WO2008041214A1

WO2008041214A1 - A security system and method

Info

Publication number: WO2008041214A1
Application number: PCT/IE2007/000090
Authority: WO
Inventors: Phil Carroll; Michael Priess; Brendan Collins
Original assignee: Europlex Technologies (Ireland) Limited
Priority date: 2006-10-02
Filing date: 2007-09-28
Publication date: 2008-04-10
Also published as: IES20060715A2

Abstract

The invention provides a security system comprising a central station; communication means having at least two separate communication paths; a control panel for securely monitoring one or more zones, said control panel in communication with said central station via said two separate communication paths; and configuration means for said central station to configure said control panel remotely via one or both of said communication paths. The invention provides a PSTN module, a GSM module, and an Ethernet module to provide at least two separate communication paths between the central station and the control panel by utilising a unique datagram protocol.

Description

Title

A Security System and Method

Field of the Invention The invention relates to a security system and method. In particular the invention relates to a system having a control panel for securely monitoring one or more zones, the control panel in communication with a central monitoring station

Background to the Invention Typically a security alarm system consists of a security control panel with onboard inputs for alarm point monitoring of sensors and onboard output for alarm annunciation via siren, sounder, bell or other type of alarm indicator. The system should also have an expansion bus for keypads and input/output expanders. The keypad is typically used for indication of events and alarms and can be used to arm or disarm the system. The expanders are typically input and output expanders that allow for the addition of extra sensors and indicators on the system. A monitored alarm system will have some form of remote communications capability, typically over public switching telephone network (PSTN) or GSM network which requires the addition of a dial up connection. Known security alarm systems are provided in the market place by companies like HKC Limited, GE Interlogix, Texecom Inc. and Honeywell Inc.

PCT publication number WO2006/037149, in the name of Pacom Systems Pty Limited, discloses an alarm activation system. The system comprises a networked computer system having a hardware device programmed to receive an alarm activation signal and to take appropriate action when the alarm activation signal is received; and a first computer programmed to generate the alarm activation signal from a predetermined combination of keystrokes entered at the first computer and to send the alarm activation signal to the hardware device. The system also concerns an alarm activation signal, a computer program and a method of activating an alarm.

US Publication number US2006-092011, in the name of Honeywell International Inc, discloses number of different security systems, such as in home or business locations, that periodically transmit status data to a remote facility such as a central monitoring station so that it is continuously informed of the security system's status. The status may relate to an alarm status, armed status, or trouble code status. A user interface at the remote facility provides a spreadsheet format that allows a user to quickly ascertain the status of the security systems, and to send commands to the security systems. The security systems may be controlled individually or in groups, such as to add or delete authorizations. The user interface can filter or sort the information, or obtain further details. Other information, such as video and audio data from a security system, can also be provided to the remote facility for use in the user interface.

There are a number of problems associated with present security systems. The first is that existing alarm systems are not resilient to hardware malfunctions that are associated with the system and are prone to hacking into by third parties. A major problem is that a security system is compromised when its communication channel is compromised. In addition, configuration of security systems tend to be complex and require a person to programme them on site. Furthermore, when there is a break down or fault in the system it is necessary for a maintenance person to visit the site in order to fix the break down or fault.

It is an object of the invention to provide a security communications system and method to overcome the above mentioned problems.

Summary of the Invention

According to the present invention there is provided, as set out in the appended claims, a security system comprising: a central station; communication means having at least two separate communication paths; a control panel for securely monitoring one or more zones, said control panel in communication with said central station via one or more of said communication paths; and configuration means for said central station to configure said control panel remotely via one or both of said communication paths. The advantage of the two separate communication paths in combination with the remote configuration increases the overall resilience and reliability of the security system.

Suitably, the system comprises a PSTN module and a GSM module to provide at least two separate communication paths between said central station and said control panel. Suitably, the system comprises a PSTN module, a GSM module, and an Ethernet module to provide three separate communication paths between said central station and said control panel. The Ethernet module may provide an IP communication interface for communication between the control panel and the central station.

