This book is about IP-network-based integrated security systems design. It was written to help new designers and designers who are familiar with old-style alarm/access control and analog video and intercom systems adapt to IP-based systems.

I was an early advocate of Information Technology (IT)-based infrastructure because it offered something that older security system infrastructures could not: true enterprise capability. Ethernet infrastructures permit the distribution of a security system across the organization’s facilities all over the world. That just isn’t possible with older infrastructures.

While I was delighted to see the security manufacturing industry adopt Ethernet infrastructures, I was distressed to see that the industry was not seriously addressing the need to provide for the security of the system itself on the new Ethernet infrastructure. When I asked manufacturers why they were not addressing network security, I received answers such as “Oh, that is the IT department’s responsibility” or “Security integrators have their hands full just learning how to deal with Ethernet-based systems; we’ll get to network security later.”

So, here was an industry that was responsible for securing an entire organization’s assets, and the security system itself was often not secure. The idea that the electronic security system that was trusted to protect sometimes billions of dollars in assets should itself be unsecure was unacceptable to me. So, it was clear that it is important for security professionals to understand IT theory in order to efficiently design networks and practical network security.

Soon the security industry will move to systems in which there are no analog or proprietary wired devices at all; all devices will connect directly to the Ethernet infrastructure. The knowledge of how to design efficient network systems and how to secure those systems is paramount to successful security systems. This is the future of security technology.

In this book, I also bring the reader insight into some of the most sophisticated design concepts anywhere in the security industry. We’ll be discussing design concepts that are able to make ordinary systems perform extraordinary functions. This is the one and only book you will need for all security design concepts.