The Portable NOC: How to
Manage Your Network from
Your Mobile Phone
by Eric Storm
Eric Storm
President
DPS Telecom
www.dpstelecom.com
Version 2.0
Released September 18, 2012
•
1-800-622-3314
“We protect your network like your business depends on it”TM
US $36.95
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Phone
Phone• DPS
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Telecom
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• 4955
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East
Yale
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California93727
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• (800)
622-3314
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© Copyright 2012 DPS Telecom
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this white paper or portions thereof in any form without written permission from DPS Telecom. For information, please write to DPS Telecom 4955 E. Yale
Ave., Fresno, CA 93727-1523 • Call: 1-800-622-3314 • Email: [email protected]
Printed in the U.S.A
2
Mobile
Mobile
Phone
Phone
• •DPS
DPS
Telecom
Telecom• •4955
4955
East
East
Yale
Yale
Avenue,
Avenue,
Fresno,
Fresno,
California
California93727
93727• •(800)
(800)
622-3314
622-3314• •Fax
Fax
(559)
(559)
454-1688
454-1688• •www.dpstelecom.com
www.dpstele.com
How This Guidebook Will Help You
As your network grows and technicians become increasingly mobile, a technician could be out fixing sites for
hours without having a chance to check for new alarms at the NOC. You can’t afford for anyone involved in
maintaining your network to be out of the loop. Whether they’re in the NOC or at a remote site, network blindspots could result in preventable service failures.
How do you make sure that technicians get the information they need, whether they’re at a site or on the road, to
keep your network up and running?
Cellular technology is the answer. Smartphones have become powerful computing devices in their own right,
perfectly poised to become the necessary link between you and your network monitoring information. Even
older models can be used for network management via voice and text messages. Equally as important, alarm
collection and reporting over wireless is a powerful operations tool. This white paper is designed to help you
optimize your network monitoring systems to work with wireless solutions.
Contents
The Portable NOC: A Letter from the President . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
9 Ways to Integrate Your Network Monitoring Systems with Mobile Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Use SMS & Avoid 100% of Firewall Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Putting the NOC in Your Hands: the Evolution of the Mobile Web Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Leverage Wireless RTUs for Monitoring Portable/Inaccessible Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
The Top 7 Pitfalls to Avoid When Evaluating "Mobile-Friendly" Alam Masters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
The Top 6 Features Your Mobile Interface Must Have . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
What About My Sites Without Cell Coverage?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Case Study: Dickey Rural Networks Gets More Site Control with BlackBerry Support, Integrated Building
Access System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
How to Correctly Deploy a Monitoring System & Receive Voice Alerts on Your Phone . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Extending Mobile Access to Sites Without Standard Transport Using Cellular RTUs . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
The Clicker: Remotely Controlling Relays with your Smartphone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
While You Were Out: Acknowledgable Notifications on your Smartphone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Total Access: 3 Ways to Provide Smartphone/Browser Accessibility to Your Sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
The Touch-Tone Technician: Using Voice Alerts and DTMF Functionality to Increase Mobility . . . . . . . 24
Wireless Monitoring Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
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The Portable NOC
A letter from the President
At DPS, we understand that poor communication creates network visibility issues. It’s no
good if an alarm gets from the site to the NOC, but live personnel don't hear about the problem. An alarm has to get from the site to the technician qualified to fix the problem, or it’s
destined to go unresolved until service is affected.
For a long time, you had to be in the right place to receive new alarms.. Technicians dispatched to handle one problem didn't have access to the NOC and new alarms until they
returned to the NOC. This resulted in wasted time. After-hours, on-call technicians had to
make sure they were by a land line in case an alarm came in.
But having technicians in the field should not be an inconvenience to your network, and being
on-call should not make your network an inconvenience to you.
Eric Storm
President
DPS Telecom
Your smartphone now has the power to make network management both more predictable and convenient. Smartphones
are becoming hugely capable, granting you immense functionality even when you’re out in the field. Where you used to
only make phone calls, you can now check your email or access a website. You can get text messages with greater detail,
and you can use your phone’s camera to capture on-site issues.
This white paper is designed to help you adapt these technologies for use with your network monitoring systems, alleviating potential communication issues and making network management more convenient and efficient for you. Turning your
smartphone into your personal, portable NOC will help you ensure that no network alarm goes unnoticed. It’ll help grant
you freedom to leave the NOC and peace of mind when you do.
Best regards,
Eric Storm
President
DPS Telecom
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9 Ways to Integrate Your Network
Monitoring Systems with Mobile
Devices
1.
2.
3.
4.
The Mobile Web Interface for
T/Mon LNX
T/Mon LNX already
has a convenient web
interface you can
use to get your alarm
information on the go.
The latest update for
the T/Mon LNX alarm
management platform automatically detects smartphone
browser sessions and provides a mobile web interface,
enabling you to conveniently manage network alarms
right from your BlackBerry® smartphone, Android®based smartphone, iPhone®, or other smartphones.
Get a Master with a
Smartphone Compatible
Interface. As alarm masters
improve, so do their interfaces.
The best alarm master stations
available support smartphones
natively. Simple web access is
not enough, as large format web
applications simply waste too
much of your time with scrolling and resizing. Some masters
require an application to be
installed, but alarm masters with
native web-browser support are
superior. They prevent technicians from ever being in a situation where they can’t access the NOC because of missing or outdated software. With a mobile web interface,
you can manage alarms as easily as you check your
email.
The new T/Mon Mobile Web interface displays standing/COS alarms across your network and allows you to
acknowledge alarms or view alarm details while you're on
the go, without booting up your laptop.
Now, when you receive an alarm notification, you can log
directly into the web interface from your smartphone and
tap on your alarms to view detailed alarm information.
Access text messages associate with alarms, so you can
more easily diagnose and fix problems that other technicians have already encountered. You can even operate
your control relays, right from your smartphone.
Configure automatic notifications direct to your
technicians’ smartphones. With network monitoring
systems that can send text messages or email notifications direct to your phone, you can be sure that when
an alarm occurs, technicians in the field will know
about it. This is useful in any deployment but critical
in 7x24 NOCs.
The mobile web interface provides you with the information you need to maintain your network, in an interface
sized perfectly for your smartphone, so you can navigate
through your alarms on the go, quickly and easily.
The T/Mon LNX Mobile Web Interface has been tested
and proven to work with Android versions 2.1 (Eclair),
2.2 (Froyo), and 2.3 (Gingerbread), Safari for iOS 4, and
Blackberry OS version 6.
Acknowledgable alarm notifications help coordinate efforts on-the-go. With the right network alarm
equipment, you can include acknowledgable links
within alarm notifications. The technician can click on
the link and let the NOC know that they have seen the
alarm and are prepared to handle the
problem. This creates quick, communication between technicians and
the NOC, helping other technicians
focus on unacknowledged alarms.
Click here for a video containing more information about
the mobile web interface for T/Mon LNX.
Use voice alerts to make sure
technicians understand incoming
alarms. On-call technicians might
have a hard time understanding an
alarm point message when they
get that early-morning emergency call. Voice alerts
can help mitigate any ambiguity about the nature of
an alarm. With the right hardware, you can even set
custom voice alerts, so you can make sure your technicians know exactly what the problem is when you have
an emergency.
