A White Paper Report
New Digital Telephone
Technologies
How they work. How they
interfere with
Legacy Fire and Burglar
Alarm Systems
And other deadly potential
problems with this new technology
Presented
By: Nick Markowitz Jr.
Owner/Chief
Tech
Markowitz
Electric Protection and
Private
Industry Fire Investigator
As
we move into the 21st century the old familiar telephone or what the
Industry calls
POTS
(Plain Old Telephone Service) is slowly disappearing and with this
disappearance
Many
of the 24/7 reliabilities of POTS is disappearing with it as new digital
Technologies come on line and their pitfalls are revealed.
One
of the most troublesome of these new technologies currently being marketed is
VOIP
This
stands for (Voice over Internet Protocol)
Where
traditional Copper phone lines are
replaced by an Internet connection to the home. This can be DSL, Cable Internet
etc.
A 3rd
party provided adapter such as Vonage ,
Broad Wing Etc. is plugged into the homes Internet network connection which
corded or cordless phones can be connected and calls can be made around the
world for virtually free.
The
adapter can be a stand-alone adapter or it can be built into a home wireless
WIFI 802.11g compliant router.
But
there are many pitfalls with this technology.
1- No power no phone service
the VOIP adapter, Router and Modem must all have battery back up or phone lines
can go out.
2- Fire, Medical and Security Systems many times
will not transmit correctly or at all since VOIP is digital and transmits voice
in data packets communicators in alarm system often times fail to communicate.
No alarm panel on market at this time is approved to use VOIP service. There
are also problems with faxes and other communication devices not working
properly either.
3- No Internet no phone when
you lose your Internet connectivity, which frequently happens with cable, based
systems when an amplifier goes out.
4- 911 location problems VOIP
phones are difficult to track consumers must arrange thru there VOIP provider
such as Vonage to make sure correct address shows when 911 is called.
5- Just one unplugged wrong
cable from the modem to adapter and all phone service are lost.
6- Many digital dialer formats
will not work effectively with 3rd party VOIP systems
In
short for the money you save the risks you create unless you have a backup plan
and equiptment in place you could very well cost a life when the call for help
does not go out.
Many
fire and security dealers are recommending that either back up Cellular dialers
or Internet based monitoring adapters be part of a comprehensive alarm package
to insure continued service. With cellular preferred because if internet goes
out central monitoring station gets a signal that alarm is disconnected from
internet but until a tech can get on site and determine what is wrong and
correct it a Fire or burglary could take place and would not be communicated
especially during long power outage periods where cellular can be backed up for
24 hours and longer by battery.
Note:
Nov. 11, 2007 older Analog Cellular back ups will no longer work in many areas
Digital units must now be used.
One
of the big dangers VOIP is posing to home owners is many are no longer paying
to have there alarms monitored because the extra cost for additional
equiptment.
Which
also could be detrimental to there insurance claim being settled if there
policy requires them to maintain a monitored Burglary and Fire system.
PBX
Big Business Phone switching
PBX
stands for Private Branch Exchange and is a service used with in a large
corporation or multi building campus type setting. It is in essence a private
internal phone service
That
allows communication and switching with out having to go thru the phone company’s
lines.
Typically
a phone must dial 9 or 91 or similar prefix to be able to get an outside line
to phone company.
Dialing
of an extension is direct usually a 3 or 4 digit number. All equipment and
phone lines are internally owned or leased.
Fire
alarm system dialers should not be used thru a PBX because of the danger of the
PBX switching unit failing. Installers are strongly urged to find an outside
line and connect ahead of the PBX and not thru it. In cases where a out
building needs protection and only phone lines available are a PBX extension then
the PBX needs to be backed up with a 24 hr capable back up power source many
PBX units are already connected to emergency generators but there have been many cases when power
switches back and forth the PBX can jam. In one particular campus I deal with which has a PBX we choose to utilize underground
conduits to run dedicated zone circuits to each fire panel there by ensuring
the line to each building is supervised and the main fire panel at the
administration building is connected ahead of the PBX. The central station
receives 2 signals a general fire or trouble alarm from each building and if
PBX allows it detailed zone information from the out buildings communicator.
