Emergency communication runs on a diverse mix of alarm protocols. Each alarm vertical or alarm use case typically has its own set of protocols used. For example, in social care, vendor-specific analog protocols and digital protocols like SCAIP or NOW-IP may be used, while for lift and elevator alarms, protocols such as P100, CPC, the emerging LACS (Lift Alarm Communication Standard) protocol, or proprietary vendor formats may be required.
This diversity creates challenges for the alarm receiving part of the emergency communication ecosystem.
For providers of alarm management platforms, it is a significant development undertaking to build and maintain support for each alarm protocol requested. Correct receiving, decoding and mapping of alarm events across different protocols – specifically analog protocols – require deep protocol domain expertise as well as continuous testing and verification resources.
For alarm response centers the protocol diversity can become a limitation as to which types of alarm industries and use cases they can engage with. Every protocol that is not supported by the alarm receiving / alarm management platform they are using represents a customer segment that may be difficult or even impossible to serve. And replacing or rebuilding their existing platform is often not a desired route to go.
A solution, addressing the protocol interoperability challenges above, is to use a cloud service purpose built for protocol conversion. This approach benefits both the alarm response centers and the alarm management platform providers.
For the alarm management platform providers, it brings a way to extend the protocol capabilities without having to build and maintain every protocol natively into their platform. Support for new protocols can be added through an external cloud service that complements the existing platform, and development resources can remain focused on alarm management and customer workflows instead.
For alarm response centers, cloud-based protocol conversion provides a way to broaden protocol coverage and connect to new device types and alarm verticals without replacing their existing alarm management platform. The cloud service becomes a bridge to their platform and brings the protocol support that is lacking, faster and without having to request support for the new protocol from their platform provider.
iotcomms.io’s Alarmbridge Service is a cloud-native service for alarm communication between alarm devices and alarm receiving systems. Protocol conversion is one of its key capabilities as well as its support for a broad range of IP-based and analog protocols such as SCAIP, NOW-IP, SIA DCS, LACS, P100, CPC, TT92 DTMF and TTNew. It also supports Amazon’s Alexa interfaces and integration via APIs.
With its smart event mapping function, the Alarmbridge Service receives the incoming alarm event from the device, converts the event and delivers it in the format required to the receiving platform.
To explain how it works let’s use an example from lift alarms using the P100 protocol.
P100 has become one of the commonly supported protocols within the European lift industry. It is an analog DTMF-based signaling protocol developed for lift emergency communication and is used to transfer alarm and status information between lift emergency telephones and alarm receiving platforms, with or without voice communication.
The protocol has a standardized way to exchange alarm data, allowing receiving systems to automatically identify:
The Alarmbridge Service receives the incoming P100 alarm from the lift device, decodes and converts it into a format supported by the receiving platform/system, for example the SIA-DCS format. In cases where the alarm also includes a voice connection, the Alarmbridge Service enables voice bridging, allowing the alarm response operator to speak directly with the person in the lift.
The P100 support is just one example of how the Alarmbridge Service helps bridge the gap between alarm devices speaking a protocol that the alarm receiving end does not support, and its broad support for alarm protocols makes it ideal in various alarm and security industries.
Do you want more information specifically on the P100 to SIA mapping go here.
For more information about the Alarmbridge Service, please see the an overview here and additional technical documentation listed below.