For more information about the T/Mon LNX or the mobile
web interface, contact DPS sales at 1-800-693-0351 or by
email at [email protected]
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5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
8 T/Mon LNX Web Features
Other Alarm Masters Can’t Match
Configure notifications appropriate to your technicians and their schedules, so the right person knows
about the right problem at the right place at the right
time.
1. A mobile web interface. Monitor your alarms from your
smartphone with the mobile web interface. Acknowledge
alarms, view text messages, and operate controls, all
without installing an app.
Add DTMF Functionality to alarm collection devices. Technicians on the go can have a hard time taking
a proactive approach to monitoring. They get a call;
they react. With DTMF functionality added to your
network, technicians can call their sites and figure out
site status on the go, all with the keypad on their smartphone.
2. Detailed alarm notifications in plain English that your
staff will immediately understand and take action on.
Every notification includes full information about the
alarm, including its severity, location, date/time stamp,
and a user-defined description.
3. Immediate notification of changes of state (COSs),
including new alarms and alarms that have cleared. You
don’t have to hunt to find out what’s changed in your
network — T/Mon lists it for you.
Escalate notifications to make sure every alarm gets
acknowledged. Technicians can miss alarm notifications for any number of reasons -- they could be in
a cellular dead-zone, or just plain swamped with an
existing list of duties. To ensure that no alarm goes
unacknowledged, use network
monitoring equipment that allows
you to configure escalating notifications. That way, if one technician misses an alarm, another
technician can pick up the slack,
making sure that your network is
always in good hands.
4. Voice-Out Notifcations. so when you get that late-night
alarm notification, you don't have to sort out a cryptic
message to determine the meaning of a notification.
You'll get a plain, voice message.
5. Text message windows displaying specific instructions
for the appropriate action for an alarm. System operators, even without extra training, will know precisely
what to do and who to call in case of an alarm.
6. Nuisance alarm filtering. Unimportant alarms that
generate meaningless status notices or oscillate between
alarm and clear conditions subconsciously train your staff
to ignore the alarm monitoring system. T/Mon filters out
nuisance alarms using multiple techniques, allowing your
staff to focus its attention on serious threats.
Remote control allows your
technician to get more done
from the field. RTUs with control relays allow you to remotely
control hardware at remote sites, but, more often than
not, there’s no convenient interface for smartphone
users. If they want to operate controls from the field,
they either have to open up their laptop, or call-up
someone at the NOC. Newer, more powerful master
stations and RTUs allow for mobile-web or DTMF
control operation, so your technicians can activate control relays with very little hassle or effort and get more
done on the fly.
7. Pager and e-mail notifications. Send alarm notifications directly to maintenance personnel, even if they’re
away from the NOC.
8. Derived alarms and controls that combine and correlate
data from multiple alarm inputs and automatically control remote site equipment to correct complex threats.
Where cellular coverage is unavailable, provide
means for site-to-site (or NOC) communications.
While optimizing your network monitoring systems
to work with your mobile devices, you may encounter
sites without adequate cellular coverage. Rather than
leaving technicians in the dark at sites without cellular
access, you should install an Order Wire capable or
similar device, to keep the technician in contact with
the NOC and his or her fellow technicians. An Order
Wire system provides stable, private phone communications between your remote sites and the NOC. Order
Wire systems with an OffNet option allow the technician to stay in the loop at all times.
The T/Mon LNX Remote Alarm Monitoring System provides
total visibility of your network status and automatically notifies
the right people to keep your network running.
Sign up for a Web demo of T/Mon LNX
at www.dpstelecom.com/web demo
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Mobile Phone • DPS Telecom • 4955 East Yale Avenue, Fresno, California 93727 • (800) 622-3314 • Fax (559) 454-1688 • www.dpstele.com
T/Mon Upgrade Discount
Programs
Use SMS to Easily Collect Alarms
From Hard-to-Reach Sites
By deploying wireless RTUs in your network, you can
achieve superior visibility by bringing all of your remote
sites - even the distant, hard-to-reach ones - under your
monitoring umbrella.
Do you have a T/Mon NOC master station? What about
older T/Mon hardware? If so, you need to contact DPS to
learn how much you could save on an upgrade to the new
T/Mon LNX hardware.
However, past wireless RTUs have created many problems.
T/Mon LNX provides many advantages over earlier hardware platforms, so we've created some pretty interesting
discount programs for our valued clients. We want you to
have the best network management tools at your disposal
(Take a minute to review the benefits list below).
Key benefits of the T/Mon LNX platform:
• New Web 2.0 interface that includes Adobe® Flash®
analog gauges
• Mobile web interface for use with BlackBerry, Android,
and iPhone mobile devices -- requires no additional
setup. See your alarms via WiFi or Cellular Internet
Connection right on your phone.
• 6 10/100/1000 NICs, versus a single 10/100 in the
NOC. With multiple LAN configurations becoming
increasingly popular for security reasons, your T/Mon
LNX can communicate on 6 networks while maintaining your segregation
Wireless alarm reporting can provide you with visibility
at remote sites or serve as a backup data transport.
• Processes more ASCII jobs, virtual polling loops, and
more GFX connections
• Completely compatible with existing T/Mon EXP
applications, such as the SQL History Agent and Voice
Dialer
4 Advantages of Wireless SMS Reporting:
1. Collect Alarms from Distant Sites - Just because a site
is small and far way doesn't mean you can just overlook
it. In this environment, it's important that you keep all of
your clients happy. Past limitations on alarm reporting
paths should no longer constrain you, your network, or your
customers. With wireless SMS reporting, no longer is a faraway site out-of-reach.
• On-board RAID 1 for true hard drive redundancy
• Better multi-tasking environment to allow more users to
run more processes simultaneously.
2. Eliminate Third-Party Data Providers - By using
direct SMS reporting, you can now transport alarms directly
over the wireless network to your central NOC, instead of
sending them over the public internet and through a firewall
hole (see above diagram). This new technology simply
involves using a wireless receiver connected to your LAN.
Each triggered alarm will report an encoded SMS message
to this wireless receiver, which passes the alarm data to your
master for interpretation.
What T/Mon LNX discount will you qualify for?
This avoids the problem of being forced to work with a
third-party data provider just to receive alarm information.
In the past, you would have to pay recurring monthly fees
for a static IP and a data plan. With wireless SMS receiver
technology, you're no longer forced to work with these thirdparties just to receive alarm information.
We want to make it easy for you to step up to T/
Mon LNX, so we've created some interesting discount
programs. Finding out which ones apply to you is
simple - just call your DPS Sales Representative at
1-800-693-0351.
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3. Out of Band Advantage - Using a wireless transport for
monitoring protects you from losing monitoring visibility
during a major failure, exactly when you need remote monitoring the most. Wireless SMS technology can give you a
reliable backup reporting path to boost reliability at any of
your sites.
Wireless-Ready RTUs
Receive alarms wirelessly with these RTUs
Even if your site is located out in the middle of
nowhere, you can still receive monitoring coverage.