In one embodiment communication of data over the IP interface between the control panel and the central station is sent using an encryption protocol, such as a 128 bit AES encrypted protocol. The IP interface communication may provide an always-on connection

Suitably, the configuration means configures said control panel to prioritise said communication paths dependent on a predefined protocol. Suitably, the predefined protocol is based on a user datagram protocol (UDP). The UDP provides a more reliable and responsive communication platform, while minimising bandwidth requirement for the communication channel which is extremely desirable. This is achieved by selecting small packets of data to flow in both directions at specified time intervals using UDP.

In one embodiment the control panel comprises a multi-processor architecture having a plurality of processors, linked by a SPI interface, each processor having a dedicated function and operable independently of each other.

In a further embodiment the control panel controls a distributed network, said distributed network having a plurality of nodes for gathering data from one or more zones, said network suitably arranged, such as a ring network such that when a fault occurs on the network communication is maintained between the control panel and said plurality of nodes.

Suitably, the configuration means comprises a portable device to configure the control panel via the onboard Ethernet module.

Suitably, the control panel comprises a web server module having installer and web pages to provide configuration and management tools for said control panel. In a further embodiment the control instructions are implemented in firmware stored in flash memory on the control panel to allow for upgrading either locally or remotely via one of said communication paths. The web server comprises means to provide firmware upgrades of said control panel over a wide/local area network WAN/LAN. It is not known for an alarm panel to have an onboard web server allowing the installer configure the system fully. Firmware upgrades can be carried out via the web server, which is advantageous. In most other systems the installer has to install an application on a computer for configuration or firmware upgrade purposes.

Suitably the control panel comprises a power controller comprising means to partially power down parts of the control panel during periods of inactivity.

Suitably the control panel comprises a wireless module to control a plurality of nodes, for example a sensor, for gathering data from one or more zones over a wireless network. Typically the plurality of nodes comprises a plurality of wireless devices, each independently operable from each other.

There is also provided a computer program comprising program instructions for causing a computer program to carry out the above system, which may be embodied on a record medium, carrier signal or read-only memory.

Brief Description of the Drawings

The invention will be more clearly understood from the following description of an embodiment thereof, given by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:-

Figure 1 illustrates the security system according to the present invention;

Figure 2 illustrates three communication paths from a control panel to a central monitoring station according to the present invention. Detailed Description of the Drawings

Referring now to Figure 1 there is provided a security system comprising a central station (1) connected to a control panel (2) via two separate communication paths. The control panel (2) securely monitors one or more zones and communicates the status of the zone to the central station. In the event that a fault or an intruder is detected the control panel (2) triggers an alarm annunciation, typically in the form of an alarm or siren. A keypad (3) is used for indication of events and alarms and can be used to arm or disarm the security system. The system comprises an expansion bus (4) for the keypad

(3) and input/output expanders. The central station (2) can be controlled by a monitoring software package.

According to one embodiment of the present invention the control panel (2) design is based on the control panel having a RS485 based expansion network. The expansion network can allow for the addition of up to 32 keypads and 64 digital IO expanders for connectivity of alarm sensors. Additionally the control panel (2) comprises two plug-on modem slots for a PSTN module (5) and a GSM module (6) and a media bus slot for future use. The control panel (2) comprises a number of methods for configuring and programming the system, either locally or remotely, and are discussed in detail later in the specification.

The control panel (2) is based on a multiple microprocessor based control panel with a proprietary operating system and internal intruder alarm engine. The control panel (2) is networked at multiple levels. At the lowest level it provides distributed capabilities for extending the number of sensors, through a resilient network of expanders. At the highest level it will support peer networking of multiple controllers for optimal scalability, resilience and performance.

On the hardware side the control panel (2) is designed around a number of processors, for example an ARM9 and ARM7 based multiprocessor core with a Fast Ethernet module onboard. The Ethernet module can be a plug in module or integrated in the control panel (2), and is discussed in more detail below. The control panel (2) has a high level of hardware resilience built-in, by using multi-processing technology with multiple onboard microprocessors, linked through a SPI interface. The SPI interface allows for high speed internal linking of microprocessors onboard and facilitates the expansion of the system using plug-on communications modules. Each processor has a dedicated function and can continue to operate independently if there is failure in other parts of the system. Thus reliability of the security system is achieved.

