Trends in the development of data transmission technologies and their practical application.
Like any system, a security system is a complex consisting of a set of both subsystems and the principles of their application. The main subsystems used are:
- Means of physical counteraction to intrusion into a security facility (lock, fence, door, etc.).
- Means of electronic notification of events at the facility (low-current alarm).
- Visual monitoring equipment (closed circuit television system).
- Response means and actuators (automatic fire extinguishing, automatically activated barrier, human actions, etc.).
As for the principles, they are all united and systematized by a single requirement — ensuring the level of security corresponding to the object of protection.
Naturally, the resulting proposals for the price of the project are very different from each other, but after what has been written above, it is already clear why.
Be that as it may, these days another new principle is increasingly being used, which significantly affects the overall level of security provided and which often simply needs to be taken into account — the channels used for transmitting alarm and other data. This is especially important in cases where there is no person at the site at all or their presence is reduced to a minimum. Well, let’s try to figure it out and try to cover this topic.
The need to transmit alarming data electronically arose along with the discoveries of the brilliant scientists of the 19th century N. Tesla, A. S. Popov and G. Marconi.
And the first most famous alarm data transmitted electronically were the letters SOS.
Since then, the only thing that has fundamentally changed in the field of security business is that if SO.S was transmitted to everyone who heard, today the message goes exclusively only to those who are waiting for it.
But this seemingly insignificant change means a lot. It is very important for us to know that the transmission channel through which we wait for such messages is guaranteed to be “alive” and protected. We also want there to be a duplicate channel, preferably using a different data transmission technology, and, moreover, it is very important for us to understand that even if we do not receive this data, someone else will receive it, but notified and trained by us in advance further actions.
Thus, already at this stage of the article a preliminary conclusion can be made — there should be several data transmission channels. The technologies used must be different and duplicate each other, and the recipient of such alarming (service) data must have his own deputy just in case of emergency.
What can we count on?
What technological solutions?
We can start the list with technologies that have been known for a long time — telephone data transmission channels (from the point of view of the devices used for this — a modem connection).
This is the most common method today in low-current security alarms. They also use a radio channel as a backup. In fact, the data packet itself transmitted by a radio pulse is much poorer in content and can contain only a few conditional, pre-described codes.
Its task is to provide data transmission where there are no other methods, or to duplicate the main transmission channel. In third place in popularity (and this popularity is constantly growing) is packet data transfer via a GPRS/UMT terminal. Here we are dealing with data, usually encapsulated in an IP packet.
What about the Internet, you ask.
The answer here is simple: the Internet is not a technology or a means of transmitting data.
This is the general concept of a certain information field in which many technologies, interfaces, transports, protocols, etc. coexist.
They are all united by the free and proprietary TCP/IP data transfer protocol. The fourth most common method of data transmission is, as trivial as it may seem, the 220 V household outlet.
Recently, it is this network that has begun to attract the attention of development engineers. In fact, the electrification of Russia, which began at one time, long before the Internet, solved the problem of network globalization.
It’s just that previously this network was considered nothing other than for transmitting current. Now it turns out that data can be transmitted through it with equal effect and reliability.
Adapters specialized for this can already be found on the shelves of stores selling computer equipment.
I put optical fiber as a means of transmitting information in fifth place because of its high cost. But here it’s worth making a remark: this technology is very effective if the amount of transmitted data is critically large.
It is much cheaper to install one small fiber optic cable and provide data transmission “transport” with excellent throughput characteristics to a large building than to install it using simple cables.
And in last place, in my opinion, is the use of satellite communication channels as a data transmission channel.
From a technology point of view, alarming data is the same information flow, no different from other types of data. All we need to know and remember is their priority over other types of data. A technology called QoS (Quality of Service) can help us with this.
This technology is very common in information networks and, in principle, represents a kind of traffic prioritization system according to predescribed conditions.
In conclusion, we can talk about the current trends in the development of data transmission technologies.
There are two positions here: the position of the end user, who cares about the resulting product (data sent — data received), and the position of the company, which provides the customer with the required level of security.
If for the first little changes (and does it change at all?), then for the second everything is not so simple.
With the increasing need to unite individual objects into groups, apply uniform rules and requirements to them, as well as the continued progress of introducing digital technologies into our daily lives, the requirements for workers involved in the implementation of security systems are constantly growing.
Only an accurate understanding of the principles used to transmit alarm and other data by the installer (integrator) can guarantee the customer their reliability and efficiency.
Therefore, the trend is essentially the same — a constant increase in the qualifications of engineers involved in projects.
As for technologies, the set already available is sufficient and even redundant for application in security systems.