Page 102 - Security Today, March 2017

WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY
out at the same time.
Customizable. No public safety operation is exactly the same,
meaning each organization should be able to choose what informa- tion a monitoring and diagnostic tool looks for. For example, a moni- toring and diagnostic tool can be used to measure the internal tem- peratures of each individual radio to ensure they are not overheating or freezing. This is important information for radios in a desert or arctic climate, but not for those in temperate climates.
Each individual operation should be able to choose what to moni- tor, so that the tool focuses on only what is most important. More importantly, the amounts and types of traffic on the network that are “normal” will vary greatly between environments. One network’s “perfect” is another’s “overloaded” or “suspicious.”
Intuitive. While an organization should not need a dedicated IT professional assigned solely to monitoring, monitoring tools still re- quire IT and RF knowledge as well as training on the tool itself.
However, with the right tool, even a non-technically inclined employee can recognize when a network is having issues. For ex- ample, on a police force, a dispatcher might perform his or her standard job duties while also keeping an eye on a monitoring and diagnostic graphical interface on a display. If something on the interface lights up red, the dispatcher easily see that there is an is- sue with the network, and can alert the trained IT experts, who can begin to troubleshoot.
Web based. Related to the last point is the need for a tool that runs on a web-based server. IT departments may be stationed in a different area than a headquarters to ensure server redundancy, or because one IT department services several units. If a monitoring tool is web based, an IT engineer can view the interface over a secure
web portal and begin troubleshooting any problems without having to physically be in the same room as the tool, and without having specialized software installed locally.
Data inclusive. A monitoring tool must keep an eye on what is happening in real time—no doubt about that—but it should also keep track of a network’s historical performance, allowing admins to go back in time to figure out when a problem began occurring and what might have triggered it. This helps find and diagnose any problems that have been building up over time on the network, letting admins solve issues before they impact critical operations like video surveillance.
Comprehensive. A monitoring and diagnostic tool must provide reporting on all types of network data traffic and RF interference.
An Eye on the Future of Public Safety
Public safety organizations strive to keep their citizens safe, aided by mission-critical data flowing through their networks. A monitoring and diagnostic tool can achieve this goal by ensuring that all applica- tions stay up and running, creating a safer future for a municipality’s most important asset: its people.
Marty Lamb is vice president, technology development, at Rajant Corp. Charles Byrd is director of sales engineering at Rajant Corp.
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