Link to the FUTURE

May 1, 2001 12:00 PM, By GEORGE PARTINGTON

It is our intent to use fiber optics to manage information from different remote locations to a security operations center. We plan on using fiber optics for CCTV, voice feed, intercom system, and for communicating with the access control devices.

From the window of his office, Ron Libengood, president/principal consultant for SecuraComm, Pittsburgh, can see four sets of railroad tracks. But the trains don't roll anymore, and the tracks have found a new use: pathways for fiber-optic communications lines.

Telecommunication companies are laying fiber-optic cable at an unprecedented rate alongside railroad tracks across the country, throughout our cities, and under the ocean floor to link continents. It's a clear indication that soon these companies will be carrying more data than voice. In fact, voice is becoming data, as companies offer phone service over the Internet using Internet Protocol (IP).

The age of data and ubiquitous fiber-optic lines can only benefit security operations. When a business links remote security systems together, it contracts with the telecommunications carrier for data lines — and for performance guarantees. Fiber-optic lines are arguably the best way for carriers to meet those guarantees. As security systems grow ever more sophisticated, automated and integrated, their need for high-quality links will only grow. And any linked system is only as good as its weakest link.

“Many security installations include remote monitoring of access control, alarm and video across the United States from a single facility,” notes Libengood. “These remote locations are linked through contract with a telecommunications carrier. At each location we are simply plugging in to a telecommunications network. In many cases, they would need to use fiber to offer the contracted performance.”

HIGH-TECH TRANSMISSION

To transmit across fiber, digital data — or bits — are converted to light waves. The information is packetized, or sectioned into component parts that are further broken down into the information to be transmitted. The bits travel along the fiber at as much as 10 gigabits per second (Gbps), which is 10 billion bits per second. Anything that is digitized can be transmitted on fiber using protocols such as IP, asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) and frame relay.

While fiber-optic cable lines are nothing more than hair-thin strands of glass or plastic, encased in a protective sheath, they are known as a broadband, or high-bandwidth, conduit, due to their ability to transfer large volumes of information quickly. Telecommunication carriers are busy installing optical carrier (OC) 192 equipment to support the 10 Gbps rate, but right now OC-48 is standard. OC-48 can support speeds of 2.488 Gbps, which was hard to imagine just a few years ago.

Old-fashioned copper lines cannot come close in performance characteristics, but still have their place, according to Libengood. For the local area network (LAN), copper cable and ATM technology can be combined to establish a high-speed network between multiple computers. Libengood says this method can provide the needed performance.

But because fiber is still far and away superior to any other transmission medium, the only reason to forego fiber in any installation is cost; fiber is a good deal more expensive. Libengood says he specifies fiber in about 50 percent of his large-scale projects. “The thing that holds back the use of fiber-optic cable is the cost of the converters that transform signals, from digital to analog and analog to digital,” says Libengood. “It's the cost of the devices that you have to put on the end of the fiber that keeps it from being a real economical solution.”

Israel Rozental, project manager for a new security installation at southern Florida's Port Everglades, admits that the difference in price between fiber-optic cable and the more-common cat-5 copper cable is “huge.” But, he says, “Fiber is reliable, very quick and can transfer bandwidth without limitations.”

“We are in the process of designing a security system to meet the demands of port security requirements mandated by the state,” says Rozental. “It is our intent to use fiber optics to manage information from different remote locations to a security operations center. We plan to use fiber optics for CCTV, voice-feed, intercom system, and for communicating with the access control devices.”

Rozental knows security directors often face budget constraints that limit the use of fiber, but he takes the long view. He suggests finding the money for fiber. “Otherwise you will realize, due to the limitations, that the money invested in copper was not wise,” he warns.

Of course, the rationale is contingent on circumstances and applications. For security installations that include remote monitoring of access control, alarm, audio and video at a single facility, high-speed data connections deliver faster application performance, instantaneous control, clear audio and sharp video.

“You can put in a lot of copper and still not wind up ahead,” Rozental warns. He sees bandwidth needs as continually increasing due to increasingly sophisticated security systems, and the only way to stay ahead is with fiber optic cable. “The bandwidth in the fiber optics today is expected to handle the newer-technology digital cameras,” he notes.

There are other good reasons for using fiber. Rozental, for instance, enjoys an important benefit — the medium's immunity to electromagnetic interference. “We are a seaport with high water tables,” he says. “Any underground copper cable is potentially subject to a number of different interfering frequencies, navigational radios. This particular area is prone to lightning. We can't protect the cable in the ground from transient lightning hits that get transmitted through the water table after being grounded. You don't suffer that with fiber-optics.”

Fiber-optic cable provides nearly perfect isolation between multiple grounds. This property also allows you to run system connections through electrical conduit spaces. Additionally, because it is so efficient, fiber occupies a fraction of the space of a comparable copper installation. To approach the data rates of fiber, conventional cat-5 cable would be much larger.

Additionally, multiple strands of fiber can be laid alongside each other with no fear of each hindering the performance of the other through electromagnetic interference between adjacent lines, called signal cross-talk. So for several reasons, fiber allows more choices for routing.

Finally, as noted, fiber-optic cable is the best method for transmitting across campus, across town and across the country. Unlike conventional copper cable, digital signals can travel miles with minimal loss and without the need for the signal regeneration, which is achieved through the use of signal repeaters. And when signal repeaters are needed, there is no loss of signal quality, as is the case with analog due to concomitant amplification of signal noise. If transmitting more than 2,000 feet, it is clearly advantageous to use fiber, says Libengood.

Everyone agrees that fiber offers the most security against hackers. While fiber cannot stop hackers accessing computer databases (you need good firewalls and security procedures for that), it is virtually impossible to physically tap into. Fiber does not radiate; you can't place a receiver next to it and figure out what is going through the fiber. Attempted taps in fiber optic cable are easy to detect, and when there is an attempt, the cable leaks light, causing the system to fail.

Libengood provides a vivid example: “We're designing another project that involves security and communications for an island of very exclusive homes. We are going to bore a conduit path underwater to the island. We are going to install fiber optic cable and over that cable, we are going to provide the island with video surveillance, cable TV, high-speed internet connection, telephone service, all with complete lightning immunity.”

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

George Partington is an Atlanta-based writer and regular contributor to Access Control & Security Systems Integration.

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