These wireless RTUs allow you to provide a primary
reporting path at sites without LAN or give you a
reliable backup reporting path to sites with a primary
transport.
4. Prevent New Points of Failure - By circumventing a
third-party provider for alarm transportation, this removes
a potential point of failure in your alarm reporting chain.
This means your monitoring receives a boost in reliability,
because you're dependent on the service of one less company
to transport your alarms. Fewer points in your alarm transportation path means there are fewer places for your alarms
to fail.
NetGuardian 216 SMS:
• 16 discretes, 2-8 analogs, and 2 controls
• Right-size capacity for smaller sites
• Web browser interface
5. Bypass Punching a Hole in Your Firewall - With your
alarm data going to a wireless receiver, you're no longer
using the public internet to receive alarm information. A
wireless receiver will take the encoded SMS messages and
forward them to either your T/Mon (or other SNMP manager) or straight to your phone. This bypasses opening a port
to allow alarm traffic from the internet.
Wireless NetGuardian 832A G5:
• 32 discretes, 32 ping targets, 8 analogs, 8 controls
• 1 reach-through serial port
• Wireless connection option
Punching a hole in your firewall introduces new security
risks. With an open port in your network, this means there
is a public access point going straight into your network.
Opening just a single port (no matter how obscure) for a
single IP address is something many IT departments simply
aren't willing to do. A wireless SMS receiver removes this
unnecessary security risk, by allowing alarms to be sent over
SMS into your network, rather than through an open port
over the public internet - effectively providing an protective
buffer by blocking wireless LAN access.
For a complete list of your wireless RTU options,
visit:
www.dpstele.com/rtus?wireless=1
Leveraging SMS Technology for Superior Monitoring
SMS reporting technology gets the additional alarm coverage
you need, without all the extra hassle. Whether you want to
add GSM/CDMA as a backup reporting path to LAN or use
it as a primary data transport at a remote site, you shouldn't
be forced into the trap of using a third-party data provider.
Don't settle for inferior technology to wirelessly report your
alarms, use cost-effective SMS reporting technology that
won't compromise your network.
SMS Interface Box - Wireless
Receiving Technology
The SMS Interface Box allows for alarm data to be transported wirelessly - without costing a fortune or punching a hole in your firewall.
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Before
Without the SMS Interface
Box, you're forced to use
third-party data providers
and punch a hole in your
firewall
After
Bypass firewall holes and thirdparty data providers with the
SMS Interface Box and T/Mon
Also you can receive SMS
alerts straight to your phone
9
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Let DPS Help You Survey
Your Network — A Free
Consultation at No Obligation
to You
Putting the NOC in your Hands:
Evolution of the Mobile Web
Interface
A web browser interface for your NOC helps ensure that
you’ll never be separated from your alarm data by proprietary software. You won’t have to worry whether or not you
have the right version of your NOC’s interface software, or
that you even have it installed. This both ensures accessibility, and it’s maintenance-free.
Determining your alarm monitoring needs can be tough.
If you’ve got a busy job with a lot of responsibilities, you
may not have a lot time to evaluate alarm systems and survey your
remote sites.
So why not get help from experts
you can trust? DPS Telecom will
help you survey your remote sites
step-by step, making sure you
don’t miss any opportunities to
make your network monitoring
simpler, more effective — and
easier on your budget.
The Web Interface is a basic monitoring tool, providing
access to your alarms and notifications when they set. It’s
a good way for on-call technicians to get access to alarms
when outside the NOC, or for technicians on the go.
Before the explosion in smartphone
use, however, some users found the
web interface useful only in situations in which they already had a
laptop or workstation ready to go. It
could take longer to boot up a laptop,
start up a connection, and check the
status of alarms than it took to call
the NOC. So while, it was convenient in that it ensured accessibility,
the web interface wasn’t always the
convenient tool that technicians in the field needed to get
things done.
Travis Mock
DPS Sales
DPS Telecom
A DPS expert consultant can
help your figure out what alarm
system will most effectively meet your needs without
overloading your budget. Our goal is to help you maximize your return on investment while minimizing your
expenditure — without pressuring you to buy a particular
system.
There’s no hard-sell sales tactics. No harassing sales
calls. No pressure to buy. We won’t discuss specific
equipment options until we’ve helped you plan the right
monitoring strategy for your network.
Smartphones provided the power to check the status of
alarms on the go, but most web interfaces, formatted for
full-screen devices, required a lot of panning and zooming
to use.
For help surveying your network, call the sales engineers
at DPS at 1-800-693-0351
To combine the conveniences of the smartphone and the
web interface to the NOC, a few of the most forward-looking network alarm master stations have now implemented
mobile web interfaces. These master stations recognize
that a user is attempting to access the NOC from a mobile
device, and issues a secure mobile version of the web interface, perfectly sized to your mobile device.
Leverage Wireless RTUs for Monitoring Portable/Inaccessible Equipment
Your wireless RTU can be used to connect to otherwise
unreachable equipment:
• Portable generators - wirelessly receive alarms to
monitor portable generators running during power
outages.
Responding to touch-screen commands makes the mobile
interface easy to navigate. Integrating features such as Text
Messaging, Trouble Logging, and Control Operation right
from the phone ensures that the user has quick access to
the resources they’ll need to quickly solve issues at your
remote sites.
• Emergency restoration trailers - Monitor trailers
used during emergency restoration.
A mobile web interface will dramatically improve your
technicians' efficiency and proficiency. When considering
an alarm master (or an upgrade), ensure that it supports a
mobile web feature.
• Equipment on customer premises - It's there, but
you can't get to it.
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Bridging the Wireless Gap - The
SMS Interface Box
The Top 7 Pitfalls to Avoid When
Evaluating "Mobile-Friendly"
Alarm Masters
The SMS Interface Box allows you to utilize wireless
RTUs with your alarm master station without paying for
an expensive third-party data provider or opening a hole
in your firewall to receive alarms on your master station.
Your alarm master is the all-important core of your monitoring system. If you want to remotely access alarm data
(and even issue control commands) from your mobile
phone, you need to choose a master that has the right combination of functionality. Here are 7 common pitfalls to
avoid so that you'll be able to monitor your sites via phone
after deployment:
1.
Don't fall into the trap of using inferior solutions for wireless alarm reporting - proven SMS technology exists.
Traditional wireless alarm reporting leaves you with these
three problems:
1. Requires you to pay a third-party data provider for a
static IP to report alarms.
It can't call you with a voice message. For critical
alarms, there's nothing like receiving a quick phone
call and getting up to speed. While a visual interface
is an important part of any mobile monitoring strategy, phone calls are a better way to get your attention
for very important alarms. A voice message alert will
begin speaking when you answer the call and describe
the alarm with good detail (severity, description, and
site) so you can make a good
dispatch decision.
2. Creates a new potential point of failure in your alarm
reporting path.
3. Forces you to punch a hole in your firewall to allow
alarm traffic - something many IT departments simply
aren't willing to do.
4. Cost-effective 'texting plans' (as low as $2 per month
for low volume scenarios).