This way if the PBX fails at least a general emergency signal gets out.
T1-
Phone Service for Business.
This
technology uses a high speed 1 MB computer line which allows up to 23
individual phone lines to be split out of the T1 line which is brought into the
premise and connected to a box called a Channel bank the channel bank box some
times has a built in battery back up as with most AT&T installs but
carriers like One Communication /Choice One uses a separate plug in UPS for
power back up. In either case the unplugging of the unit allows the battery to
run down and phone lines to fail.T1 can be delivered using copper phone lines
in what’s known as a Fractional T1 or bundled copper lines known as a Bonded
T1 or by means of Fiber Optic Lines
which is full T1 service and which can run $1500.00 or more a month for the
service .
Although
for the most part the service is dependable there are problems due to the fact
all the phone lines are carried on the one T1 line pair any failure in the T1
circuitry stops all 23 phone lines from operating all at once.
Smart
business people have back up POTS lines in place for emergency’s which can be
utilized when a T1 goes down but the vast majority does not.
Some
T1 carriers like One Communication also offer a 768 SDSL service off the unused
part of a T1 line when less than 23 phone lines are used thru the channel bank
as well
T1
can cause problems with older alarm digital dialers that utilize older formats
like
3/1
4/2 BFSK etc. Contact ID is best utilized with this service as it is a true
digital format
That
can over come the various noises Digital phone services can produce which
confuse older formats .With any of the new phone services contact Id or other
DTMF format is highly recommended along with a minimum of a weekly or monthly
dialer test of burg systems to make sure there working and when not the home or
business owner gets a trouble signal at there location. Fire systems must test
every 24 hours minimum.
I
had a customer who switched from POTS to T1 service and who did not call and
notify me to check everything have a $250,000.00 loss of production time and
materials
When
there production line which requires the constant heating of a tar line freeze
up and bust when power went out to the plant and system did not call because
4/2 format would
Not
transmit over the T1 service needless to say Contact ID 24 hr test and a back
up cellular system is now in place.
FIOS
Fiber
Optic Phone Service for both residential and business
FIOS
a trade mark of Verizon Communications is one of several names for Fiber Optic
Provided phone Service
With
this service both High Speed Internet service, TV imaging and Phone Line
Service
Come directly to the premise via a Fiber Optic
Cable where a box decodes the fiber cable and splits off to provide the various
services.
Fiber
optic service is generally very reliable and is kept backed up by an on premise
battery mounted in the Demarc box and battery’s located at various locations
thru out the community on pole mounted enclosures.
The
problems with this service is when a telephone pole mounted switching ad
control box gets struck it can take down a whole street of customers or even a
whole community
Once
the battery’s run out during an extended power outage phone service is out
unless phone provider gets on site with new batteries or generators to charge
up the batteries. Power outages of more than one day can and do happen during
weather extremes.
Cable
Company provided phone service.
Cable
TV Digital and VOIP Phone Service
Most
cable TV companies provide 2 different types of phone service
Digital
Cable Phone Service
Is
where a coax cable is brought to the residence or business where it is brought
to a Demarc box where the various services are split out for TV Imaging,
Internet and Phone?
This
type of service again depends on a battery back up box located at the customers
premise and telephone pole mounted battery boxes with transponders every so
many blocks.
The
Big Danger this service poses is the fact that if one of these transponders out
on the Telephone pole sticks which is frequent an entire community up to
several community’s
Can
completely go down.
This
along with Cable TV VOIP service is the least dependable of digital services
available from a Public Switched Network Service Provider.
I
highly recommend against using this service however it is very low cost and
there for popular.
Cable
TV VOIP Service
Is
a more stable form of VOIP compared to the 3rd party provided
adapters because the Cable Company owns the local switch however it has its own
problems.