In a further embodiment the control panel (2) employs a strategy for secure resilient local communications via the RS485 network for data gathering and alarm point event reporting (from the expanders on the network). This high speed expansion network can be wired in a ring for resilience, so that if a fault occurs on any connection on the network, this can immediately be identified and communications is maintained on either side of this fault thus allowing all expanders and keypads on the network to continue to operate and monitor the sensors or alarm points. The control panel (2) also has the flexibility of being configured and wired as a single two-wire bus configuration.

Referring now to figure 2 the control panel (2) comprises an onboard IP stack which has been optimised for the intruder alarm application and provides a resilient secure Ethernet interface module (11) that communicates with the central station 1 over a network (for example the internet) (12). The Ethernet interface module (11) supports a number of IP protocols such as UDP SNMP, HTTP, XML / SOAP. It also provides a highly optimised polling protocol for IP connectivity to Central Station (1).

One of the main advantages of the control panel (2) is that the control panel (2) comprises three remote communication^'s paths for alarm reporting to the central station

(1) via the PSTN, GSM and Ethernet modules (5), (6) and (11) to provide a very high and robust level of resilience in the security system. The system also facilitates an always-on alarm reporting connection via IP with 2 resilient backup channel via PSTN and GSM with an Alarm Receiver (eCOM) using a secure proprietary 128bit AES (highest level) encrypted protocol using a unique Datagram Protocol. The communications capability of the control panel (2) using IP with a tri-path resilient backup path provides a significant cost saving when compared with other security systems. This applies to small commercial premises right through to larger commercial premises such as supermarket and retail stores.

An important aspect of the invention is that a secure, encrypted, proprietary communications protocol using a unique Datagram Protocol (DP) which facilitates highly secure IP communications between the control panel (2) and the central station (1). The datagram protocol facilitates the implementation of resilient communications over the Ethernet, PSTN and GSM modules. This proprietary protocol can be tuned for multi-path communications and is completely configurable for all networks. The protocol is encrypted and compressed and has a small network footprint meaning the impact on the network is minimal. The advantage of this protocol over standard protocols is the amount of details about the event being transmitted are far more that those normally transmitted. Details such as alarm zone description, user name, area name, etc are passed within this protocol thus enhancing the information available to the user at the central station. This protocol also facilitates two way communications allowing the central station user to send commands or request more information from the control panel (T).

Referring now to the datagram protocol of the present invention the protocol is designed for transferring data securely between two end points, the alarm panel/access controller

(2) referred to as the device, and the central station (1), referred to as the server, each server will communicate with potentially thousands of devices. All data sent is compressed and encrypted. When designing a communication protocol the first task is to analyse the types of data the protocol will carry. For reliable alarm and access control reporting and management, it is necessary to consider three types of messages:

Verification of communication availability

It is important that both the device and the server at any given time are aware of the availability of the communication channel. To facilitate this on IP networks small packets of data have to flow in both directions at specified time intervals, this is referred to as polling. Reporting of events

When an alarm or access event occurs in the device, it must immediately send this as an event to the server. Events are generally very small data packets that happens at unpredictable times, the device will send it to the server and require acknowledge of receipt.

Control and configuration

The server will either automatically or through operator, want to perform specific control or configuration commands on the device. Control commands are generally small packets of instructions that require a reply. Configuration is generally a number of small individual records sent down to the device.

A key design requirement for datagram protocol of the present invention is to keep the bandwidth requirement to an absolute minimum to function reliably through low bandwidth WAN links, and coexist with customers critical data links. In order to accomplish this it is necessary to keep the size of each packet as small as possible, and also keep the number of data packets as low as possible.

