The Brookhouse Tripad
Important
news for Concept 4000 Alarm Panel users
Corporates and banks that use Concept 3000/4000 Alarm Panels for their security can now employ their existing TCP/IP Networks as carrier for Alarm event reporting and direct interactive communication with the alarm panels. The Brookhouse Tripad not only provides a very cost effective TCP/IP interface solution with all its advantages, a two-stage polling method also provides vastly improved security.
· Use excess bandwith of the existing TCP/IP network and eliminate telephone costs.
· Large improvement of security by 2-stage “polling” or “interrogation”.
· Improve quality and speed of communication, no waiting for dialing.
· Instant notification if communication with remote panel fails.
· Establish connection with any remote panel from head office in milliseconds.
· Download log files from panels quickly and efficiently to head office.
· Eliminate costly old technology Alarm Receivers.
· No changes in Alarm Panels or in Monitoring System necessary. Can emulate Ademco 685.
· Large capacity increase as result of “virtual circuits”.
·
Other
than Concept Panels also work with the Tripad.
·
Tripad
functionality is expandible.
The Tripad is a proven hard- & software system, developed in New Zealand for one of the prominent banks. The Tripad system has been in use for several years to great satisfaction of the user, and the concept has been well-proven. Due to the use of the latest micro technology, the Tripad system has now become even more economically viable.
Brief technical description
The Tripad is a small stand-alone device that can be integrated with the Concept panel in the same enclosure if required. The primary function of the local Tripad is to provide a serial-to-TCP/IP interface for each alarm panel. However, the Tripad functionality goes much further than providing an interface or protocol conversion. The Alarm Panel is connected to the Local Tripad via 2 serial RS232 ports. One port is for event-reporting, the other for interactive communication with the panel. The Tripad connects to the local network hub with a standard Ethernet CAT5 cable with RJ45 plug. The local Tripad communicates with the Central Tripad at the alarm monitoring location through the TCP/IP network via multiple Virtual Connections. The Central Tripad can handle the communication with a large number of Local (Remote) Tripads simultaneously. The Central Tripad also replaces the Line Receiver of conventional systems. Existing monitoring systems usually expect incoming events from line receivers with industry-standard protocols such as the Ademco 685 protocol. The central Tripad emulates the Ademco or any other serial data protocols so that the monitoring system percieves the Tripad as a conventional line receiver. It therefore does not need any modifications or adaptions. The Remote Tripad – Network – Central Tripad link is “transparent” to the monitoring system, hence the name Tripad: Transparent Internet Protocol Packet Assembler/Disassember. The central Tripad has a large fifo buffer for received event codes in case the Monitoring System cannot keep up with the speed of Central Tripad and network. The hardware for Remote and Central Tripads is essentially the same.
Level 1 polling
Each Alarm Panel is constantly “interrogated” by the local Tripad using the Innerrange PollData protocol. Event codes are transmitted by the panel to the Tripad upon reception of a Poll command or the panel sends a “No Data” response if no events are to be reported. The Tripad sends the event code to the monitoring system through the IP network. If the panel does not receive a response from the panel, a special event code is automatically generated by the Tripad to signal an Alarm Panel problem.
Level 2 polling
Independent from the reception of event codes from remote Panels/Tripads, the Central Tripad checks if the links with remote Tripads are still active by sending polls through the network. The remote Tripads simply respond with “I am still here”. If this response is not received, the Central Tripad automatically generates a standard event code for “Communication Link Error” and sends this via its serial port to the Monitoring System. The polling list is automatically generated by the central Tripad. The NetBios address of each remote Tripad that connects to the Central Tripad is automatically included in the poll-list and is polled through the network from that moment onwards. The poll-list is saved also after power is switched off.
The
combination of Level 1 and Level 2 polling provides a very robust mechanism
whereby any malfunctioning of any component in the security
system is instantly reported
to Alarm Monitoring.
Management location
Alarm Monitoring and Central management of remote Alarm Panels are usually not carried out at the same physical location. Communication with the remote Alarm Panels for maintenance and management purposes is possible independently via one or more Central Tripads. For accessing remote Alarm Panels through the TCP/IP network from a PC with the Innerrange WinDirect software product, a Tripad is plugged in the serial PC port and the Tripad and network connection appear to the software as a conventional modem-link, only much faster and without delay for dialing. Central Tripads for Alarm Monitoring and and Management are interchangable.
Logging
Both the remote and central Tripads have their own logging systems. For each transaction a log-entry is created with a time-stamp. The log-files can be easily downloaded to a central location and saved for future reference, if necessary. The operation of the Alarm panels can be checked independently by comparing internal Concept event-logs with the Tripad system logs. Tripad logs can be saved automatically for a specified number of days.
Additional Functions
The Tripad software has various extra functions such as automatic re-boot, software downloading via the network etc. The Tripad hardware consists of a very small but robust industrial microcomputer. Features such as a watchdog timer and various interfaces are standard. Other control functions can be implemented using the general purpose I/O lines. The modular software structure allows easy addition of extra functionality if required.