The very best alarm masters
for mobile phone integration
support on-the-fly generation
of synthesized voice messages.
This eliminates the need to
pre-record a message for each
alarm, and new alarms that
you database into your system
can instantly trigger voice alerts as needed. Also, a
high-quality synthesized voice creates a professional
"military grade" sound that inspires a fast response.
2.
You don't have to be constrained by these limitations. By
reporting alarms using SMS technology, you circumvent
these problems while still gaining wireless reporting functionality in your network.
How it works
It can't send text message and voice alerts using
your existing "on call" schedule. If you have a team
to manage your network, it's likely that one or more
members are "on call" at any given moment. If you
don't choose the right alarm master, you'll never be
able to import that schedule to control text message
and voice alerts. A master that does have this capability will intelligently determine which person(s) to contact when an alert must
be sent. The better master
stations also accommodate temporary overrides for scheduled staff
vacations. Finally, if an
alert is not acknowledged
within a few moments
(ex. someone sleeps
through a nighttime alert),
your master station should be able to contact alternate
people until the alarm is successfully acknowledged.
Rather than reporting alarms over IP, simply configure
your wireless NetGuardians to send SMS alarm information to the SMS Interface Box. The SMS Interface Box
then forwards the alarm information to T/Mon (or other
SNMP manager) when polled over LAN or DCPx.
The SMS Interface Box...
1. Receives SMS alarm information directly, so you don't
need to deal with a third-party provider.
2. Provides a more straight-forward and direct link
between your equipment - removing potential points of
failure.
3. Bypasses punching a hole in your firewall for alarm
data.
This solution allows you to cheaply and easily deploy
wireless RTUs or establish reliable back-up reporting
paths in your network.
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3.
It doesn't have a built-in web interface at all. With
the explosion of smartphone use, most network professionals have a full web browser in their pocket. This
represents a great way to access your alarms at any
time. Unfortunately, some alarm masters have not kept
up with the technology curve and do not have a built-in
web interface that's accessible from PC workstations
security threats, many organizations place restrictions
on what software can be installed on PCs and smartphones. Thanks to these policies, there's a very real
chance that your monitoring deployment could be held
up while you wait for IT
Department approval that
may never come. For this
reason, it's unwise to select
an alarm master that can
only be accessed by phones
running a dedicated application.
Built-in web interfaces are a much better option for any
alarm master, because they run inside your existing web
browser without requiring any software installation at
all. You also don't have to worry if you're using a new
smartphone or a different OS, because a well designed
web interface is universal.
and smartphone web browsers.
4.. The web interface it does have
isn't designed with smartphones
in mind. Before you rush out and
select the first alarm master you
see with a web interface, remember
that all web interfaces are not created equal. Ask all vendors under
consideration: "Does your alarm
master's web interface automatically
reformat itself for easy reading on a
smartphone screen?" While modern
smartphones can view just about
any content designed for full PCs,
large web pages require a lot of zooming and panning
to view properly. A proper mobile phone web interface
has larger text and is divided into smaller pages that
require no zooming or horizontal
scrolling.
7.
Mobile phones demand even more
alarm filtering for two good reasons. First, you generally have a
higher threshold for "important alarm" when you're out of
the office. While on-duty NOC center staff just need help
filtering the truly meaningless, you might only want to
receive alarms on your phone if they demand an immediate
response. Second, you don't have the same screen size on a
phone that you do on a PC, so it's harder to view any given
number of alarms. Your alarm master needs to help you
by putting only important alarms on your phone's smaller
screen.
5. Its web interface doesn't support SSL (HTTPS) security
encryption. With security concerns
growing larger than ever before,
you need to protect your remote
monitoring and control system from
cyber threats. One excellent way to add a good layer of
protection is by selecting a web interface that's encrypted. This is the same technology used to protect your
financial information when you shop and bank online.
At some organizations that are especially security-conscious, SSL encryption isn't so much a recommendation
as it is an absolute requirement.
6.
It floods your phone with every single alarm that
occurs, no matter the importance. All alarm monitoring, except in the quietest of networks, needs some
form of nuisance alarm filtering. There are many miscellaneous status alarms (door
alarms are a common example)
that do not require a response
from you or your team. These
can flood your alarm display
and blind you to the important
alarms that come in.
Click here to view DPS Telecom's
2012 Product Showcase for a listing of network alarm monitoring
gear, including the mobile-web
enhanced T/Mon LNX, to help
you keep your network on a short
leash.
It relies on a dedicated smartphone app that
requires installation and isn't universal. To counter
12
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Featured Application: T/Mon
Mobile Web
What's Currently Wrong in My Network?
Back at the Home window of the mobile web interface,
choosing your Standing Alarms will show you a list of
points that are currently set in your network. You can
narrow the problem by site or simply view all of your
alarms. Alarms in the mobile web interface (as in the
standard web and virtual interfaces) are color coded,
showing you severity at a glance. The Site Summary
view will display a color next to each site noting the highest severity alarm at each site, and each individual alarm
is color coded to let you know the urgency of the alarm.
This white paper is all about helping you take your alarm
information with you, when you leave the CO, when
you're at the sites, or somewhere in between. The new T/
Mon mobile web application provides a shining example
of these principles in action.
How it Works:
Your T/Mon LNX recognize
the difference between a
mobile device and a standard
web browsing session. So,
when you connect to your
alarm master, whether it's over
a cellular network or WiFi,
you'll automatically enter
a mobile web session. This
prevents unnecessary scrolling and resizing when you just
want to look at an alarm or
text message when you're on
the go.
What's Changed Since I Last
Checked My Alarms?
Clicking on your COS Windows
will show you alarms that have
changed state from clear to set or
set to clear. From here, you also
have the option to acknowledge
alarms. Acknowledging alarms
tells the NOC either that you've
seen and are responding to a set
alarm, or that you've verified the
status of a cleared alarm. This
tells the NOC both where technicians are, and where they need to go, helping quickly
coordinate repair and maintenance throughout the network, all without worrying about dropped voice-calls or
the time wasted in booting up laptops.
All you have to do is enter
your secure login information
to gain access to your mobile web interface. T/Mon supports HTTPS/SSL encryption, and allows you to control
user rights as well, making the mobile web application
accessible but not unsecure.
You can acknowledge alarms either by tapping ACK next
to an alarm, checking the box
next to multiple alarms and
tapping the ACK Selected button at the bottom of the mobile
web page, or by selecting
ACK Page or ACK Window
to acknowledge an entire
page or window's worth of
alarms respectively. You can
even tap on an alarm to view
details, including the full alarm
description and any associated
text messages, and acknowledge the alarm from there..
Viewing Your Sites
Upon logging in, you'll have the opportunity to pick
between your standing alarms and alarms that have
changed state (COS). Picking either option will take you
to a list of sites with relevant alarms. You can either
choose to see all of your alarms, regardless of site, or
choose a site to narrow down
your search. This ability to
narrow down which alarms
you view helps simplify
alarm management, especially on your smartphone,
where a full monitor's worth
of alarms simply wouldn't
fit.
