Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Version 1.6
Released March 15, 2006
www.dpstelecom.com • 1-800-622-3314
“We protect your network like your business depends on it”TM
Network Alarm Monitoring Fundamentals • DPS Telecom • 4955 East Yale Avenue, Fresno, CA 93727 • (800) 622-3314 • Fax (559) 454-1688 • www.dpstelecom.com
Contents
Section I: Alarm Monitoring — Where Do You Start? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Learn Monitoring The Easy Way: Attend DPS Telecom Factory Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
DPS Telecom Remote Site Survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Let DPS Help You Survey Your Network. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
What RTU Features Do You Need? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
This RTU Grows with Your Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Section II: How Do You Monitor It? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3 RTUs to Fit Your Spec and Budget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
If It Prints, You Can Monitor It. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
RTU Choice: NetGuardian 832A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
The Flexible RTU That Handles All Your Transports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Section III: How to Plan Your Alarm Monitoring Upgrade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
How DPS Telecom Can Help You . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
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Network Alarm Monitoring Fundamentals • DPS Telecom • 4955 East Yale Avenue, Fresno, CA 93727 • (800) 622-3314 • Fax (559) 454-1688 • www.dpstelecom.com
Section I: Alarm Monitoring — quick recommendation of “Buy this! Everyone has it.
You should have it too!” Instead, your phone call starts
Where Do You Start? a consultation in which your sales engineer will help
You’ve just been put in charge of purchasing, selecting you identify the network elements you need to monitor
or recommending a new network alarm system for your and the most effective way to monitor them.
company. Where do you start? What alarm equipment This White Paper will take our through the same 3
do you need? What monitoring features are essential, steps as the DPS Telecom consultation process:
and which can you live without? How can you make 1. Survey where you are now: What alarm monitor-
sure your network is fully protected, without spending ing do you currently use, if any? What equipment
too much on equipment you won’t use? do you need to monitor? What data transport is
This White Paper is a quick guide to how you can available in your network?
answer these questions for yourself. This paper will 2. Define your monitoring goals: what would your
NOT tell you, “Just buy this system and everything will ideal alarm system — the alarm system that does
be fine.” Every network is different. A one-size-fits-all everything you need and want — look like? Do you
system won’t provide the specific coverage you need need 24/7 pager and email notification? Do you
and may cost more money than you really need to want to integrate several different alarm systems
spend. onto one user interface?
Instead, this White Paper will show you the right ques- 3. Plan your alarm system upgrade: How do you
tions to ask. Before you can decide what alarm system get from where you are now to where you want to
to buy, you need to analyze your network and deter- be? Is upgrading at once feasible and within your
mine its specific monitoring needs. Figuring out what budget, or should you phase your upgrade over sev-
you really need your alarm system to do is your first eral budget cycles? What alarm capabilities do you
step to designing a “perfect fit” system — one that’s need right now, and which can wait?
custom-designed for your network equipment, your
available data transport … and your budget, too. Start Here: Network and Remote Site Survey
Your first step to get your alarm monitoring upgrade
The 3 Step Plan for Creating a Perfect Fit rolling is a complete survey of your current network
Alarm System and remote sites. This survey will document your exist-
If you call DPS Telecom and ask what kind of alarm ing alarm monitoring situation, in order to build a road
system you need, the DPS sales engineer won’t make a map for your upgrade.
Learn Monitoring the Easy Way: Attend DPS Telecom Factory Training
“DPS Factory Training is a big help in not feeling intimidated by your network monitoring
system. It’s excellent — presented in the right way and tailored to the needs of the class.”
— Bill Speck, 3 Rivers Telephone
Learn network alarm monitoring in-depth in a totally practical hands-on class. The DPS Telecom Factory
Training Event will show you how to make your alarm monitoring easier and more effective. You’ll learn SNMP
alarm monitoring, ASCII alarm processing, Derived Alarms and Controls, and how to configure automatic email
and pager notifications. DPS training is the easiest way to learn alarm monitoring, taught by technicians who
have installed hundreds of successful alarm monitoring deployments
For dates and registration information, call 1-800-693-3314 today or go to www.dpstelecom.com/training.
