jimcarter

Last week I was involved in a product refresh with the senior engineers of one of our UK National security companies. We covered off our new SPT.6 hardware in both its “Pro” and “Mini” versions which was all very nice, but it was the 3G capability of the new devices that drew much attention and I thought it would be useful to share some of the topics we covered. When you are in the business of data communications you have to constantly revisit and re-evaluate the old technologies, how they compare with the new and what operational differences there may be. Looking back on my piece written around radio installations I realise that some of what I wrote at the time (3 years ago) may not be relevant to today! What is apparent is that the wireless data network is improving with the release of 3G and 4G. Incidentally I saw a development 5G device on the BBC news website last week, its worth looking up. I am not about to go as far as saying that wireless will take over from broadband anytime soon, it will be quite a few years before mobile communications will mirror the last mile resilience and data speeds of a fixed line circuit. But from what I have seen, 3G is enough to consider radio only communications favourably for critical data transmission where circumstances require it and with a potential to reduce reporting times below what we would consider a 2G device capable of. Let us take a look at some basic comparisons between 2G & 3G. The switch from analogue GSM services to digital took place in the 90’s or in generation terms, from 1G to 2G. 2G was designed as a voice service with a basic data transmission capability, primarily for text and very limited Internet connectivity. Bandwidth is low but suited to applications where the packet data is small, such as a poll or alarm message in an alarm transmission system. However error correction is quite poor and inefficient and it is often necessary for devices to resend and validate data that has not been correctly received. This can lead to extended download times or a “timeout” to occur where the devices can no longer continue to communicate in the same “session”. This means the communication process has to begin again. 2G requires the last mile (between the base station and the module) to be stable, reliable and have a very good quality of service. 3G differs in that the service has been constructed around mobile data operations as well as voice. It came into its own when the rise in smart phone demand exploded. It is a protocol that has vastly improved error correction (less retries and “timeouts”), improved building penetration and at least double the download speeds. Resilience is improved too; a fall back to Edge (2.5G; or the stop-gap between 2G & 3G) and GPRS when 3G is not available maintains data connectivity. In operation, 3G (so my Development team tell me) is like DAB radio in that if you have a “signal” (literally any signal) it will work, where as 2G is more akin to Long Wave radio where signal and direction are required to obtain service. Translate this into a Security application and we find that our usual indicators are not entirely valid. For example signal strength has been used as a guide to 2G service availability (although not an entirely reliable one). On a scale of 1 to 10, anything indicating 3 or below could suggest a potential problem. In 3G terms, signal strength is meaningless. If the module has a good connection it will work as long as that connection is “up” regardless of signal, whether it be a 1 or a 10. How do we survey a site of this is the case? It can be argued that a survey is obsolete in its own right as the device has an ability to intelligently roam between service providers and incorporates a secondary roaming feature that can hop between technologies and frequencies (which makes jamming almost impossible by the way). But there are tools we can utilise and what is even better they are free! The network providers publish coverage maps on their websites. Some include service availability notifications as well. Or there are Apps that you can download to your Smartphone such as “Open Signal”. This App uses data gathered from its users to populate a service coverage map based on actual availability data as opposed to what the operators would like you to believe. It constantly updates, shows local serving cells and the more users there are the better the data mapping becomes. Building a next generation mobile data module into a security product has several challenges. Cost is the leading factor. New generations of devices carry a premium and it has only just become viable for WebWayOne to incorporate a 3G module as standard and retain a competitively priced SPT. Migrating to 4G will come but it will be the module price that determines when this will be. Next are the changes in software. You cannot simply bolt a 3G module onto a piece of hardware and expect it to work. The Development team have to “tame the beast”, working with the modules design teams; not only to make it work, but to maximise the features that the module can support, for example the ability for the module to manage the SIM cards connectivity to the network. Operationally the results are quite staggering. 3G coverage is excellent and the download speeds for a 650K file are 25 minutes on 2G compared to 6 to 8 minutes over 3G. Let me provide you with some hard information. I have two test SPTs at home, both are operating in radio only mode, both are configured for a 3-minute reporting time, have the same software and a Telefonica Roaming SIM card installed. I can share with you the comparison over the past month of testing that is revealing. My home is a particularly good testing ground as I live in a rural part of Berkshire with very poor radio reception and just two providers available, O2 & Vodafone. Below is the diagnostics I can retrieve from the SPT showing 3G operation on a 900 frequency band with a signal strength of just 2. And here are the comparisons in signal strength over the past month (scale 0 to 10 where 10 is the maximum signal). You will see they are very low, generally below 3. 3G Signal 2G Signal The 2G device is obviously struggling to maintain a connection and since the 22nd November it has lost registration to the core network to all services, whereas the 3G device has been online all of the time. This is reflected in the circuit availability. 2G network availability for the month is 81% 3G network availability is 99.79% When you translate the availability figures into the number of failures that would have been reported to the end user the scale of the difference is aparent. The 3G device would have reported just 3 fails (of which 2 of these were during tests I carried out with the device), compared to 385 fails from the 2G device. I would not advocate rushing out and installing 3G only with 3 minute reporting times or consider replacing broadband devices with radio only. But certainly where longer reporting times are concerned and a landline is not available or impractical then the stability figures we are seeing gives confidence. Coupled with a fixed line circuit, especially Broadband provides an incredibly robust solution. Looking to the future, the speeds that are being achieved and the reliability of the circuits demonstrate that high bandwidth applications can access the 3G to. Where Imaging or CCTV is concerned the speed in which you can transmit images to an operator is critical and therfore 3G is a viable backup path to broadband. So to conclude. 3G:- Supports faster Upload/Download speeds - future applications such as Imaging and CCTV have access to a viable backup network Has better building penetration Signal strength is not as operationally critical Will automatically drop to Edge or 2G if a 3G service is unavailable Frequency hopping renders jamming almost impossible Global SIM cards provide additional resilience in network roaming Additional software controls on the module allow for intelligent roaming (as opposed to letting the SIM card and network operators determine connectivity) Network coverage is excellent, before the ability to roam providers comes into the equation But remember; it is the GSM module and not the SIM that determines what technology can be accessed.

