WO2009103482A1

WO2009103482A1 - Method for the optimization of alarm systems state monitoring

Info

Publication number: WO2009103482A1
Application number: PCT/EP2009/001096
Authority: WO
Inventors: Carlos Ariel Shlamovitz
Original assignee: Carlos Ariel Shlamovitz
Priority date: 2008-02-18
Filing date: 2009-02-17
Publication date: 2009-08-27
Also published as: AR065385A1

Abstract

A method for the optimization of alarm systems state monitoring, of those which perform a monitoring sequence in at least one determined frequency in order to increase the possibilities of detection of events generated by the alarm system and/or detection in the least possible time the state of at least one employed communication channel, where the method consists of connecting an alarm system to at least one of all the communication channels available; define at least one frequency for the transmission of trial signals in a first communication channel; define at least one frequency for the transmission of trial signals in a second communication channel so that it activates immediately after the trial signal transmission fails through the first communication channel; synchronize the alarm system and the monitoring central so that this last counts with enough information to perform the correspondant monitoring.

Description

Method for the optimization of alarm systems state monitoring

The present invention refers to a method for the optimization of alarm systems state monitoring, of those which perform a monitoring sequence in specific frequencies to increase the possibilities of an emergency detection.

As it is known, the modern security systems generally include within the_^ alarm system a telephone dialer which is connected to the telephone line that belongs to the place where the alarm is installed. The alarm system is programmed so that it becomes clear which events detected by the alarm system will be transmitted to the monitoring central . For instance the alarm can be programmed to send theft or low battery detection signals to the monitoring central but it will not send signals of theft restoration, low battery signals, etc. To the effects of the above explanation we will call these "events" that are transmitted to the alarm system activation monitoring central . If the system activates, the telephone dialer dials a predetermined number from the monitoring central and transmits the information to the monitoring station so that the monitoring central activates its plan of action for each case as, for example, calling the police in order to alert of the possibility of a criminal act . The telephone dialer is generally a digital device with an installed modem. It is programmed to communicate with the monitoring central according to existent standard communication protocols (4/2 Express, Contact-ID, SIA), which consist of data exchange, generally comprised by a communication beginning confirmation code (commonly called "handshake") and a successfully ended data exchange confirmation code (commonly called "kiss-off") . Generally the alarm waits for the "handshake" to take place from the monitoring central before transmitting data and keeps connected to the monitoring central until the monitoring station recognizes the data reception. Once the alarm and the monitoring central have satisfactorily exchanged information, the security system performs a "kiss- off", confirming data exchange success, and only after this "kiss-off" the data exchange is ended. Mostly, the message exchange between the alarm system and the monitoring central is done in a few seconds. It is important to 'highlight the fact that the dialer device of the alarm is configured to allow the possibility of calling alternative numbers in case the first one fails after several tries.

It is known that this communication system between the alarm system and the monitoring central is not completely safe as, among other issues, it is limited to the functioning and integrity of the telephone line where the alarm is installed. Therefore, if the telephone line fails, the system completely fails as well given the fact that the failure of the line is a large variable, almost impossible to anticipate as it is susceptible to a vast quantity of factors whether they are natural or caused by a person's actions (theft, manipulation, etc. ) As a solution to the stated problem there have been systems designed, which comprise the use of alternative communication channels such as cellular telephony, the Internet, radio frequency, etc. The solution consists of installing a device capable of transmitting the alarm signals by the alternative channel so that upon failure of the main line, the associated hardware detects the above mentioned problem and commands the functioning of the alternative channel to perform the data exchange with the monitoring central, allowing the corresponding "hand-shake" - "kiss-off ". There are several ways to connect the different devices. In addition, there are different types of signal categories that are transmitted by the alarm systems, for example emergency signals (such as theft signals) , service signals (the armed or disarmed alarm system signals), trial or test signals that verify if the communication channel between the alarm system and the monitoring central is functioning, etc.

However, the trial systems are programmed so that the trial signals transmission is done with a fixed or sequential frequency. The monitoring central (programmed in order to anticipate the moment to perform the next successful test) , in case of not receiving the test signal, activates a signal for a failed reception test- signal so that the monitoring central can activate its procedure upon this or another circumstance, such as notifying the failure to the alarm system owner.

Regarding test signals, the most advanced alarm system, which consist of more than one channel of communication, can be programmed in such a way that it can be prepared for a failure in transmission of a test signal by one channel. This works by making the system try the communication by the alternative channel or to let each channel own a unique frequency for itself, independent from .the other channels, assuring that each one of them is tested separately from the others .

