Fiber optics link two plants in two cities

Oct 1, 1999 12:00 PM, Randy Southerland

Occupying the sunny Southern California coast just south of Los Angeles, Orange County's sprawling 950 square miles are home to nearly three million people. It is famous for the wealth of its residents and such diverse attractions as Disneyland and the Crystal Cathedral.

Local agencies take seriously the task of providing services. At the Orange County Sanitation District, for example, services include an access control and fire protection system for its wastewater treatment plants. The system operates on an entirely fiber-optic-linked network to bind together two plants in two cities into an integrated whole.

"We're a campus environment with two plants about seven and a half miles apart," says Mark Castillo, the district's IT specialist who was given the task of building the organization's access control system.

With a keen appreciation for the advantages of technology, Castillo was eager to build the system on the plants' fiber-optic network. In fact, the entire infrastructure is air-blown fiber.

"Think of it as a rubber sheath with small tubes inside. The fiber is blown in with nitrogen. It's a concept that's been around for about 10 years," says Castillo. "It's a very campus- friendly environment. If you need to upgrade or replace the fiber all you do is blow in another strand of fiber. It can be a six-, 18-, or a 36-strand."

Orange County decided to replace and upgrade its existing access control and fire system in 1997, and because there was no designated security chief, Castillo was selected to head up the job.

With a background in telecommunications and computer systems, Castillo is well versed in the technology that the plants use in the communications systems.

"All these systems have a computer in front of them so you should be able to handle it," he recalls, was his introduction to the project. "I'm not a security manager so I've been taking 'security 101' the last three years."

Running an integrated network offers numerous advantages. The problem lay in the the need to cover two sprawling wastewater treatment plants - one located on the coast at Huntington Beach and the other seven and a half miles east at Fountain Valley. Each facility consists of numerous buildings spread over several hundred acres of land. Linking them presented difficulties, but the advantages made the effort worthwhile.

The district selected Pinkerton Security Systems to design and install the new security system.

"We did a full turnkey design build out there," said Pinkerton's Jennifer Hayes. "They had a really ancient Casi-Rusco system which we upgraded to a (Casi-Rusco) Picture Perfect system. They're running an integrated photo ID badging system so that access control and the video imaging share the same database. Everything they do is over the network. All the panels are networked and they use the existing LAN to communicate."

The Picture Perfect system uses a Windows-based graphical user interface with a UNIX operating system to monitor 110 card readers throughout the two plants.

The system is fully scalable and over time Pinkerton has added additional card readers to the system, according to Hayes.

"We hooked them together via fiber - direct connect - and some are linked via our network or intranet network. Our backbone is an ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode)," says Castillo. "We have it running at both plants. At plant number two we have it running via our network. So we have four micros (computers) - the units in the building that take care of all your card readers. Card readers are attached to micros; the micros are attached to your host."

A Casi-Rusco Portrait Perfect system provides video imaging ID and badging, which allows the district to regulate and monitor not only who can enter various locations around the plants, but also when they can gain access. While the badges are made in the human resources department and access control is handled separately, both share a common database.

"Because we operate around the clock, we need to know where people are located in case of an emergency," Castillo says. "We have card readers going into the facility and going out of the facility, so if there is an emergency we have a count of how many people are in the plant and how many have left the plant."

Not only do more than 500 employees enter the two plants every day, but there are also numerous contractors working on various projects on-site for periods of 18 months to four years.

"We have a lot of construction going on and a lot of contractors on the premises," Castillo remarks. "We have to make sure the contractors stay where they are supposed to and that the employees can move around freely. That way there's a proper level of security."

Castillo and Orange County selected the system with two important security considerations in mind - ensuring worker safety and meeting safety regulations.

Because it is a wastewater treatment facility, OSHA regulations are followed closely. "We do a lot of things for our employees in terms of safety and in terms of making sure everyone knows how to be out in the plant and be safe," says Castillo.

There was also a concern with protecting the plants from theft of equipment and preventing unauthorized persons from entering the facilities. A local company provides security guards, and the plants are monitored by a CCTV system of 12 Pelco Spectradome cameras.

These cameras - like the entire system including security and fire protection - are monitored by a district employee in the main control room located in the Fountain Valley plant.

UNIQUE FIRE PROTECTION SYSTEM Providing fire protection to the plants also presented problems, but allowed Castillo to put cutting edge technology to work.

"Our fire system is a whole different way of doing things," Castillo says. "We are doing our fire (alarm monitoring) through our fiber-optic network. Many fire districts don't like to use fiber optic and if they do, it's in a very controlled environment that's not as big as what we have here."

The plants' fire protection system is provided through an Edwards Systems Technology EST-3 system installed by Building Electrical Control of San Dimas, Calif.

"Each of the plants consist of a number of buildings that are spread out over the site, and they wanted to have fire alarm detection in each building," says company president Rick Taylor. "They also wanted a way to tie all of the buildings together through a central operation."

To complicate matters, the fire alarm system would cross into two different fire department jurisdictions - Fountation Valley and Huntington Beach - via the plant's fiber-optic system.

"Many fire marshals don't really like fiber optics. They don't trust it. It's approved by the state fire marshals, but it's up to the local jurisdictions to approve it or not," says Castillo. "They prefer to use copper. They feel it's more reliable because copper doesn't burn as fast."

Castillo was convinced of the advantages of fiber optic however. He brought the two fire marshals together and showed them what the district was planning. "I said 'look, it's cutting edge technology and we're the first ones who are going to be doing it.' After they looked at it, the marshals approved it," he says.

fiber optic offers greater speed and reliability than copper wire. "With fiber optic as the backbone of the system you can really do any kind of data transmission," says Castillo. "fiber optic gives you greater flexibility in the sense of how much more communications topology you can put on top of it."

The EST-3 provides multi-sensor detection including ion, photo and heat. The system allowed each building to be linked together using the fiber-optic network. The system is programmed using Windows-based applications to route messages.

"Plant One is really the main operations center for both plants," says Taylor. "We were able to set up a network in which each building has its own local panels - a total of 17 in all - but they're all tied together on a network. If they're at Plant Two they show up at Plant Two, but everything shows up at Plant One.

Because it is an addressable system the control room can determine exactly where the alarm is coming from, down to the building and floor and even the specific device. These signature series addressable devices come equipped with their own microprocessors.

"These sensors are able to do much of the processing of alarm information rather than the control panel having to do all the thinking," says Taylor. "The response time on the network is very fast - less than three seconds - on any alarm that comes through."

Some buildings have complete coverage with 200 to 300 individual sensors built in, while other smaller structures are equipped with as few as a dozen sensors.

"We can go to any panel over the fiber network and download information to a laptop. We can see if there's a change being made or devices are being added to one building. You can go to nearly any panel in either plant and program those devices from that location. You don't even have to be where the changes are being made," Taylor says. "You can download upgrades to the system from one location to all 17 panels over the fiber-optic network."

The system also allows for detailed diagnostics and reporting. Not simply "no alarms, no trouble" but even how many times a panel has polled its devices and what kinds of signals it got back each time.

The new system replaces an older fire alarm system that had been patched together from various versions and generations.

The Orange County Sanitation District's experience demonstrates just how far technology can take the development of a networked access control system. Fire and security can be linked together not just within buildings but across miles.

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© 2012 Penton Media Inc.

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