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Network Alarm Monitoring Fundamentals • DPS Telecom • 4955 East Yale Avenue, Fresno, CA 93727 • (800) 622-3314 • Fax (559) 454-1688 • www.dpstelecom.com
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Network Alarm Monitoring Fundamentals • DPS Telecom • 4955 East Yale Avenue, Fresno, CA 93727 • (800) 622-3314 • Fax (559) 454-1688 • www.dpstelecom.com
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Network Alarm Monitoring Fundamentals • DPS Telecom • 4955 East Yale Avenue, Fresno, CA 93727 • (800) 622-3314 • Fax (559) 454-1688 • www.dpstelecom.com
Base NG 832 32
What RTU Features Do You Need?
How do you find the right RTU? Here’s 5 essential fea- 1 DX 80
tures to look for …
2 DX 128
1. Discrete alarms: Monitor device failures, intrusion
alarms, beacons, and flood and fire detectors. 3 DX 176
2. Analog alarm inputs: Monitor voltage, temperature,
humidity and pressure.
3. Ping alarms: Detect IP device failures and offlines .
4. Control relays: Operate remote site equipment
directly from your NOC.
5. Terminal server functions: Control switches and
other gear remotely via Telnet over LAN.
DPS Telecom offers RTUs that meet all these require-
ments — and offer local visibility via Web browser,
email and pager notification, and more.
For more information about DPS RTUs, see us on the
Web at www.dpstelecom.com/rtus.
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Network Alarm Monitoring Fundamentals • DPS Telecom • 4955 East Yale Avenue, Fresno, CA 93727 • (800) 622-3314 • Fax (559) 454-1688 • www.dpstelecom.com
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Network Alarm Monitoring Fundamentals • DPS Telecom • 4955 East Yale Avenue, Fresno, CA 93727 • (800) 622-3314 • Fax (559) 454-1688 • www.dpstelecom.com
The NetGuardian 832A is a full-featured remote telemetry unit. The NetGuardian supports 32 discrete
alarms, 32 ping alarms, 8 analog inputs, 8 controls, and 8 serial reach-through ports. The optional
NetGuardian Expansion Unit can expand the NetGuardian’s discrete alarm capacity to 80, 128 or 176 dis-
crete alarms. The NetGuardian reports to T/Mon NOC or to multiple SNMP managers — or you can use the
NetGuardian’s built-in Web Browser Interface and email alarm notification to monitor your remote site with-
out a master.
For more information, check out the NetGuardian on the Web at www.dpstelecom.com/netguardian.
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Network Alarm Monitoring Fundamentals • DPS Telecom • 4955 East Yale Avenue, Fresno, CA 93727 • (800) 622-3314 • Fax (559) 454-1688 • www.dpstelecom.com
However, T/Mon provides a way to turn that ASCII Your remote site survey will help you determine the
stream into actionable, real-time alarm data. T/Mon’s correct alarm capacity for each type of remote site in
optional ASCII Processor Software Module can auto- your network. It’s also a good idea to look for an RTU
matically capture ASCII text, extract important infor- whose alarm capacity can be easily upgraded. An RTU
mation from the text stream, and convert the text to a with expansion capability will grow with your remote
standard T/Mon alarm notification. site without your having to buy entirely new equip-
ment.
Acquiring Power, Facility and Environmental
Alarms Transport: Getting Your Alarms from the Site
Power, facility and environmental alarms are collected to Your Screen
by groups of individual sensors connected to site equip- Once alarm data collected at your remote sites, it needs
ment like battery plants, generators, doors, temperature to be transmitted over a data network to your alarm
sensors and so on. presentation master at your NOC. Alarm data can be
Outputs from these sensors are in turn connected to a sent over nearly any kind of data transport: Ethernet
remote telemetry unit (RTU) that converts contact clo- LAN/WAN, dial-up modem, dedicated circuit, over-
sure and analog inputs into a protocol output, which is head channel, etc.
forwarded to your alarm presentation master. There are two things you should keep in mind about
Every model of RTU has a defined capacity of how alarm data transport:
many contact closure and analog inputs it supports. The 1. As much as possible, you want to work with trans-
alarm capacity of your RTU is the limiting factor for ports that are already available in your network.
how much alarm information you can acquire from You don’t want to create added expenses by com-
your remote site. You don’t want an RTU that has too mitting yourself to installing new network infra-
little alarm capacity, because that will give you only structure. It’s best to choose an alarm system that is
vague and incomplete information about the state of the compatible with the transports you already have.