To keep the size of each packet low it is necessary to keep the protocol overhead as low as possible, and compress the data payload. After analysing the types of data necessary to be carried, a decision on which IP transport protocol is most suitable has to be made, for example using TCP or UDP protocol. The User Datagram Protocol (UDP) is one of the core protocols of the Internet protocol suite. Using UDP, programs on networked computers can send short messages sometimes known as datagrams to one another. The inventors of the present invention realised that using UDP protocol in a networked security system provides a number of unexpected advantages. Thus, the option chosen for the datagram protocol of the present invention utilises UDP protocol. TCP protocol has a number of drawbacks, for example:

Protocol overhead:

Because TCP is stream based it requires the establishment of a session before any data can be exchanged, because of the handshake mechanism used by TCP it requires a minimum of eight data packets of 20 - 60 bytes (excluding IP overhead) to flow in order to send just one byte. This is contrary to UDP where only two packets need to flow each 8 byte protocol overhead.

Retransmissions : TCP is designed for high performance stream transfers, and provides advanced features such as windowing and adaptive retransmission timers. In order to optimise its retransmission timers TCP measures the round trip time, and generates retransmissions based on the time it took the last message to be acknowledged. In a wireless or highly distributed WAN this has the side effect of creating unnecessary high amount of retransmissions, because the round trip time will wary a lot from transmission to transmission. With UDP the application has total control over retransmissions.

Session overhead:

TCP requires an established session before any data can be transferred, this introduces an additional protocol overhead when a session is broken and needs to be re-established. This is a frequent occurrence on a wireless network. This overhead does not exist on UDP. This also has a major resource cost for the application server, and is why a TCP based server can only manage hundreds of simultaneous connections whereas a UDP based server can manage thousands of simultaneous connections.

The data protocol of the present invention based on UDP protocol is not only more reliable and more responsive, but will also only use approximately 10% to 30% of the bandwidth required by TCP based implementation.

It will be appreciated that the three remote communications paths (IP, PSTN, GSM) can also be use for remote programming and configuration of the system, ensuring complete system configuration resilience. The control panel (2) also supports alarm reporting via SMS over PSTN and GSM networks for user notification purposes.

It will also be appreciated that in order to reduce the bandwidth requirements of IP communication, the control panel (2) supports a novel data compression scheme. This ensures optimal network performance and will satisfy the IT network requirements. In a further aspect of the present invention the system can be completely configured and operated locally onsite via a network using the keypad (3). This is achieved via easy to use installer menus. Local programming can also be achieved a) via the onboard Ethernet using a crossover cable, b) direct connect via an onboard RS232 serial port and c) via the onboard USB connector through the onboard web server. It facilitates the storage of multiple system configurations onboard. The configuration can be downloaded to the panel for speedy programming or uploaded to a fast programming device. This can be achieved using a unique handheld device. The configuration file can be downloaded to a PC via USB port for archival purposes or upload from the PC to the programming device following offline changes.

The control panel (2) provides a secure web-interface through an onboard web server for configuration and monitoring. This web server has multiple easy to use installer and user web pages providing both system users a powerful configuration and management tools. It will be appreciated that the architecture of the security system is designed so that it scales from small businesses (e.g. alarm requirements only) up to the largest enterprise security systems using a distributed architecture and by networking at multiple levels.

The control panel (2) is ideally suited for a networked environment as its architecture is able to be integrated into the wiring infrastructure without the need to duplicate the cabling throughout a building. Using TCP-IP as the communications layer the control panel (2) will also be able to communicate with third party systems intelligently.

The control panel (2) design has been uniquely developed to ensure that all firmware on the controller (including modems) and all firmware on the expanders and keypads can be upgraded using flash technology either locally or remotely through any of the communication ports. The controller features an advanced novel power controller, which allows us to partially power down parts of the system when inactive. In order to conserve battery power and thus the length of time the system can be maintained in an AC power fail situation the control panel (2) and expanders have intelligence built in to firmware that allows them operate in a reduced power mode. Another important aspect of the present invention is that the control panel (2) comprises an onboard wireless receiver (7) which facilitates the monitoring of wireless sensors for expansion of the system. This offers the installer the option to use wired or wireless sensors or a combination of both technologies on the controller (2) platform. As this is implemented in a module it is scalable to cover multiple frequencies. For wider coverage the keypad has the option to plug on a wireless receiver module and one of the expanders in the product range is a wireless expander. This gives absolute resilience of coverage for wireless devices on the system.