T/Mon Mobile Web gives you the power to manage your
network alarms on the go, and streamlines network management by helping automate communications between
the NOC and techs on the go. T/Mon mobile web is
available for T/Mon XM 6.7 on the LNX platform.
Using the breadcrumb navigation links at the top of the
browser interface, you can
quickly return to the sitesummary screen to view
information about other sites.
For more information about the mobile web interface
or the T/Mon LNX, contact DPS Sales at 1-800-6930351 or [email protected].
13
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Protect Your Return on
Investment — Make Sure Your
Vendor Offers Guaranteed
Results
The Top 6 Features That Your
Mobile Interface Must Have
1. It must be secure. Using a mobile web interface means
making your alarm information accessible, but only to
the right people. The conveniences of the mobile interface should not compromise network security. Use a
mobile web interface that can operate using HTTPS/
SSL encryption. Also, make sure that you can implement access profiles restricted for web access to help
secure your network.
2. It has to work with your technician's mobile devices. Don't
bother with alarm masters that
require you to install an application that's only supported on one
mobile OS or another. Even if the
alarm master does support multiple
platforms, all phones are different.
They have different screen resolutions and capabilities. Ensure that
it scales to the screen-size of your
handheld devices, and that it works
with touchscreen devices or d-pad style BlackBerry®
smartphones.
3. It must be intuitive. The mobile interface is meant as
a convenience, something that allows you monitor your
network on the fly. If it is cumbersome or has intricate
visuals that take too long to load, it could be more of
a curse than a blessing. A technician fumbling around
with his phone is going to take longer to respond to
and resolve alarms. If you're looking for a mobileweb enabled alarm master station, find one with a web
interface that you and your technicians can pick up and
use from the get-go.
4. It must allow users to acknowledge alarms. If
your technicians in the field can't conveniently recognize and claim alarms, you won't be able to coordinate maintenance and repair efforts very well.
Acknowledgable alarms help you make sure that multiple technicians don't respond to the same problem,
and it helps the NOC know which problems are still
outstanding and which ones are in the process of being
fixed.
5. It must provide detailed alarm information. A good
mobile web interface won't just tell technicians where
the problems are. It will provide them with the necessary information they need to quickly resolve the issue.
If a mobile web interface provides nothing more than
a point reference, then it isn't doing its job. A mobile
web interface should provide alarm descriptions and
text messages with information explaining the nature
of the alarm and what tools the technician will need to
clear it.
In my experience, clients who
think hard about cost
justification have a more
important concern than just
price. They want to make
sure that they’re not spending
their company’s money on a
system that doesn’t work as
advertised.
Bob Berry
Chief Executive Officer
DPS Telecom
That’s smart. You have to
be careful when working
with equipment vendors, especially on protocol mediation
projects. Most vendors can’t support all your legacy
equipment, and they don’t have the development capabilities to make integration work.
Some vendors will charge you large NRE (non-refundable engineering) fees up front for custom work, and
give no guarantee that the resulting product will meet
your performance requirements.
Personally, I think that’s a lousy way to do business. I
give all my clients a 30-day guarantee: If my product
doesn’t completely satisfy you, return it for a full
refund. If I can’t give you a
solution, I don’t want your money. If I’m doing custom
work for you, I don’t expect you to pay for it until I’ve
proven that it works to your satisfaction.
Very few vendors will make that guarantee. But you
need to demand the best level of service from your
vendor to ensure that your implementation is 100%
6. It provides access to control relays. Control relays
allow your technicians to be in multiple places at once,
activating equipment remotely. Coupling this convenience with the mobile web just makes network maintenance that much easier, preventing a call to the NOC
or the wasted time that the technician would normally
have to spend getting out a laptop to operate controls.
14
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What About Voice Communication Sites Without Cell Coverage?
Most networks have at least a few sites that are precisely located in "the middle of nowhere." Whether they're on top of
mountains or in a desolate corner of flat land, you're simply not going to have mobile phone service at or around these
locations.
Communications at these locations obviously can't involve the use of your mobile phone on the cell network. Even so,
patching this communications gap with other technologies is an important topic for the mobile monitoring white paper
because communications impacts both safety and effectiveness. If you choose the right remote monitoring gear, this actually isn't too difficult.
One of the best techniques for getting voice communications at your sites is by deploying an engineering order wire system. Order wire is a private phone network used only by your company to manage your operations. When your technician
has a question or needs to call in additional help, your NOC center can be reached by simply picking up a rack-mounted
phone handset. If you're trying to contact a technician, you can send an "all call" (a.k.a. Hoot 'n' Holler) voice page
through a speakerphone at all of your sites. The technician can then pick up the handset and begin speaking with you.
If your tech needs to call any phone (including the mobile phone of a coworker who is within the cell network), that can
be achieved by dialing out through an "off-net" order wire station that has a built-in POTS phone jack.
You need to understand that orderwire now comes in a few different varieties. Only one is ideal. First, you have the older
order wire systems that run on dedicated circuits. These use legacy technology, but they do have good communication
features like "all call" paging and off-net access.
Second are modern VoIP systems made by a variety of telecom companies that don't specialize in network management.
While these do use modern IP to communicate, they frequently force you to live without the convenient communications
capabilities of traditional order wire
systems.
Finally, an ideal modern order wire
system communicates over IP/LAN but
still incorporates "all call" paging and
off-net. This design really gives you the
best of both worlds.
Even better, because the best order wire
systems are produced by remote monitoring manufacturers (who obviously must understand network management practices), you can even order alarm remotes
(RTUs) that include VoIP order wire in the same device. This not only reduces complexity and rack space requirements,
but also reduces the amount of purchasing hassles you have to go through to get your gear.
In addition to VoIP order wire, it's an excellent idea to have LAN access available using a network switch. That way, your
on-site techs can access all of your LAN resources from your most remote sites. Just like order wire, a network switch can
also be built into your alarm remotes to improve cost efficiency and reduce installation time.
DPS Custom Technologies: Products Designed with Your Needs in mind
Don’t settle for a patchwork of products that don’t
quite fit the bill when you can get products perfectly
designed to fit your needs from DPS Telecom. Contact
DPS Sales at 1-800-622-3314 to discuss potential solutions today.
DPS builds custom solutions with you in mind. If there’s
an alarm monitoring feature or device you’re looking for
that you just can’t find, DPS may well be able to make
your dream-product a reality.
DPS custom solutions:
1. Don’t cost extra with a minimum order
2. Don’t require you to lock into a purchasing agreement.
3. Don’t require a long lead time
4. Are supported by trained support engineers, just like
any of DPS Telecom’s products
Visit DPS Labs to see what new technologies
we’ve got in the toolbox, then send a message
to the Engineering dept! www.DPSTele.com/labs
15
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Case Study: Dickey Rural Networks Gets More Site Control with
BlackBerry® Support, Integrated Building Access System…
Dickey Rural Networks (DRN) has provided telecommunications, Internet, and television services to 7 counties in the
North Dakota Region and 2 counties in the South Dakota region since 1950. Over the years they've expanded their services to local and long distance phone services, custom calling features, voice mail, small and large business telephone
systems, special circuits, high-speed and dial-up internet services, personal internet security services, wired and wireless
network consulting, web design and hosting, business system software design, and television services.
