Trends in the development of software for integrated security systems.
A modern security system includes subsystems for security and fire alarms, access control and video surveillance. When implementing security systems for large facilities, the integration of subsystems with each other using software has become a mandatory requirement. Below I will try to show the trends that have been observed in the development of this software in recent years.
Every year, more and more objects are created in the ideology of an intelligent building. In an intelligent building, all low-current systems are interconnected, and the operator has the ability to see the status of security and fire alarms, access control, heat and water supply, air conditioning, ventilation, lighting, etc. on floor plans. Such an interface is provided by special programs called SCADA systems. SCADA systems support a huge number of different types of building automation controllers, but, as a rule, do not support controllers used to build security systems. To connect a controller to a SCADA system, an OPC server must be developed. This is a long and expensive process, and many developers of security system equipment do not have the opportunity to release an OPC server for their equipment. At the same time, integrated security systems, as a rule, have integration with SCADA systems. As a result, the recent trend is to use integrated security systems as a universal converter of security system interfaces to SCADA system interfaces. Such solutions allow for new opportunities in an intelligent building, for example, when a room is set to security, the air conditioner and lighting can be automatically turned off, and the ventilation mode can be changed. When an employee enters through the checkpoint, the air conditioner or heating can be automatically turned on in the room where the employee works.
The solution described above is used at complex engineering facilities. For small business centers or buildings, the use of two software packages of a SCADA system and an integrated security system is redundant. In this regard, a new trend is the use of an integrated security system as a SCADA system. At the same time, a number of new functions appear in the integrated security system: support for OPC servers of various equipment, support for a large number of rapidly changing protocols used in building automation, such as LON, drawing graphs and trends coming from various sensors, etc.Until recently, the construction of security systems for large facilities required the use of expensive access controllers, security and fire alarms, usually from foreign manufacturers. In such systems, one controller could provide real-time control of dozens of access points, a huge number of security and fire sensors, and process dozens of requests per second. Naturally, controllers with such characteristics are very complex and expensive products. At the same time, integrated security systems have learned to distribute computing loads between many computers included in the security system and to cope with very large volumes of data. This property has led to the fact that the software package of an integrated system can support hundreds of controllers. As a result, a large system can be built not only on several expensive controllers, but also on hundreds of inexpensive controllers, which were previously used only in small systems. Such architecture is not only cheaper, but also more reliable, because it does not have a central controller, the failure of which or loss of communication with which blocked the operation of the entire security system. In larger facilities, it is increasingly common to see the use of an integrated security system as a central controller, taking over the control of a large number of independent, low-cost controllers.
One of the important trends in the development of security system equipment is the increasing use of the TCPIP protocol for interaction between controllers and external systems. As a result, physical connection of controllers via RS232/485 interfaces to a computer is becoming an exception rather than a rule. With such a connection organization, it becomes very easy to organize computer backup, which is what integrated security systems do: when one or more computers fail, they use the remaining computers to service the equipment. In the case of IP access controllers, security and fire alarms, this leads to the operator seeing a short-term loss of communication with the controllers, and then the connection is restored, and when using IP cameras, recording automatically continues on the remaining video recorders. Thus, integrated systems are increasingly paying attention to backup and increasing the fault tolerance of the system as a whole.
The widespread introduction of IP cameras and IP encoders for building security systems, support of such cameras and encoders by integrated security systems — all this makes it possible today in a number of cases not to use specialized video recorders. This is done, for example, when the number of cameras is small and the capabilities of ordinary computers are sufficient both for recording video data and for servicing other subsystems of the security system.
The high demand for analytical processing of video data, such as recognition of train and vehicle numbers, recognition and identification of faces, counting of cars and people, protection of perimeters of objects, etc., leads to the fact that security systems are increasingly integrating not only equipment, but also software modules from various manufacturers that allow analyzing video data.
Production efficiency is largely related to control of import and export of material assets. An integrated security system, as a rule, contains, on the one hand, means for recognizing numbers of wagons, vehicles or other identifiers, and on the other hand, integration with enterprise management systems. This possibility has recently been often used in efficient productions to reduce costs.
Time tracking is also a means of increasing the efficiency of enterprises. And at present it is becoming an almost mandatory attribute of the security system. Therefore, developers of integrated security systems are actively developing time tracking modules, including automatic distribution of results for individual employees to department heads and summary reports.
Spatially distributed security systems consisting of many branches remote from each other are increasingly common at facilities. At the same time, integrated security systems have learned not only to ensure the independent operation of these facilities, but also to carry out centralized management and control from the head office for all subordinate facilities.
As we can see, all of the above trends show that integrated security systems have entered a stage where they not only combine information from equipment from different manufacturers, but also ensure increased reliability, scalability of the security system, implement unified control for all low-current systems of the building and lead to increased efficiency of the enterprise as a whole.