The system can be developed to truly integrate Intruder, Access control, Video, Audio and Building Automation on the same physical platform.

The control panel can provide support for both live and recorded video and audio through a plug in module. This module is part of the platform and will also feature advanced storage capabilities through either onboard IDE interface or NAS. The control panel is designed to implement this feature currently.

The control panel (2) is a highly innovative system. With this radical technology development for this integrated security platform, a number of innovative technologies are being introduced to the security alarm market.

The embodiments in the invention described with reference to the drawings comprise a computer apparatus and/or processes performed in a computer apparatus. However, the invention also extends to computer programs, particularly computer programs stored on or in a carrier adapted to bring the invention into practice. The program may be in the form of source code, object code, or a code intermediate source and object code, such as in partially compiled form or in any other form suitable for use in the implementation of the method according to the invention. The carrier may comprise a storage medium such as ROM, e.g. CD ROM, or magnetic recording medium, e.g. a floppy disk or hard disk. The carrier may be an electrical or optical signal which may be transmitted via an electrical or an optical cable or by radio or other means. The words "comprises/comprising" and the words "having/including" when used herein with reference to the present invention are used to specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps or components but does not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, components or groups thereof.

It is appreciated that certain features of the invention, which are, for clarity, described in the context of separate embodiments, may also be provided in combination in a single embodiment. Conversely, various features of the invention which are, for brevity, described in the context of a single embodiment, may also be provided separately or in any suitable sub-combination.

The invention is not limited to the embodiments hereinbefore described but may be varied in both construction and detail.

Claims

1. A security system comprising: a central station; communication means having at least two separate communication paths; a control panel for securely monitoring one or more zones, said control panel in communication with said central station via said two separate communication paths; and configuration means for said central station to configure said control panel remotely via one or both of said communication paths.

2. The system as claimed in claim 1 comprising a PSTN module and a GSM module to provide the at least two separate communication paths between said central station and said control panel.

3. The system as claimed in claim 1 comprising a PSTN module, a GSM module, and an Ethernet module to provide three separate communication paths between said central station and said control panel.

4. The system as claimed in claim 3 wherein the Ethernet module provides an IP communication interface for communication of data between the control panel and the central station.

5. The system as claimed in claim 4 wherein communication of data over the IP communication interface between the control panel and the central station is sent using a 128 bit AES encrypted protocol.

6. The system as claimed in any preceding claim wherein said configuration means configures said control panel to prioritise said communication paths dependent on a predefined protocol.

7. The system as claimed in claim 6 wherein the predefined protocol is based on a user datagram protocol (UDP).

8. The system as claimed in any preceding claim wherein said control panel comprises a multi-processor architecture having a plurality of processors, each processor linked by a SPI interface, and each processor having a dedicated function and operable independently of each other.

9. The system as claimed in any preceding claim wherein said control panel controls a distributed network, said distributed network having a plurality of nodes for gathering data from one or more zones, said network arranged in a ring network such that when a fault occurs on the network communication is maintained between the control panel and said plurality of nodes.

lO.The system as claimed in any preceding claim wherein said configuration means comprises a portable device to configure the control panel via the Ethernet module.

11. The system as claimed in any preceding claim wherein the control panel comprises a web server module having installer and web pages to provide configuration and management tools for said control panel.

12.The system as claimed in claim 11 wherein control instructions are implemented in firmware, stored in flash memory on the control panel, to allow for subsequent upgrading of said firmware either locally or remotely via one of said communication paths.

13. The system as claimed in claim 11 or 12 wherein said web server comprises means to provide firmware upgrades of said control panel over a wide or local area network

WAN or LAN.

14. The system as claimed in any preceding claim wherein the control panel comprises a power controller comprising means to partially power down parts of the control panel during periods of inactivity.

15. The system as claimed in claim in any preceding claim wherein the control panel comprises a wireless module to control a plurality of nodes for gathering data from one or more zones over a wireless network.

lό.The system as claimed in claim 15 wherein the plurality of nodes comprises a plurality of wireless devices, each wireless device independently operable from each other.

TOMKINS & CO.