DRN's extensive network spans a wide geographic area of almost 100 square miles. Nolan Baldwin, a Central Office
“
”
The whole concept is to see little things before they can become big things.
Technician, works with telephone switching equipment. He deals with equipment vital to DRN's daily operations, such
as backup generators and server cabinets. With this equipment located at different remote sites and outbuildings, Baldwin
tracks many access points for their personnel and outside vendors. Physical security over DRN's interior and exterior
operations is a serious issue for him.
BlackBerry® smartphone support makes it easier to be "on
call"
For Baldwin, one key feature of the T/Mon master is the web interface, which
is compatible with his BlackBerry smartphone.
"It used to be that, when you were on call, you had to wait at home near a
phone," he said. Now, Baldwin can make sure his network is "all green" from
just about anywhere, including the stands of a stock car race, as you can see in
the included photo.
An integrated Building Access System adds total site control
Nolan Baldwin monitors alarms from his BlackBerry
smartphone
Baldwin operates with a fully-integrated T/Mon NOC alarm master with a collection of NetGuardians to monitor exterior
operations. Their Building Access System to monitors interior operations like building entry, remote site access, and cabinet entry.
With T/Mon and the NetGuardian already in place, Baldwin can integrate the Building Access System at an incremental
price, associated with the necessary keypads and ECUs. And with the NetGuardian's expandable capabilities, a single unit
can support up to 6 building access systems. Baldwin uses the BAS to control multiple outbuildings, some as far as 300450 ft away from a host NetGuardian.
The Building Access System integrates building access functionality into your existing network monitoring systems
16
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BAS User Profiles allow for customized access across the network
Baldwin makes full use of the system's capacity to create over 1,000 user profiles and codes. The system lets Baldwin easily keep track of every external and internal user. These codes can be customized to restrict users to specific locations and
times. For enhanced security, BAS allows administrators to even drill down to sections within sites, individual doors, days
of weeks, and time of day.
"Internal employees have their own codes and access to almost everywhere," said Baldwin. "But it's the delivery people,
carpenters, and outside vendors that only need access to a specific location for a specific period of time." The system makes
it easy to dispose of codes and profiles, so that making changes doesn't leave Baldwin with his guard down.
Special Building Access mode reduces nuisance alarms
Baldwin's most utilized feature of the Building Access System is the "stay open" mode. This application temporarily overrides the door strike for a specific time frame. It helps avoid nuisance alarms from multiple re-entries, while still keeping
login history.
Baldwin uses the "stay open" mode as a discrete alarm input for his Building Access System. He uses it at up to 4 major
locations, primarily those that shouldn't be frequented often and require a keypad for entry. If the stay open mode is activated or left on during hours of non-operation, notification is sent out immediately via email, pager, etc.
With all of these features, building security can be left unmanned until necessary. "If [a building] is left in "stay open"
mode after hours, it will let us know and we can close it from home or wherever," said Baldwin.
“
”
I would be really uncomfortable not having the visibility that we have
To stay ahead of network problems, Dickey Rural monitors "everything"
He makes full use of the system's alarm monitoring capacities for optimal network monitoring solutions. "The whole concept is to see little things before they can become big things," said Baldwin.
Baldwin's fleet of NetGuardians monitor doors, temperature, and even generators. Derived alarms keep him informed when
the systems undergo routine testing and everyday monitoring of his backup generators. "The newer ones have an alarm
point that tells us that the generator is running, the load is transferred, and it's happening because a test is in progress," said
Baldwin.
When artificial or non-critical alarms go off, the NetGuardian intuitively ignores these alarms so that he's not bothered
with meaningless alarm data. "If the power goes out and everything functions as it should, it just shows us as a status," said
Baldwin. "If power goes out and something doesn't function, then it becomes a critical page".
“
”
Since switching to the T/Mon NOC, it's been error free.
Ping alarms warn when links go down - before customers report the problem...
With their extensive wireless services, network downtime is a critical hazard to their operations. Ping alarms constantly
monitor for broken connections, giving Baldwin quick notification as soon as one is down. Baldwin used this feature on the
NetGuardian to consistently monitor remote equipment that delivers Internet to customers via IP links.
With rapid notification with the NetGuardian, Baldwin is able to respond quickly while minimizing downtime. "If the link
goes down, we'd know it usually before we get a customer report," said Baldwin. "It gives us a heads-up to get it fixed."
Tech support is "very helpful" in the rare event of trouble
Since his implementation of T/Mon NOC, Baldwin has seen less network threats. "Since switching to the T/Mon NOC,
it's been error free," said Baldwin. When trouble does arise, DPS tech support is behind him every step of the way.
"Everything's positive," said Baldwin. "They're very helpful when we have trouble, which has been rare".
With better control over his network, Baldwin is able to protect his unmanned remote sites. Baldwin knows that early,
detailed alarm notifications mean less customer churn and downtime. "I would be really uncomfortable not having the visibility that we have today," said Baldwin.
17
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How to Correctly Deploy a
Monitoring System & Receive
Voice Alerts on Your Phone
DPS Support, Live Engineers:
Ready to Help You Go Mobile
DPS Telecom is as invested in
your network's uptime as you
are. That's why DPS provides
live support, with emergency
support available 24 hours a day,
7 days a week.
If you want to monitor your network from your mobile
phone, voice alerts are one excellent tool for doing so.
Here's an example:
One evening in May, you receive a phone call. The automated voice of your network monitoring system tells you
that your HVAC system has failed at your "Northwestern
Microwave Tower" site. Since the weather has been quite
cool recently, you don't anticipate that the building's internal temperature will heat up too quickly. Especially with
nightfall approaching, the site should easily make it through
the night at a reasonable temperature level. In the morning,
you can drive out to the site and fix the HVAC problem.
Since this alarm doesn’t seem terribly urgent, you press "1"
on your phone to acknowledge the alarm. Your monitoring
system says "Goodbye" and hangs up.
As you increasingly look to ways
to take your network monitoring
systems on-the-go, DPS Telecom
Chris Hower
is prepared to support you every
Senior Support Engineer
step of the way. Whether you're
setting up custom voice notifications or working with the
new mobile-web interface for T/Mon, DPS Support are
ready to help.
And the person you talk to at DPS will never be - as it
is at so many companies - an untrained intern or an outsourced contractor reading from a script. Every DPS support tech is an engineer at DPS with experience working
with your system.
Unfortunately, the outside temperature has been changing
rapidly as summer approaches. Without much of a nighttime cooling effect, your site is heating up quickly.
When you call DPS Tech Support, the people you talk to
know how to use the system. They've installed it, actually set it up and done the things you're trying to do. Or
they've helped design the products you use. It's a big
difference from the tech support norm. At DPS, you talk
to people who know how the product works in the real
world, and they've made the product work in real-life
installations, so you can be sure that whenever you call in,
you'll get to the bottom of a problem.
