Sending out the signals

After all, even if you're only talking false alarm rates then end users are primarily to blame for their occurrence. Every survey tells you that. Clearly, systems manufacturers and installers of their products must work even harder to impart their knowledge of how alarm systems work, and the best ways in which they might be managed.

In its simplest form, the standard security system can be divided into three elements – the protected premises, the Alarm Transmission System (ATS) and the Alarm Receiving Centre (ARC). Each has its part to play in the complete alarm system design, but it's the ATS that harbours the majority of ongoing annual costs.

The ATS might also be divided into three main areas, namely the annual rental of the communications path, call charges for the transmission of alarms and the cost of monitoring the line itself. Most systems are currently installed with PSTN lines at an outlay of around £160 per annum. Call charges can be assumed to be at least £30 to account for the open and close signals that inform the ARC of when a given alarm system is set and unset. These charges can increase significantly when alarm companies use premium rate numbers.

Another major expense can be the third party line monitoring company's charges, which sometimes reach in excess of £200 per annum. When all of these charges are added together, the annual cost of communications and line monitoring for the end user might well exceed £350.

If your company hosts a corporate network, or uses the managed services of a public network, then it's possible to eliminate these costs or reduce them dramatically. Sharing the Internet Protocol (IP) infrastructure – with its very large bandwidth – removes the cost of the PSTN line, while newly-introduced polling gateways at the ARC will cut out any need for line monitoring services.

It would be unwise to expect the full £350 to be saved, though, as there'll be a new infrastructure to install and maintain as well as staff to be trained up and retained.

Meeting the standards
Any alarm transmission system must meet the new requirements from the police, the insurance companies, the regulatory bodies (including the National Security Inspectorate and the Security Systems and Alarms Inspection Board) and the British Security Industry Association (BSIA). The new standards are there to identify different grades of security system that will protect property and premises to the required level as identified by the insurance companies.

Four levels have been defined, Grade 4 being the highest and Grade 1 the lowest. Note that serious alarm systems offering good protection will always be Grade 3 and above. Once an assessment of the risks involved has been established, the grade of system may then be agreed upon and applied.

The grading system was introduced through a forum of security experts numbering representatives from the British Standards Institution (BSI) and other European standards bodies among its ranks. They all meet under the banner of CENELEC.

Specific standards that came into effect last month relate to intrusion systems (EN 50131), access control (EN 50133), alarm signal transmission (EN 50136) and CCTV systems (EN 50132). For further details take a look on the Internet at: www.bsia.co.uk

End users should note that these standards have been designed to allow the use of conventional transmission systems, and provide a great deal of flexibility in their implementation. For now there'll be parallel running with existing BS 4737 standards, but the latter will be phased out come next March.

Transmission systems must meet a number of critical design criteria, including encryption, substitution protection, alarm transmission times and the reporting times relating to the loss of a communications path. For the most secure system there'll be a requirement for dual communications paths, allowing either path to assume responsibility for alarm transmission in the event of a path failure.

With two transmission paths, each can look after the other. Using a combination of polling and path monitoring, there's no longer any need for an expensive line monitoring service administered by a third party.

Third party line monitoring
Existing third party line monitoring solutions provide PIN-only integration to the alarm panel, offering no capability for remote diagnostics or upgrades. These solutions allow only a minimum amount of information to be provided over their simple networks, and customers who wish to remotely configure or upgrade their alarm panel(s) must purchase an additional digital communicator.

Using IP and Short Message Service (SMS) allows full messaging and remote configuration of the communications devices and alarm panel(s) at any time.

While the standards mentioned provide an excellent requirement base for the security industry, the police and insurers will often ask for additional functionality to minimise false alarms and providing no risk systems. This is the case with these new standards, which are supplemented by the ACPO 'Security Systems Policy 2000'. The insurance industry will insist on dual path signalling for commercial and high risk premises along with some stringent requirements for line monitoring during the failure of one of the transmission paths.

Monitoring and managing an alarm system is both a complex and demanding requirement that can be more easily achieved using an ARC-based security management gateway solution

All of these requirements are positive – and by using innovative technology they don't make excessive cost burdens on the communications hardware, nor do they interfere with the annual line charges.

The insurance companies are now identifying that the safest technology for back-up is radio or GSM. These technologies (including the introduction of SMS) have been revolutionised over the past few years to the extent that some of the requirements from several of the large mobile communications companies achieve the delivery of SMS messages in less than seven seconds. Service levels can only improve with the introduction of new core technology, and the services will be enhanced for more demanding applications.

While you may think that SMS messaging will incur huge annual expenses, there are a number of innovative ways of achieving a low cost solution. The mobile companies have recognised there's a market to be serviced, and they now offer very low tariff solutions for SMS telemetry. To this end, you can expect the annual charges to be around £30 to £40 (including a large quantity of free messages). Improving the communications technology also allows for the remote preventative maintenance of protected premises. The advantage of this new initiative from the BSIA and the BSI reduces the number of annual engineering visits required and, hence, provides a further cost saving to the user.

Towards a common interface
One of the challenges for manufacturers of these new communication systems is the interface to the vast array of alarm panels that have been installed (and are about to be installed) in the marketplace.

Every panel has a different way of communicating with the ARC. Therefore, it's imperative that these communication devices are able to correct the differences in the alarm panels and offer a common ARC interface.

At the same time, the digital communicator needs to provide a high speed interface to the alarm panel for remote configuration, programming changes and control. Controlled assistance may be provided for setting and unsetting the system, isolating zones and changing user codes.

If you work for one of those companies with its own ARC then it's time to investigate IP alarm signalling. Many of the retail concerns are self-insured, which reduces some of the stringent requirements for public monitoring systems. Corporate IP networks offer a ready-made transmission path for alarms, while there's also the incentive to provide verification for maintaining police response.

There's a tendency for self-insured companies to imagine invincibility, but there is also a genuine case for improving the quality of the system by way of the savings realised in annual expenditure.

Not just IP: ISDN and PSTN
Cutting back on costs doesn't rely solely on a Broadband connection. PSTN and ISDN with GSM back-up can offer massive cost savings over current monitored systems. The same principle applies to the proactive monitoring of each communications path by the other, in combination with some interactive polling. This coalescing of encryption with innovative technology gives the user a highly secure system at minimum cost.

Meantime, the ARC gateway may also be used for conventional transmission technologies like ISDN and PSTN. There's an additional benefit of such a system which ensures an end-to-end monitoring solution against the more conventional last mile solutions. These systems can also be designed for uploading new configurations to the alarm panels. If those features are incorporated then the ARC can provide a total package of alarm monitoring and alarm system management.

There are additional benefits that should be considered when using an independent alarm transmission system. First, the use of alarm panels may be varied by choice. The alarm transmission system hardware usually withstands the test of time, and can be used again and again. The second important consideration is the ability to employ back-up alarm monitoring stations. Adding an additional IP address can direct your alarms to a back-up site within minutes of ARC failure.

While there has been apprehension on behalf of some ARC managers to be the early adopters of IP-based systems, that reticence is now beginning to disappear. Most of the current ARCs have employed specialist teams that understand all of the security and installation requirements of an IP system. For their part, end users should always insist upon knowing the true capabilities of staff members at its chosen ARC, as well as the degree of IP implemenation to date.

What you need to remember
Installers should have no fear of IP installations if the products chosen boast all of the automatic features we've become accustomed to in terms of the corporate network. Plugging the hardware in and switching it on with automatic configuration is the ultimate goal.

We can be thankful that the industry is blessed with an army of consultants and inspectors who'll check that systems comply with the standards they've recommended.