As it is known, there are several ways to configure the existent alarm systems, for instance having a system configured in such a way that counts with a communication channel through the Internet, an every 10 seconds testing and the secondary channel is the home telephone line. In this case it will be configured so that the transmission frequency of the fixed telephony channel testing signals is independent from the Internet channel testing transmission frequency. As an example, the telephone channel can be tested every 24 hours and the Internet channel every 10 seconds. It is clear in this specific case that it is not practical to programme the testing sequence to continue by the home line channel upon every failure of the Internet channel (a very frequent circumstance) because in this situation the alarm system should make a phone call by the home line every 10 seconds, consuming a communication pulse per every testing and a very long time on the phone (the alarm system generally connects in such a way that it has the priority to use the phone line, disabling the line for other uses), two circumstances that are generally unwished by the alarm system users .

However, another known configuration can be when the alarm system counts with a communication channel by fixed telephony with an every-24 -hours testing and a secondary channel, which can be the cell phone line with an every-24 -hours testing as well. In this case the configuration can be done so that if a failure occurs in the test signal transmission by the home line channel, this same signal will be sent by the secondary channel. It is pertinent to highlight then, that each of the chosen channels can have an independent testing from the others.

For the monitoring systems of the home phone line, which are employed in the conventional alarm systems, it is essential that the connection between the alarm system and the monitoring central is as safe and stable as possible. The line monitoring must be done simultaneously, meaning that if the connection between two points is functional, then it can be assumed that the line is functional in this precise moment. Nonetheless, for every verification a call must be made, an audio channel opening, which means that the telephone network can charge the pulses used by the system to the user. Regarding the frequent verifications of system conditions, the costs are considerably higher.

It is therefore an aim of the present invention to provide a method for the optimization of alarm systems state monitoring, of those which perform a monitoring sequence in at least one determined frequency in order to increase the possibilities of detection of events generated by the alarm system and/or detection in the least possible time the state of leastways one employed communication channel, where the method consists of connecting an alarm system to at least one of all the communication channels available; define leastways one frequency for the transmission of trial signals in a first communication channel; define at least one frequency for the transmission of trial signals in a second communication channel so that it activates immediately after the trial signal transmission fails through the first communication channel; synchronize the alarm system and the monitoring central so that this last counts with enough information to perform the correspondant monitoring.

To clarify and experience a better understanding of the object of the present invention, it has been illustrated as a figure, in which it has been represented in one of the preferred ways, as an example, where:

Figure number 1 is a flow diagram that illustrates the steps followed in the object method of the present invention;

Regarding figure 1, the steps followed with the object method of the present invention can be appreciated. As a consequence, step 1 cpnsists of the configuration of the alarm so that it can instruct, through an associated software, about the use of at least two or more communication channels. It should be highlighted that those channels can be for instance, fixed telephony, cellular phone systems (through audio channel, the Internet - Eg. GPRS, etc.),¹ the Internet, etc. and any combination of these, also adding the possibility of having the signal transmission through a point to point line or even ' by radio frequency signals.

Step 2 consists of the alarm configuration to start the trial signal transmission by the main communication channel. Once this channel has been selected, the associated program determines (in step 6) the frequency in which that signal is transmitted to the monitoring central. For this particular case, the use of the present invention has been represented with three communication channels, being the main one an Internet connection, the secondary one by GPRS network and the third communication channel through the home phone line.

As in this case the main channel of communication is one in which the consumption per package of sent data is not determined as well as the time in which these are sent, the associated program is configured to transmit trial signals to the monitoring central every ten seconds. In step 9, when the alarm sends a trial signal to the monitoring central, takes place what is commonly known as "handshake" between the alarm and the monitoring central. If the signal transmission is positive, a "kiss-off" takes place, where the alarm determines that the trial signal has been correctly received by the monitoring central. As a consequence the method proceeds to step 12 and the trial signal sequence is reseted the following second.

However, if the kiss-off does not take place in step 9, then the monitoring central interprets this signal reception failure as a trial signal transmission error, which can be caused by two main factors : an alteration in the alarm system (theft, break, etc.) or an alteration in the communication channel employed. Ruling out a possible emergency case, in step 2, the alarm starts using the secondary channel of communication (Step 4) immediately after. Given that in this particular case the secondary channel of communication is the GPRS network, using this last for the transmission of the trial signals has a higher cost, and as a consequence the frequency of these signals transmission will be even more paused, that is to say, for instance, that the trial signal transmission will be done every 3 minutes for a pre established period of time (in this particular case for the first two hours) and afterwards every 10 minutes (step 7) .