Thanks James. Where 3G is available (pretty much everywhere) the results are very good. I'm putting together another piece based on 3G which I'll post in the next week or so.

Interesting that the Risco cloud service was disrupted by a problem with the Microsoft Azure cloud service and so I thought this would be an opportunity to describe what we as Alarm Transmission Service providers (ATSP) “do” and how we got here. An ATSP is not just about providing a piece of hardware that attaches a fire or intruder system to a network. It’s also the receiving equipment at the ARC, redundancy and resilience of that equipment, the provision of suitable SIM cards for radio network coverage, technical support for engineers in the field and for the ARC operation, disaster recovery when networks fail and continued development of systems and processes to cope with network evolution and new services. WebWayOne began trading as a designer and manufacturer of data communications equipment in 2000, before the company evolved into an ATSP and right now I think I can be bold enough to say it’s in the top 3 in the UK in terms of connections as we approach 50,000 in number. Of those top 3, we are the only one to have our own hardware and software development team and retain all manufacturing within the UK. Our core team came from a company called Controlware. A UK subsidiary of a German firm that the team ran from the early 90’s through to 1999 when we sold our share back to the parent company. But we kept the UK development group who were designing ISDN based communications equipment, which included a terminal adapter called a “WebWay”. In those days the Internet and World Wide Web was in its infancy and the only way to get on it was to use dial-up technology. Dual path transmission was nothing new to us as at Controlware. Through the 90’s we had been providing leased line backup services for blue chip Finance and Network providers to ensure their data networks kept running and we practised remote maintenance and diagnostics on this equipment to. So it was quite a shock when we realised that the Fire and Security Industry did little of either and was clinging onto out dated data communications using PSTN and modems. It was quite an achievement for our small team to win the contract to supply the National Lottery with ISDN terminal adapters for 30,000 lottery machines and the management platform to maintain the operational system. We also supplied Vision Systems (now Xtralis) with ISDN TAs for Adpro Fast Scan, VU and Trace products before broadband became widely available. BT RedCARE was “the brand” at the time and we incorporated the AIMs protocol into our ISDN terminal adapters and became the largest supplier of ISDN equipment to RedCARE. But then, as now, we were looking to the future and we could see that Broadband and radio services would become the norm and we set about building an “IP” based ATS. RedCARE were not interested, wishing to stick with PSTN and cast doubt over the reliability of Broadband whilst the BT parent was selling and promoting the service to Businesses and you and I alike. We were flabbergasted, but we decided it was time to go our own way. 2005 saw the first major roll out of an IP based ATS when we delivered a system to Dixons. It is still in place today. As for today we have 30 employees covering Product & Software Development, Production, Sales & Marketing and Technical Support. We have operations in Scandinavia, Europe and recently Australia. Looking after these systems is a huge responsibility and building in redundancy and resilience to cope with the type of system failure that Risco experienced is just part of the day job. As is providing a level of technical excellence and expertise that takes problem ownership away from the on site engineer. Our support team are 7 in total and they have to understand not only the way our hardware operates, but also how it interacts with 3rd party equipment that we have integrated into the ATS. So that means documenting and learning the programming and troubleshooting of our partners’ equipment. Identifying trends in network behaviour through support often leads to discussions with the network providers. In providing a SIM card with a device that supports radio is not just about cost or service availability. It’s also about support and operational considerations. WebWay have in excess of 40,000 SIM cards in operation with Telefonica. That gives us huge experience and breadth of knowledge in how the radio network operates and is evolving. More importantly it means we are engaged at a very high technical level that has (in the past) lead to us identifying problems with network delivery that Telefonica have taken note of and fixed. They have reciprocated in providing us advice and guidance when we are developing software that maximises the use of the roaming capabilities of their SIMs whilst not disrupting the network or causing problems elsewhere. Having our own developers is a huge asset. It means we can react very quickly to add in new features to the product range in both hardware and software terms. We were the first to roll out large IP/Radio based ATS services, the first to introduce integrated remote diagnostics and UDL support over the ATS and we have become the first to deliver 3G as a standard service for the radio path. But we don’t stop there and the exciting thing about having a development team is to turn ideas into reality and then deploy and see them in operation. From an Operational perspective I am certainly proud of the fact that we are a privately owned UK company that is able to manufacture technically advanced telecommunications equipment at home in the UK and at competitive prices. I do not foresee this situation changing any time soon. So being an ATS provider is not simply about making a printed circuit board that fits into an Intruder or Fire panel, that’s just one small part of the equation. It’s about service delivery from the protected premises right to the ARC. Future proofing our systems through strong development and innovation keep us ahead of the competition whilst ensuring that operational systems are robust and ready to cope with the worst that can be thrown at them, and then recover gracefully. I almost forgot adhering to Standards, but that’s another story.

