Retirement Community Finds Faster, Frugal Fire Alarm Communications
View of the main street running through Moss Landing community.
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The addition of a 2UD daughter board to the FireWatch IP Communicator gave S.C.I. technicians the option of accessing the panel remotely via the Internet using standard control panel upload/download software readily available at www.firelite.com. Panel history can be downloaded through the panel’s IP connection to determine if maintenance is needed, such as cleaning or replacement of smoke detectors.
Roberson’s team mounted one IP Communicator in a Fire-Lite IP enclosure beside each fire alarm control panel. The devices are powered by the panel’s auxiliary 24-volt power terminals. To simulate two standard, analog telephone lines, the IP device supplies dial tone and 48 volts DC to both telephone ports.
An auxiliary input for use in monitoring other devices comes standard on the FireWatch IP Communicator device. At Moss Landing, the input was used to monitor pump stations for trouble conditions via the Internet, helping S.C.I. to eliminate more costly phone lines.
With this new technology in-hand, Roberson’s team had to determine how to get Internet connectivity to each panel. In most applications – such as retail, office, healthcare and even school facilities — a standard IP line is usually present and capable of being shared with the fire alarm. In this case, with construction already complete, S.C.I. went wireless, utilizing wireless routers and endpoints.
Peace of Mind
As an added benefit to living at Moss Landing, developers have asked S.C.I. to create a VLAN network to allow residents Internet access. Since the FireWatch IP Communicator uses less than 72 bytes for a polling message or alarm event, there is plenty of bandwidth left for other applications.
With the improvements made by S.C.I., Moss Landing residents can enjoy their dream homes and rest easy under the protection of the latest IP fire alarm technology. All-in-all, Roberson succeeded in saving the community more than $10,000 in, what are now, unnecessary phone line charges.
Inner Workings of IP CommunicationsDuring an alarm or trouble event, the fire alarm control panel senses a dial tone from Fire-Lite’s IP Communicator and dials the preprogrammed phone number as it would normally. The device then captures the standard contact-ID event data, secures it using the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) 512-bit encryption and parses it into Ethernet packets. The Ethernet packets are forwarded over the IP network to the receiver at the remote central station. The receiver accepts the information, decrypts the contact-ID data and presents the account number and alarm event data to automation software. An operator acknowledges the alarm or trouble event. Finally, the receiver provides the “kiss-off” signal to the panel. The VisorALARM-Plus IP receiver provides 90-second polling support for up to 3,000 remote FireWatch IP Communicators. Traditional telephone dialer systems test the line only once every 24 hours. With the IP Communicator, transmission of an alarm or trouble event to the receiver, followed by a response to the panel, takes less than 10 seconds. Wireless router delay is minimal and has no affect on signal latency. To meet ANSI/UL-864 Ninth Edition requirements for fire alarm monitoring, a central station must possess two IP receivers – one as primary and a second as backup. The IP Communicator can be programmed for up to three IP addresses. Therefore, a local site with a third receiver could be set up on-site for monitoring of systems by a facilities ma |
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