also highlights the reduction of prices in the market and a popularization of these systems, given that there are already facilities of this type at the household level in Latin America. "In a short time, standard alarm panels for small residential and commercial use will have a standard IP connection," says Mattenet.
In the same direction rebagliati focuses, who states that at present the concept of IP transmission is being transferred to the field of medium and domestic companies, "in the market there are two categories of panels with IP communication, high-tech panels and a really impressive number of zones, many of them over 500 zones for banking and corporate applications; and in the second level we have the panels with IP communication for commercial and home applications", because at present the concept of IP transmission is being transferred to the field of medium and domestic companies.
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