I recently read that the rise in mobile connections is growing at a much faster rate than landlines. It was suggested that mobile comms have been proven as a replacement for a landline connectivity and this trend would continue. I think this is a huge generalisation. Let me take a typical household. There are 5 mobile devices in my home and one Broadband circuit. I would suggest that my families’ use of the available networks is fairly typical in that when at home (or at any opportunity), they automatically connect their mobile device to the Broadband circuit. Why? The broadband is faster and more reliable than the radio path, and they do not begin to rack up the data useage on their SIM. We are “naturally” using the reliable fixed line path by default and the radio as the “backup” when we cannot connect to Broadband. Familiar? Yes; a vast number of us with Broadband at home do just that, and with the rise of wireless access points in public places, getting connected to Broadband at the earliest oppertunity is (dramatically) on the increase. In business, from SME's to large corporates the trends in usage are the same Wired or wireless connectivity to the LAN and a Broadband delivery to the office for their critical data applications, with mobile devices used primarily for voice but capable of data backup connectivity when needed away from the office and wireless LAN connectivity. (at WebWayOne we have 2 Broadband lines and approx 25 mobiles) Alarm transmission is critical data and therefore a predictable and reliable network is desirable. If there is a fixed line available it should be utilised for alarm transmission. PSTN is still available but it is expensive (I was quoted 26p just to set up a call recently) and increasingly the older modems are exhibiting intermittent faults due to the changes to the core network. Broadband has become the natural successor to PSTN for data transmission across the globe and in all manner of applications and therefore if it is available it should be the default alarm transmission path. Radio is a perfect back-up for Broadband and partner for PSTN. It is a truly diverse network but it is a more unpredictable network over the last mile (from the gsm module to the base station). The radio networks are evolving and getting better all the time but the number of mobile devices in the field puts massive pressure on the radio network from a contention perspective. 2G as a network technology will come under pressure from the consumer’s appetite for 3G & 4G data and so will become more suited to non critical data applications. 3G & 4G is already becoming the norm for critical data backup and a solution that is capable of utilising any provider and any technology Many used to (and still try to) suggest that an IP based network is hampered by IT departments taking down the network out of hours to carry out maintenance. The same argument can be applied to radio (or any network for that matter). As the radio network evolves to 3G & 4G the operators perform maintenance and upgrades to their systems resulting in loss of service for the duration. When do they do this? At night, when the vast majority of us are tucked in bed and a time when property is most at risk. The unpredictability of the radio last mile means that 2G radio as a monitored alarm transmission network is not best suited to the shorter reporting times associated with high security installations, but can lend itself to the lower grades when it is used in isolation. 3G on the other hand has far better error correction and building penetration that lends itself to more stringent monitoring and data transmission. However, because we are looking at critical alarm data, radio only installations are best suited where access to a fixed line, predictable network is not available.

