kwest
join:2003-05-15
Dallas, GA
1 edit | reply to PX Eliezer
Re: VoIP and Burglar Alarms: Bold thinking or old thinking? said by PX Eliezer:What kinds of experiences have people had with using VoIP (or other telco alternatives) with burglar alarm systems? From what I'm reading and hearing, some alarm companies feel that there are genuine technical problems, while others just seem stubborn. This is a barrier to more widespread acceptance of VoIP. I have worked for an alarm company for the past two years and we run into this problem 2 or 3 times a week and I can tell you first hand that alarm systems using the industry standard contact ID format will NOT work over VOIP, the ONLY VOIP service we find that a alarm system will work with reliably is Comcast digital voice, with all other VOIP systems what we do to work around this problem is to set the panels to call out using one of the old 1980's formats like 3+1, 4+1, 4+2 until we get it to work with one of them.
Modern contact ID uses high speed DTMF and VOIP can't handle this but the old formats are slow 300 and 1200 baud communications. With contact ID the panel will send the name of the alarm zone such as "front door" and the old slow formats send zone numbers like just "1" or "01" so we have to send in a list to the monitoring station saying ok if you get a "1" this is front door and if you get a "2" this is back door and so on this leaves room for error because the monitoring station then must program these zones by hand in their computer system. So it is not a matter of acceptance it is truly a technical issue that the voip companies need to address.
So when using voip other than Comcast the only choices as far as I know are...
A-use older communication format panel.
B-use cellular link instead of phone line.
C-use Nextalarm.com using An ABN(monthly rate has gotten to high)
The problem best we can tell is the VOIP companies have to address this issue, the problem could be the ATA's. the gateways, who knows, Faxing has the same issue it is hit or miss on VOIP |
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| said by kwest:So when using voip other than Comcast the only choices as far as I know are... A-use older communication format panel. B-use cellular link instead of phone line. C-use Nextalarm.com using An ABN(monthly rate has gotten to high) Let's clear up this whole "VoIP and Alarms don't mix" statement.
Let me clarify why people think that alarm systems do not work with VoIP. Firstly, a VoIP service provider has control over some of the network settings (namely the codec) between your VoIP adapter and the number you are calling. All they care about is providing crystal clear human voice for their customers. They do not care about your alarm system and it just so happens that many of the technologies used in providing clear human voice have a deteremental affect on alarm signal transmission.
Something outside of everyones control is network jitter - or latency. In simple terms - delays from one end to the other. VoIP service providers try their best to work around it - once again at the expense of alarm transmission.
At this stage you must be thinking that alarms do not work with VoIP and although it is possible to get some good signals thru - the statement rings true.
So, let's take the VoIP service provider out of the equation and what you are left with is a "raw" Internet connection. Place a specially provisioned Linksys ATA at the protected premises and an IP receiver at the Monitoring Center and what you have in effect is your own private network - a "controlled" path to the Monitoring Center. Even though the data still travels over the public internet, you have full control of the optimsation technologies and you can adjust them to suit how an alarm panel works - not a human voice.
There are actually two technically different ways to make alarm systems work over IP but please excuse me if I don't give away too many of my secrets.
In summary, armed with an off the shelf Linksys VoIP adapter that is provisioned for alarm monitoring as opposed to human voice, it is 100% reliable to send alarms over the internet. I know this because I provide Alarm Monitoring Centers worldwide with the technology to do this - see ipalarms dot net.
The availability of the internet connection obviously cannot be gauranteed, however, at least with the advantage of line supervision over IP you will get to know about loss of network or line cut within a few minutes. The Linksys SPA3102 has an FXO port that can be used for fallback to POTS or cellular dialler if you do not have full confidence in your internet up time.
So there you have it. That's what all the fuss is about |
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 usa2kBlessedPremium,MVM
join:2003-01-26
Canton, MI
kudos:3
 ·VOIPo
 ·WOW Internet and..
| Re: VoIP and Burglar Alarms: Bold thinking or old thinking? I would check out »NextAlarm.com for an IP approach, rather than try and make an analog system work over an improper solution.
I would similarly say this about FAX also. There are web options that don't take a poor fit like VoIP to run it over. |
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pandoraPremium
join:2001-06-01
Outland
kudos:1 | reply to kwest
Re: VoIP and Burglar Alarms: Bold thinking or old thinking? Why are burglar alarms phone and not internet based? |
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