CITY COUNCIL NETWORKS
When you need to upgrade or refresh the CCTV and Integrated
Security Applications that stretch across your City, look no further
than to your UK Network Designer & Manufacturer; AMG Systems.
The Challenges
AMG Systems have been employed as a system designer and often provide network transmission solutions utilising their UK designed & manufactured industrial grade, robust products for field communications to feed into existing networks or an AMG option in the main control room.
In a typical city centre CCTV IP upgrade, the task of getting the camera images from the analogue world on to an IP solution in terms of the network transmission involves vast information gathering. Quite often there are other services that will need to integrate onto the same network once the signals are all upgraded to IP.
The vast geographical nature of a city council also throws up considerations with images and signals coming from acvariety of locations often to different control rooms and/or monitoring stations.
Council control rooms and desks are also often required for the use of police, urban traffic control (which can be responsible for traffic), major events including monitoring large-scale sport days, tunnel service buildings, bus depots, trams and much more.
The Solution
To propose a high-end CCTV and integrated security package that delivers full coverage and protection to the city
council and its’ citizens by designing a robust network that is fit for purpose and built to last, and supported by our UK based technical team.
Fibre Infrastructure
Utilising as much existing infrastructure, where appropriate is at the cornerstone of many system designs as a cost exercise. For an integrated security solution, that can transmit multiple IP packages, singlemode 9/125 fibre is advised. Due to model dispersion multimode fibre is limited to the distances it can reach whereas singlemode has minimal dispersion therefore can reach much greater distances with a more powerful bandwidth capability.
In locations where the existing fibre is multimode, mode conditioning fibre patch cables can improve quality & distance of signals over a pre-installed multimode fibre back bone - avoiding the distruption caused by replacing existing fibre. This will enable greater distances to be achieved with Gigabit data over multimode fibre – Up to 2Km.
This is achieved by directing the single mode wavelength along the outer mode of the MM Fibre using fibre offset – significantly reducing the effects of differential mode delay (DMD). Mode conditioning patch cords are always used in pairs, which means that you will need a patch cord at each end.
Topology
Existing topology will be mapped to decide what type of Ethernet
transmission products are selected.
For point to point fibre connectivity, IP to fibre media converters can be
selected for the optical transmission of IP signals. In terms of CCTV cameras, if unicast camera traffic is being transmitted simple layer 1 media converter or unmanaged layer 2 switching can be adopted.
For redundant ring topologies Layer 2 industrial grade managed switches
would be selected for remote locations.
This is also true if there is a requirement to cater for multicast camera traffic, utilising the IP protocol IGMP snooping. Multicast video on a city centre network allows multiple locations to view the same video without the replication of the camera stream, protecting the provided bandwidth capability of the network.
Once managed switches are proposed the introduction of spare ports can safely be catered for. The layer 2 protocol IEEE 802.1x port security is a feature of AMG’s industrial grade units and protects unwanted devices gaining access to remote locations, protecting the council network.
Transmission options for remote PTZ, thermal imaging and IR lit cameras are catered for with IEEE802.3bt 90Watt PoE. AMG can deliver this over industrial grade media converters, injectors and switches removing the need for additional power spurs.
Wireless
When proposing a city-wide wireless solution there are many considerations ranging from cumulative bandwidth needs to topology and connected transmission equipment.
Radio transmission is a consideration where existing infrastructure is not able to be used or won’t reach new camera positions.
SkywaveF, AMG’s industrial grade solution transmits IP data in a point
to point or multi point to point topology and offers up to 450Mbps of bidirectional IP camera data, where clear line of sight between radios exists.
Wireless networks can be installed in a ring topology or as a part of a ring to allow redundancy on the network, utilising managed switches to offer ring healing protocols as well as the management of multicasting cameras.
Control Room
Once the topology has been ascertained and field transmission equipment is selected the control equipment can be proposed. AMG Systems are able to design the control room solution by closing off a layer 2 network or by proposing a layer 3 core option.
If the IP network is required to support an integrated security system it would usually be based on a traditional hierarchical network architecture, with the remote equipment, known as the access layer connecting to a distribution layer (operating as aggregation) and then to the core, rather than IP Fabric or Leaf/Spine.
This would require a layer 3 core and distribution however, for efficiency the core and distribution tiers could potentially be collapsed. One of the benefits of this is to remove layer 2 ring healing protocols, such as rapid spanning tree (RSTP) and remove network reconvergence, should a cable break or a switch drop off.
Once the city council’s high-level design has been approved, AMG can provide professional services to deliver a low-level design document with configuration services to ensure the designed network delivers, acting as a partner to the council and the systems integrator of their choice.
“Having worked with Hayley and the team at AMG on multiple projects for CCTV systems at some very secure sites, I have found that AMG’s network design services have taken ownership of the Layer 2 and Layer 3 network design, as well as factory acceptance testing and pre configuration of the network switches, prior to install.
This approach enabled my company to concentrate on other elements of the system design, which has made AMG a valued partner on a number of projects during both the design and build up stages.”
-Government Security Consultant
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