Security and safety control systems - Intelligent Buildings and Building Automation - page 240

However, integration of other security control systems at control network
level has been a very different story. Integration at control network level
requires the use of the same network protocols in all layers. For systems
from different manufacturers, integration at this level requires in practice
the same open and standard protocols to be used. The progress of adopting
open and standard protocols in the security control market lags far behind
the environment control industries (e.g. HVAC control and lighting control).
The security market has not adopted many standards for communication
between systems of different manufacturers. The primary efforts on standard
protocols in security systems have been at the card and reader level (such as
Wiegand) and the biometric identification level, but not at the network or
system level.
When BACnet and LonMark were developed, security applications were
not initially considered, and protecting the data was not part of the design.
Safety systems have felt comfortable using BACnet, since BACnet can present
critical data as 'read-only'. The fire panels make the critical decisions on
their own without the need for being reprogrammed on a regular basis. In
an access control system, decisions and programming are constantly being
made from a workstation that needs to securely communicate the instructions
and updates to the field panels. An access control system is programmed
whenever a card record or a door schedule is changed. Information about
who enters or leaves a facility is highly sensitive and should be available to
only the appropriate operators. There have, however, been effective moves
to adopt open and standard protocols at this level, such as the efforts of the
BACnet committee of ASHRAE and the Life Safety and Security Working
Group (WG-LSS).
References
Axis Communications. (2002) Converting an Analog CCTV System to IP-Surveillance ,
Axis White Paper, Lund, Sweden: Axis Communications AB.
Bernard, R. (2004) The convergence of physical security and IT: broad convergence
- IT, security and building controls, Security Technology & Design Magazine .
Available at: www.go-rbcs.com/Convergence7.htm
Fennelly, L. J. (2004) Effective Physical Security , 3rd edn, Boston, Massachusetts:
Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann.
Gagnon, R. M. (2008) Design of Special Hazard and Fire Alarm Systems , 2nd edn,
Florence, Kentucky: Thomson Delmar Learning.
Lee, K. C. and Lee, H. H. (2004) 'Network-based fire-detection system via control-
ler area network for smart home automation', IEEE Transactions on Consumer
Electronics , 50(4): 1093-1100.
Neugschwandtner G., Kastner W. and Erb, B. (2006) 'Fire safety alarm transmission
in networked building automation systems', 2006 IEEE International Workshop
on Factory Communication Systems, pp. 79-82.
Norman, T. (2007) Integrated Security Systems Design , Boston: Elsevier Butterworth-
Heinemann.