If the "kiss-off" in step 10 takes place normally, then the monitoring central will determine that there is a possibility of the main channel being sabotaged, triggering the configured procedure. The system will simultaneously continue sending trial signals to the monitoring central through the main channel (according to the pre established configuration) together with the secondary communication channel, until the kiss-off takes place normally in step 9, that is to say, the connection through the main communication channel has been reestablished. After the reestablishment , the use of the secondary communication line is suspended by the alarm system.

As a contrast, if the kiss-off does not take place normally in step 10, the alarm system goes back to step 2 and selects the third communication channel. In this particular case, if the alarm system counts with 3 channels of communication, and being this the stage in which two of the three channels of communication have gone through an erroneous communication, the monitoring central will be able to warn as an emergency action was not proved and the channels of communication are independent; therefore, there is a higher percentage of a theft.

Following the steps on the figure, in step 5 the alarm has selected the third communication channel, the fixed phone line, whose costs and use will be subjected to the requirements of the user. This is because settling a very frequent signal transmission will increase the costs as well as the time the line will be in use. This way, step 8 states a much less frequent signal transmission. If the kiss-off in step 11 takes place normally, the alarm will continue sending signals with a lower frequency rate, for instance the third channel will do a testing every 5 minutes for the first two hours, every 15 minutes for the following 2 hours, 30 minutes for the next 2 hours and later on every 1 hour. Simultaneously, the program running in the alarm system will continue trying" to transmit trial signals until the main and secondary channels of communication are reestablished.

Last, if the kiss -off between the system alarm and the monitoring central does not take place in step 11, and having the time stipulated by the monitoring central for the next test signal reception regarding the variable time frequency elapsed, configured equally in the alarm system and the monitoring central, these both last interpret this situation as an emergency condition because the three channels of communication have broken down, activating in this way the pre established emergency sequence in step 13.

As it is known, the trial signals are constantly controlled by the monitoring central in order to determine the right correspondence between the alarm system and the recently mentioned monitoring central. The transmission of this trial signal is programmed from the alarm system so as to send it in a pre established frequency, for instance every 5 minutes in 24 hours. It is important to clarify that the frequency of the trial signal transmission will be subjected to the pre established configuration of the monitoring central and the alarm system. In addition, the monitoring central and the alarm system should have the same programming of trial signals transmission frequency, so the monitoring central knows when it should be receiving the trial signals sent by the alarm system, the communication channels that are being used and the correspondent sequence (sometimes one channel allows two or more types of frequencies, independent one from the other, for example test signals every 5 minutes and random test signals. This is when the monitoring central will have to distinguish both trial transmission sequences in order to identify, as soon as possible, the moment of trial signal reception failure expected) . Occasions in the time when the central monitoring should expect the test signals are configured in such a central monitoring and configuration will be automatically synchronized with each exchange of signals with the alarm system. This could happen in cases such as deliveries of random trial signals

Suppose the alarm state signal is not received by the monitoring central, then this last takes the signal absence as a test reception failure signal, which is to say "NOTST". This NOTST signal does not always imply an emergency taking place where the alarm is installed, for which the hardware and software associated to the monitoring central should take into account, among others, the following variables: determine the time elapsed since the alarm has last received a signal and the signal failure and the channel the signal was sent through; determine the reliability of the media that transmits the trial signal to the monitoring central; analyze the results of the alarm system state check through the secondary channel of communication; define at least one trial signal transmission frequency from the alarm system to the monitoring central for each of the available channels; verify the new reception of trial signals after an interruption; simultaneous concurrency of unrelated situations: reception failure in the monitoring central of signals generated from the alarm systems by multiple channels and/or determine the service break down of service ' providers for the communication channels between the alarm system and the monitoring central.

It is evident that the object of the present invention can take place only by programming the software associated to the alarm system's hardware like the monitoring central one, achieving in this way a complete automatization of the alarm state monitoring, minimizing the human intervention significantly in comparison to existent systems.