remote site. On the other hand, you don’t want to pay 2. It’s a good idea to have a secondary backup path for
for unneeded alarm capacity, either. your alarm data in case your primary path fails. No
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Network Alarm Monitoring Fundamentals • DPS Telecom • 4955 East Yale Avenue, Fresno, CA 93727 • (800) 622-3314 • Fax (559) 454-1688 • www.dpstelecom.com
transport is 100% reliable, and you don’t want to ter can automatically send alarm notifications to
lose alarm visibility of your revenue-generating on-call technicians via pager and email.
network under any circumstances. 3. Detailed alarm descriptions: Some alarm masters
Presentation: Displaying Your Alarms in an display alarms as cryptic numeric codes. You want
Actionable Format a system that displays alarms in plain English, with
The final phase in alarm monitoring is presenting the a complete description of what the problem is and
alarm data in a useful way so that a human being can what action you should take to correct it.
read the information and use it to direct repairs. This is 4. Alarm sorting and categorizing: If your alarm
done through a specialized computer called an alarm system just shows you one long list of alarms from
presentation master. The master collects the alarm your entire network, it’s easy to lose track of criti-
reports from RTUs at the remote site and then format, cal information. A quality alarm system can sort
sorts and displays the information for a human opera- and categorize your alarms several different ways,
tor. by severity, remote site, equipment type or other
The master is really the most important part of the criteria you define.
entire alarm system. For the NOC technicians who 5. Separate Standing Alarm and Change of State
monitor alarms and dispatch repairs, the master IS the (COS) Alarm lists: A Standing Alarm list displays
alarm system — it’s the only window they have to see all alarms that are currently uncorrected. A Change
what’s going on in the network. The features and capa- of State (COS) Alarm list displays all new events
bilities of your alarm master directly control how much that happen in your network, including alarm points
useful information your NOC techs can see. A high- that go into an alarm state and alarm points that are
quality, full-featured alarm master gives you the tools cleared. If your alarm master supports both kinds of
to substantially lowers your network maintenance view, you have the quickest and most accurate pic-
costs. ture of your network’s current status.
7 Critical Features for Alarm Monitoring 6. Nuisance alarm filtering: Your equipment might
Masters generate a lot of alarms that are merely status
Here’s a list of 7 critical features that your alarm mas- reports that require no corrective action. These are
ter should have: nuisance alarms, and they’re more dangerous than
you might think. Nuisance alarms desensitize your
1. Protocol mediation and multiprotocol support: monitoring staff to alarm reports, and they start to
You probably have several different types of trans- believe that all alarms are nonessential alarms.
port equipment to monitor, and you may have sev- Eventually they stop responding even to critical
eral generations of legacy alarm monitoring equip- alarms. Look for an alarm system with tools to fil-
ment as well. All these different types of equipment ter out nuisance alarms.
report alarms using different incompatible proto-
cols. 7. Expansion capability: An alarm system is a long-
term investment that will last for as long as 10 to 15
You definitely want to have one alarm master that years. So you need an alarm system that will sup-
can support all the monitoring protocols your port your future growth for up to 15 years. In that
equipment uses and display all your alarms on one time your network is going to grow in size, you’re
screen. Trying to monitor by watching two or more going to add new kinds of equipment, and you’re
screens is hard work that confuses even the best going to need new alarm monitoring capabilities.
system operators, and sooner or later someone will Make sure your alarm master can grow and change
miss a major alarm. with your network.
2. 24/7 unmanned monitoring via pager and email
notification: Some companies can afford to pay Section III: How to Plan Your
staff to watch a monitoring screen 24 hours a day,
seven days a week, including weekends and holi-
Alarm Monitoring Upgrade
days. Your company probably isn’t one of them. In the previous sections, you’ve seen what equipment
But you don’t need a 24/7 staff if your alarm mas- you should monitor and what features a good alarm
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Network Alarm Monitoring Fundamentals • DPS Telecom • 4955 East Yale Avenue, Fresno, CA 93727 • (800) 622-3314 • Fax (559) 454-1688 • www.dpstelecom.com
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Alarm Monitoring Solutions from DPS Telecom
Alarm Monitoring Masters
Remote Telemetry Units
www.dpstelecom.com
1-800-622-3314
DPS Telecom
“Your Partners in Network Alarm Monitoring”