A few hours later, you receive another phone call from
your monitoring system: "Critical Alarm at Northwest
Microwave Tower. Temperature at 95 degrees." Now you
know that you have an emergency. You press "1" again
to acknowledge the alarm and immediately drive out to
the site. With a prompt response, you're able to prevent a
thermal shutdown, a service outage, and hundreds of upset
customers.
Notice in the example how effective the phone alerts were.
After both phone calls, you knew exactly what was happening at your remote site. While you obviously need to
make an improvement in the urgency you assign to HVAC
failures, your monitoring system ultimately got the job done
by providing a second warning that temperature had indeed
risen to service-threatening levels.
Tech support's close relationship with engineering means
that they see every product to go through the custom engineering process. It's likely they even tested it. So, even
if you have a one-of-a-kind, custom-engineered product,
you can be sure that the DPS support staff can handle
whatever problem you encounter as you transition to a
mobile friendly environment.
This is precisely what makes phone alerts, although technically less sophisticated than smartphone web interfaces,
so valuable. Even today, a phone call gets your attention
quickly. It's not lost in a flood of emails or text messages.
Also, a phone call can optionally go to a land line.
To speak to a support representative about implementing
your DPS mobile-friendly network monitoring system,
contact DPS Telecom Support at 1-559-454-1600, day or
night.
So how do you select a monitoring system that can intelligently send you voice alerts? First, you need to consider the
size and scope of your network. That's because voice alerts
can be generated at two different monitoring layers: your
alarm remotes and your alarm master.
Click here to visit DPS Telecom’s TKP
repository for quick tips to configure
email and voice notifications, or other
features for DPS equipment.
18
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If you have a small or medium network with fewer than 10 sites or so, you can get good results from voice-capable alarm
remotes (a.k.a. remote telemetry units or RTUs). Just make sure that the remote you select has telco-grade build quality,
a convenient web interface for unit configuration, and the ability to synthesize voice messages based on your custom text.
Since RTUs have less processing power than alarm masters, you shouldn't expect to find on-the-fly voice generation on an
RTU. Instead, look for a device with a software utility that generates voice files and saves them to the remote's non-volatile
memory for later use.
If you're looking to gain voice alerts from existing remotes, you can install an accessory that'll send voice alerts for your
already databased points. However, if you're planning to install voice reporting accessories, don't bother with small, plastic voice reporting accessories that'll only send a few generic alerts, no matter what alarm sets. Install a LAN-based voice
reporting accessory that can send voice alerts for multiple RTUs. This will provide better, more sophisticated voice alerts
while costing less over-all and taking
less time to implement.
Of course, if your network has a
dozen sites or more, it's just not practical to manually coordinate an alarm
remote at every site. At this network
size, voice capability isn't as important at the RTU level. Your RTUs
will simply send alarm information to
your central master station via SNMP
or another open protocol (I've written
A diagram of the SiteDialer for NetGuardians providing Voice Alerts via LAN
plenty of other white papers on the
dangers of getting trapped using one manufacturer's proprietary protocol). After receiving alarms, it will be your master station that will be responsible for generating voice messages and calling your phone.
Setting up your voice alerts at the alarm master level offers several horsepower advantages. Because masters are more powerful than RTUs, the good ones are able to generate voice clips on-the-fly. This ensures that your voice files never become
outdated after you update your alarm database with new text descriptions. Also, alarm masters are able to survey your entire
network of RTUs for alarm conditions. With this "bird's eye view", intelligent master stations will be capable of analyzing
root causes and calling you with an overarching problem. Imagine getting a flood of alarms when a regional power failure
knocked out several of your sites. A smart alarm master will be able to detect the root cause, suppress all the detail alarms,
and call you only once to tell you that "a major power failure has occurred and multiple sites are unresponsive."
Once you've determined whether your RTUs or
your alarm master will be responsible for sending you voice alerts, you need to make sure that
you can customize the alarms that will trigger
a voice message. You obviously don't want to
be called in the middle of the night for a status
message or minor problem that can wait until
the morning. For your phone alerts to be effective, you can't be overwhelmed by them. You
need to make certain that every voice alert refers
to an important alarm that needs attention.
Finally, don't forget that some monitoring systems require you to jump through the hoop of
recording a voice message for each and every
alarm. It's much faster (and sounds more professional) when a high-quality automated voice is
generated automatically based on your custom
text alarm description.
A diagram of the SiteDialer for T/Mon providing on-the-fly voice alerts
19
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Extending Mobile Access to Sites
Without Standard Transport
Using Cellular RTUs
New From DPS, GSM/CDMA
Cellular Voice Reporting RTUs
DPS Telecom recently launched the CellVoice series of
remote telemetry units, designed to send voice notification from sites without available LAN transport. With
the CellVoice line, you can setup voice notifications that
not only tell you what alarm point has set an alarm, but
actually provide a brief description of the alarm, so you’ll
know what’s wrong without having to check your database. With CellVoice remotes from DPS, you can provide reliable network monitoring from anywhere you can
pickup a cell signal.
You may find that, despite your efforts to modernize your
network monitoring systems, you may still have some stubborn sites with limited connectivity or no connection at all.
“
How do you integrate these sites into
your monitoring network? How can
you make them a part of your new,
mobile-capable network monitoring
system?
The first step is to find a cellular
capable RTU. Manufacturers of network monitoring systems have long
realized that your remote sites don't
necessarily have the same connection
options as your CO, and that some
sites that don't necessarily house
operational equipment. For sites
outside your normal connection path,
manufacturers are now building GSM
and CDMA RTUs to provide means
to monitor your most remote sites.
The CellVoice line also offers DTMF call-in functionality, so you can check on your alarms with a simple
phone-call. You can even operate the units' control relays
with touch-tone commands, putting you in total control of
even your most remote sites.
Beyond simply finding a cellular RTU, you'll want to find a
device that both fits your site and best integrates with your
increasingly mobile network operations. Options for some
of the better cellular RTUs include:
CellVoice 16
•
•
•
Based on the popular
NetGuardian Voice 16,
the CellVoice 16 is perfectly designed for your mediumsized sites, offering 16 discrete alarm inputs, 8 analogs,
and 2 to 18 control relays depending on your build option.
The CV 16 also sends traps to your SNMP manager and
provides email notification for alarms as well.
Voice Alerts. It's likely that your remote site without
standard connectivity or little or no operational equipment won't often require your attention. But you know
the saying: "out of sight, out of mind." When a problem does arise, you don't have the time to fish out a
single alarm point to determine it's location and meaning. Voice alerts remove any ambiguity from an alarm,
so you'll know exactly what the problem is when something goes wrong.
CellVoice 4
The CellVoice 4 is designed
after the NetGuardian LT, to
provide visibility at your small,
outlying sites. It supports 2 or 4 discrete alarm points, an
integrated analog sensor to measure the unit’s environment with an option for an external temperature sensor,
and a single control relay. The CellVoice 4 allows you to
acknowledge alarms and operate the control relay by dialing in, so you can manage your site with a simple phone
call.
