Video surveillance systems have been a critical element in the security landscape for decades, helping to monitor and protect retail, commercial, residential and public properties. In the past few years, those systems have become increasingly important for homeland security and public safety, particularly as biotechnology facilities gain greater visibility in the news.
Until recently, most video surveillance systems deployed were non-networked analog solutions consisting of closed circuit television (CCTV) analog cameras connected primarily to coaxial cable. Although Ethernet switches have been used for years in other information technology (IT) networking applications, they rarely were used for video security applications. That is rapidly changing due to the emergence of IP networks to support IP cameras, digital recorders and larger storage solutions for today’s IP video surveillance systems. In this new world, the Ethernet switch becomes a key element of any IP solution.
With the introduction of the IP camera, IP security networks are becoming the preferred solution over traditional analog systems. IP networks are innately more robust and dependable than analog systems. However, IP networks require a higher level of technical skills than those typically associated with analog solutions, and can prove less reliable due to network design and installation problems. The key to the robustness and the degree of difficulty of the IP network design is the Ethernet switch. The switch is the backbone of the network and the physical connection to the security appliances. Correct switch selection can make or break an IP security network.
To date, IP video surveillance solutions have used either unmanaged or managed Ethernet switches that were developed for IT information networks. Initially, physical security managers used unmanaged Ethernet switches for their IP networks While easy to install and set up the network, unmanaged switches are extremely vulnerable and provide little to no protection from network failure. A single point of failure, loss of power or spike in network traffic would cause a disruption of service or complete collapse of the security network.
Network Maintenance
In order to provide more reliable networks, managed Ethernet switches were introduced. Managed switches feature some communications capabilities, support networking protocols and offer the ability to preset a number of performance parameters to better manage the network. However, managed switches are more complex and require more operator training and a higher level of IT expertise to install and maintain a network. Traditional managed switches utilize spanning tree protocol (STP) and variants of STP to achieve a level of network reliability. As defined by the Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers’ (IEEE) standard 802.1D, STP was designed to provide a self-healing capability that would better enable transmissions to continue uninterrupted by providing automatic backup paths when a link failed in the network. Like the spreading branches of a tree, STP is designed to provide a network of multiple paths down which a signal can travel, disabling those not being used so that only a single active path is available between nodes. In reality, problems arise when several paths are available. A network-crippling condition called switch or bridge looping occurs when several paths remain open due to an address failure and transmitted packets get “stuck” being forwarded endlessly between switches. As it multiplies, more switches and bandwidth get drawn into the situation, creating a “broadcast storm” that overwhelms the network and causes a system crash. Additionally, every time you add a device to the network – say, another camera – or certain failure events occur, networking parameters and device attributes must be assigned and reconfigured for the network to work properly.
As a result, networks utilizing STP-based switches can be difficult to initialize and re-establish when networks fail and devices have to be reconfigured. Although STP-based Ethernet switches can be configured in a redundant ring topology, they are limited to a small number of nodes that can be supported. Indeed, many network designers and certain equipment manufacturers recommend not deploying STP-based switches in a ring configuration because of the inherent vulnerabilities to network failures and the difficulty of diagnosing and correcting the failures.
In recent years, IP switch technology has gone through an evolutionary process resulting in CBL Systems’ next-generation self-managed Ethernet switch that addresses many of the limitations of STP-based switches. Milford-based CBL Systems is a leader in the development of IP network switches for physical security systems in retail, defense and government markets. Its IQ product lines are specifically designed for the rigorous demands of today’s physical security network systems, providing a revolutionary new class of service that offers the lowest total cost network solution featuring subsecond network redundancy, plug-and-go installation and self-managing operation. CBL’s self-managed switch combines ease of installation and configuration with ultra-redundancy and reliability. Those new self-managed switches have built-in integrated intelligence that requires virtually no administration. The new switches avoid the limitations of STP. To achieve practically instantaneous network redundancy, they utilize a distributed random ring-master algorithm in which the entire ring recalculates and a new master is rapidly assigned if one switch becomes inoperable or isolated. This new distributed self-managed switching technology enables the network to ‘self-heal’ around any point of failure on the network, even the master switch.
Because these new self-managed switches have built-in intelligence, they can automatically identify and establish contact with various IP devices such as cameras, video recorders, routers, PCs, and servers when they are plugged into Ethernet service ports. When additional self-managed switches are connected into the ring, the built in intelligence automatically creates the ring network without any IT administration necessary and enables applications to access the appropriate data streams from any port on the network as necessary.
Secure Networks
What makes security networks built with the new self-managed switches even more attractive for physical security networks is their inability to be hacked. In the self-managed mode, these new switches don’t have an IP address and can’t be accessed and altered by external sources, protecting them from unwanted intrusion, rerouting or modification.
For further protection, the self-healing, single-fiber or copper ring architecture provides secure network redundancy. A break in the fiber (or copper cable) or loss of power triggers an automatic alarm and the self-healing ring immediately locates the fault and reroutes the data stream back over an alternative path to provide uninterrupted service. All of this makes for extremely reliable perimeter security and surveillance networks. The Gigabit fiber-optic ring provides a secure method to network devices such as cameras, sensors and recorders to a central command center while being impervious to lightning strikes and electro-magnetic interference.
As an increasing number of private companies, biotech research facilities and government agencies turn to IP-based Ethernet ring networks to provide the backbone for their video surveillance, perimeter security and access control systems, this new self-managing, self-healing Ethernet switch, configured in Gigabit ring networks, is becoming the de facto choice for physical security networks. Lower installation costs, true plug-and-go installation, unlimited scalability, no need for specialized operator training, reduced IT administration costs and overall lower total cost of ownership add up to an ROI that makes the self-managed switch the benchmark against which to measure all other switches in the IP security world.