A
coax cable is brought to the premise where a splitter takes TV imaging on one path
and the internet and Phone service on the other the internet coax is brought to
the premise computer where the modem also provides the phone service to the
house by means of a RJ11 connection plug a wire is run from this plug to an
existing wall outlet
And
phone lines are then back feed from the battery backed up modem which lasts
aprox 2 hours.
I also highly recommend against this service
as only one simple wire disconnect from back of the modem takes out all the
phone service.
I
have had severe problems with Cable TV installers who are not properly trained
in most cases causing my customers extreme harm because when they switched to Cable
TV phone from POTS connections were not properly made and alarms failed to
operate when needed in one case a customer had a Fire break out in there home
and signal did not go out luckily they were able to put the fire out before
major damage occurred. Had they not been home they would have lost there home.
IP
Business Telephone Service
Similar
but very different than VOIP this service is used in many call center type
business
Where
each phone in an office is plugged into a network port and there is no KSU Key
System Unit box involved.
Although
this technology is hyped as the next big thing for business it is not ready for
prime time and I highly recommend any business using it with out understanding
the pit falls.
1# each
phone requires a plug in power adapter unplug the adapter loose phone service.
2#
Inter office communication is often difficult if not impossible as well as the
911 location ID problem.
3#
Separate POTS lines still need brought in for Fax’s, alarms etc which will not
work on this service
Every
customer of mine using this new technology by Cisco and Polygon and others
absolutely hates it and they are constantly plagued with technical issues and
echo’s and other noises as well as busy signals when not busy.
You
can save a ton of money but is it worth it when you loose calls.
Business
Centrex Phone Service
This
is a unique service the phone company’s offers where instead of having to
install and purchase expensive switching equipment KSU
The
phone company does all the switching at the central office .It works like a
business phone system but with some limitations.
Most
of the time this is delivered on POTS Lines some times over T1 service as well
The
only drawback with this service is you must make sure to put the prefix 9 then
a pause when programming a dialer so it will dial properly.
ISDN
Phone Service
ISDN
is an older high speed data line 56-265k which was very popular before the
internet took off
It
is still used in many areas and many TV and radio stations use it for
transmission of there signals from studio to Transmitter sites and for remote
broadcasts and it was popular for individuals working at home for colleges and
computer and IT company’s which utilize
a main frame computer system but phone carriers are trying to make this service
obsolete.
The
ISDN line is a 4 wire connection 2 wires data in 2 wires data out it hooks to a
terminal box at the premise and at the terminal box 2 phone lines were able to
be obtained for telephone use again the
problem of power being needed like other modern phone services at the premise
is the chief problem.
ISDN
is going away and I have only worked on a handful of these systems in 25 years
of Telco work.
Conclusion
and remedies
With
all digital phone services I recommend the following practices to help insure
that a signal will get thru.
1#
when ever possible have the alarms digital dialer use a DTMF format such as
Contact ID ,Acron or Ademco Super fast which can overcome digital line noises
.It also has the advantage of communication in under 10 seconds and provides
detailed zone information up to 999 different events
2#
If DTMF format is not provided by the Alarm dialer consider using a FSK format
such as SIA or SK 4/2 or use a 3/1 or
4/2 format which uses parity this is a special mathematical number sent at the
end of the transmission which makes sure the signal was properly received at
the central station if not the dialer will continue to try and communicate
successfully.
3#
set communicators to highest number of communicator retry’s 10 or more if
possible
To
help make sure signal gets thru. In case of Fire alarms with dual phone lines
follow panel maker’s directions for retries.
4#
use the panels test feature set it at a minimum of 30 day weekly or daily if
possible to test the line and keep accurate tracking at the central station.
This
also will cause a trouble signal at the protected premise and hopefully
customer will call and complain when they get a fail to communication alert.
5#
back up the provided battery unit with various services with a bigger UPS to
ensure 24 hours minimum service. And remember these UPS need checked
occasionally and batteries changed just like the alarm check both when on a
service call.
6# put
a reminder note in your central station billing that customers call you when
they change phone carriers and that they test there systems to make sure they
still communicate before the phone provider leaves.