For those of you not connected to either me or Chris on Linkedin, I have reproduced our SPT.6 release text here... Today we're solving the price performance problem that plagues installers of monitored connections. "Cheap products are attractive, but can lock us into old retiring technology. The lack of productivity features make the end user ask for lower prices, squeezing our margins. Buying cheap means we end up paying twice to get out of the problem." To break the cycle we took a different and radical step two years ago. We said that to escape low margins and customer dissatisfaction we had to change technology and the way the signalling supply chain operated. Our new products and services are the culmination of our fifteen years in the security communications business, the result of a twenty four month development program and fourteen years man effort, designed to change the way you sell and manage security signalling. You can buy them on line today. 3G roaming across our radio signalling range We are IP signalling and our goal is to connect every security system to IP (broadband or radio) technology to deliver better solutions. We're the market leader in IP signalling by far. We provide you with products that can use PSTN, but we've enabled every one with IP technology on board for when you want to switch. From a pricing point of view we're not referencing any of the legacy analogue providers. We've built our model based on the cost of the new equipment and how much it costs us to run and continually innovate our systems. We think you'll be pleasantly surprised. we've invented a new single path signalling category The products and services we are releasing today are the most technically advanced on the market, built to last for innovative installers. They are not "light" or "air" versions of what went before, they are not a re-spin of legacy technology. They are totally re-engineered for performance, memory, power and reliability. Designed to do more for you and save money. We've even invented a new category of single path signalling with Recovery Channel for the most reliable and lowest operating cost of any digi replacement service. your own private alarm transmission service, on line The new devices are accompanied by your own on line service WebWay World. WebWay World is specifically designed for users that are mobile. As the owner of an installation company you and your engineers are always on the move and need the tools at your fingertips to manage your service. WebWay World uses the power of smart phones and tablets to enable you to order, configure and manage WebWay signalling wherever you are. It's your own private window on your alarm transmission system with detailed diagnostics and alarm history. more reliable than a cumbersome centralised NOC WebWay World get's the detailed information about your sites from our distributed receiving architecture. Distributing host servers is more scaleable, secure, reliable and more responsive to local users than a cumbersome centralised Network Operations Centre. We've built out an architecture of servers in the UK, Spain and Australia to service clients around the world. What's new? 3G roaming as standard The biggest update is our move to 3G roaming for all devices which use a radio path for signalling. With a fifth of the UK (and a similar situation abroad) having poor mobile coverage, our new devices off the broadest radio footprint of all. Your devices now have access to all local operators and their 3G, EDGE and GPRS services. Benefits include an enhanced cellular footprint, improved indoor signal, faster transmission and UDL speeds, reduced congestion caused by Smart Meters and other M2M devices and increased protection from jammers. We're the first and only signalling provider to offer 3G roaming as standard. You can check other providers hardware for 3G operation yourself with our handy guide. Ready for a verified world Unique to WebWay is our integration with IP camera manufacturers and the ability to associate input driven or SIA events with pre, post and trigger event JPEG images. Every WebWay IP signalling device has 2 camera Imaging capability built into the hardware price ready now or for use in the future. Images can be sent over radio in the event of IP failure. Improved performance, lower power The new devices have forty times greater speed and memory than their predecessors. This means we can handle more security applications, transmit data faster (utilising 3G to the full) and store more on the board (up to 4000 640x480 JPEG images) for a complete audit trail and long lived update cycle. But because we have re-engineered the devices these performance advances come with a 50% reduction in power consumption (to circa 50mA). Largest integration library We were the first to integrate to alarm panels for SIA and UDL, which means we have the most experience and best relationships with panel manufacturers. We've got the largest range of intruder, fire and camera integrations and this back catalogue is available across the range of our new devices. We support Contact ID, SIA, UDL and RRI over broadband and radio. Meet the devices Smart. The smallest, smartest dual path signalling device. Smart replaces our G-Series devices. Smart has a new mini footprint of just 89x107mm and is available in 3G/PSTN (with IP on board) or IP/3G formats. You can select from a 18 Input version, Modem Capture and Serial or just serial bus connected range of devices. Go Plus. The first of it's kind. Single path signalling with unique Recovery Channel. Go Plus IP uses broadband as the signalling path. But if power, equipment or service fails the 3G roaming Recovery Channel is active to enable you to send alarms and diagnostics. Go Plus is upgradeable to Smart dual path signalling at any time. Go Plus PSTN uses 3G roaming as its signalling path but monitors the local line voltage and dial tone of the telephone line for faults or cuts. The site won't miss a thing if the intruder is likely to attack the line before entering the premises rather than jam the radio path. Go Plus PSTN is the real digi replacement solution by identifying PSTN attacks and using the radio path for signals and UDL at the lowest ongoing cost. Go. Our single path signalling solutions with the lowest ongoing fees. Go IP and Go 3G are based on the same mini hardware as Smart but with just one path activated. Go IP transmits alarms over broadband and provides UDL and Imaging. Go 3G has all the same functions, but has IP ready on board. Communicator Pro. The ultimate integrated signalling platform. We've updated our larger format device (the Communicator) too. Its the same size as its predecessor, but has additional expansion capability. It has the same fast processor and large memory as the Smart and Go ranges, but physical data connections are increased from 2 to 3 and there is USB on board too. There's so much more we could tell you about the benefits of our signalling devices and WebWay World, but we'd like to do that in person. To find out more contact us, we're here to help.