To interpret the present innovation object in a better way, the use of^" the proposed methodology will be explained. Consequently, supposing there is a monitoring central which attends more than 3000 clients with the GPRS system and there is a typical GPRS network massive failure for a long period of time, in that precise moment one of the 3000 properties whose alarm system is through GPRS is robbed. Therefore, the monitoring central detects the trial signal failure from the main channel of communication. In this example, the trial signal transmission frequency from the main channel of communication is every 5 minutes and the trial signal transmission frequency from the secondary channel of communication is every 1 hour. In the cμrrently known systems, those cases in which the trial signals are transmitted with a fixed frequency and independent in each of the channels as it would not be practical or efficient or mostly desired by the alarm owners to program that with every failure of the GPRS channel a frequent trial transmission continues to take place every 5 minutes by the telephone line, the current alarm systems will detect the failure of the 3000 subscribers that use the main channel of communication in 2,5 minutes average, while the average time to detect the trial signal transmission failure by the secondary channel is 30 minutes, because in this case the system is configured with fixed and independent frequencies.

Which is to say, if the failure in the main channel of communication had to be discarded because the monitoring central cannot possibly verify 3000 clients in a few minutes, the monitoring central will determine a theft action once the trial signal reception failure through the secondary channel is detected, which would be approximately 30 minutes average since the moment when the channels of communication were cut.

Anyhow, considering the previously described example but implementing the object methodology of the present invention, the average failure of the main communication channel will take place somewhere in the 2,5 minutes after the GPRS channel stops functioning. Counting with a modifiable frequency system, the trial signal sent through the secondary channel of communication is transmitted immediately, in other words the monitoring central will get to know about the need to trigger a configured procedure for the failure case of two or more consecutive channels in 2,5 minutes approximately, instead of 30 minutes, as described previously.

Besides, it is impossible to configure the system to

^•establish a TST (transmission of trial or test signal) signal transmission frequency at random configured by any algorithm that allows a random signal transmission, that goes even far from the current TST signal transmission frequencies • pre established in the monitoring central and the alarm system. Therefore it is evident to highlight that said random transmission will be known by the monitoring central as this has to know previously when and which channel will be used to receive a TST signal sent by the alarm system.

Definitely, the object of the present invention allows an optimization, through the use of associated hardware and software, of the frequency at which the trial signal is activated to be transmitted through all the available channels of communication. If reception failure of trial signals occurs, the monitoring central will be able to trigger as many security procedures configured in the alarm system as needed, without necessarily counting with an almost impossible structure to construct, furthermore reducing notably the time spaces created in the alarm system before a possible case of emergency.

Claims

1. A method for the optimization of the alarms state monitoring in general, those which perform a monitoring sequence in at least one specified frequency in order to increase the possibilities of detection of events generated by the alarm system and/or detection, in the least possible time, of the state of leastways one communication channel used, being this method characterized because it comprises the steps of:

Connecting an alarm system in at least one from the total available communication channels;

Defining leastways one trial signal transmission frequency in a main channel of communication;

Defining at least one frequency for the transmission of trial signals in a secondary channel of communication so that it activates immediately after the trial signal transmission failure takes place in the main channel of communication;

Synchronizing the alarm system and the monitoring central so that this last counts with sufficient information to perform the corresponding monitoring.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized because the alarm system is programmed with a random frequency of the trial signal, which is configured through an algorithm and said frequency is known by the monitoring central .

3. The method according to claim 1, characterized because said trial signals of the system are comprised by alarm state signals emitted in the time configured frequencies.

4. The method according to claim 1, characterized because the monitoring central performs leastways one of the following control steps in case of trial signal reception failure:

Determine the time elapsed since the alarm has received the last signal and the signal absence and the channel by which it was transmitted;

Determine the reliability of the media by which the trial signal is transmitted to the monitoring central;

Analyze the results of the alarm system state check through the secondary communication channel;

Define at least one trial signal transmission frequency from the alarm system to the monitoring central for each of the available channels; Verify the new trial signal reception after an interruption;

Simultaneous concurrency of unrelated situations: reception failure of signals in the monitoring central, generated from the alarm systems by multiple channels;

Determine the service break down of service providers for the communication channels between the alarm system and the monitoring central. _^1

5. The method according to claim 4 , characterized because said last signal received from the alarm is a test signal.

6. The method according to claim 1, characterized because said at least a first channel of communication between the alarm system and the monitoring central performs through radio frequency, cellular phone technology communication, the Internet, fixed telephony or any combination of these.

7. the method according to claim 1, characterized because said leastways a second channel of communication performs through radio frequency, cellular phone technology communication, the Internet, fixed telephony or any combination of these.

8. The method according to claim 1, characterized because the time frequencies used are directly associated to the channel of communication to be used.

9. The method according to claim 1, characterized because said at least one frequency has automatically defined parameters .

10. The method according to claim 1, characterized because said leastways one frequency has manually defined parameters .