Redundant Email or Text notification on your
phone. If your site cannot reliably communicate with
the NOC, or your remote site exists outside your normal monitoring systems, having the RTU send email or
text messages straight to your phone can help you keep
up with your site, even if your site can't keep up with
the NOC. Redundant notifications or escalating notifications make sure that the RTU can always get a hold
of someone when there's a problem.
Don't leave sites without available transport unmonitored.
Take charge at your remote sites with the remote that
provides cellular notification, so you don’t have to worry
about available transport to know what’s going at your
sites. For more information about the CellVoice products
from DPS, call DPS Sales at 1-800-693-0351.
Easy Migration Path to LAN. A site may not have
LAN connectivity right now, but that doesn't mean
it'll always be that way. Deploying wireless RTUs
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that also support LAN connection is a great way to
add monitoring now while keeping an eye on the
future. You'll save money on the wasteful cost of buying another, LAN-ready RTU when the time comes,
plus you'll get the benefits of remote monitoring now.
This will save you tons of money on Cap-X and Op-X
expenses while boosting the reliability of your network.
Get More from Your Gear:
Add Functionality to Your DPS
Systems
The Clicker: Operating Relays
from your Smartphone
SiteDialer Products
Send custom voice notification for points already
databased in your DPS equipment with the SiteDialer
line from DPS. With the SiteDialer products, you
can also acknowledge alarm notifications from your
phone. Models of the SiteDialer are available for your
NetGuardian remote or to send voice notifications on the
fly, direct from your T/Mon Master.
SiteDialers are available for direct use with your RTUs,
or for your T/Mon alarm system. Multiple RTUs can
take advantage of a single SiteDialer, allowing you to
get voice alerts for multiple sites without purchasing and
installing loads of new equipment.
Your smartphone can do just about anything. It's an
amazing tool. So are the control relays that allow you
to operate equipment on-site without rolling a truck.
Wouldn't it be great to marry the two technologies?
VoIP OrderWire
With a few tweaks to your network, you can make your
sites cellular-accessible, so you can operate control relays
right from your phone, making network management easy
and stress free.
• Use RTUs and Masters with a web interface. A web
interface allows you to access your sites just like your
email. If possible, use devices that offer a mobileweb interface that scales to your phone to prevent you
from having to zoom and pan to access your control
relays. The most convenient web interfaces provide
clickable commands for your control relays, allowing
you to tap to manage your network. Web interfaces
ensure that you don't have to install an app and worry
about versionization to access your sites.
• Look for devices with DTMF control features. The
better DTMF-enabled RTUs allow you to simply
make a phone call to your remote, press the right key
(or keys) to navigate to your control, and operate the
control with any touch-tone device. This prevents
your technicians from having to install any special
software or stay tethered to a workstation to operate
controls
The VoIP OrderWire
(and OrderWire with
Offnet) products plug
right into your LAN
and deliver free voice
communications
between sites. You’ll
contact sites directly
using station-to-station mode, use the “Hoot N’ Holler”
mode to make an all-call to page technicians, and setup
conference calls using the “Party Line” mode. OrderWire
products are also available from DPS with RTU functionality, so you can add capacity at existing sites while gaining telephony functionality.
The OrderWire line allows you to bridge the gap where
you don't have cell coverage. Even in the cell network,
some sites will suffer poor coverage indoors. You need
to be able to get a hold of your technicians, and your
technicians need to be able to raise you, no matter where
they are. You can even order your OrderWire system
with OffNet, allowing an orderwire system to call out, so
your technician can contact cellular phones and other sites
outside the site-to-site network.
Your phone can do everything else. Why shouldn't it also
be able to help you remotely control your sites? With
the right set of equipment, you can take control of your
network with your smartphone.
For more information about these and other accessories
for DPS Products, contact DPS sales at 1-800-622-3314.
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Mobile Phone • DPS Telecom • 4955 East Yale Avenue, Fresno, California 93727 • (800) 622-3314 • Fax (559) 454-1688 • www.dpstele.com
While You Were Out:
Acknowledgable Notifications on
Your Smartphone
Voice-Capable RTUs Notify You
of Network Problems Before
Customers Do
The hardest part about managing your network is communication. Alarms may come in but they may go
unnoticed. Someone at the NOC could notice the alarm,
but they may not be able to communicate it to the right
person.
The NetGuardian line of RTUs now offers models with
voice notification for alarms, providing detailed alarm
descriptions in a crisp, clear tone.
Voice alerts make sure you understand the alarm and
aren't left to decipher a point reference and a generic critical, major, or minor description when you wake up to get
that 4:00 AM alarm. They offer detailed descriptions in a
crisp, clear voice.
You need a way to make sure that your alarms make it to
the right people. The easiest way to ensure that the right
person is always notified of incoming alarms is to provide
automated, acknowledgable notifications for your technicians.
The NetGuardian voice notification remotes even offer
custom voice alerts, so you can make sure that an alarm
tells you what it means to your network.
Acknowledgable notifications:
• Ensure that alarms are always communicated to the
right people
• Provide a record of notifications, and whether or not
the technicians have seen them
• Help the NOC coordinate maintenance and repair
efforts by showing which alarms are under control
and which alarms have not yet been acknowledged.
These NetGuardians are DTMF enabled as well, so when
an alarm comes in, you can acknowledge it with the press
of a button on your phone's keypad.
With various makes and models, you can be sure that
there's a Voice enabled NetGuardian with the right number of alarms to handle your sites.
Before smartphones, notifications were sent by pager and
had to be acknowledged by phone call. The notifications
didn't necessarily tell the whole story about the alarm,
and technicians didn't want to waste time calling-in to
acknowledge alarms that they'd already been notified of.
While this may have helped you make sure that your technicians were aware of alarms, it wasted valuable time that
could've been spent managing the network.
The NetGuardian Voice 16
This remote provides alarm coverage and voice alerts
for your medium-sized sites. It features a web interface
allowing you to enter full descriptions for your alarm
points, that will then be repeated in voiced-alarm notifications, so when an alarm goes off at your site, you won't
have to wonder what a point-reference or cryptic message
means. You'll be prepared to respond.
With more capable network monitoring systems and
smartphones, you can alleviate these problems, by sending a notification with a convenient link to acknowledge
the alarm within the notification.
When looking at network monitoring equipment (or
updating existing equipment), look to devices that can:
• Send email notifications with an acknowledgable link
• Send SMS notifications
• Issue voice notifications with DTMF acknowledgement
The NetGuardian LT G2
The LT G2 offers custom voice alerts for your smaller
sites, with 2 or 4 discrete alarms, a single analog input,
and 2 control relays.
Couple these with a robust web interface that allows the
user to login from their smartphone and perform more
complex operations, and you'll be sure that your technicians don't miss a thing.
For more information about these and other Voice/DTMF
enabled network monitoring systems from DPS Telecom,
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Mobile Phone • DPS Telecom • 4955 East Yale Avenue, Fresno, California 93727 • (800) 622-3314 • Fax (559) 454-1688 • www.dpstele.com
Total Access: 3 ways to provide
Smartphone/Browser Accessibility
to Your Sites
Factory Training at DPS: Learn
to Use DPS Products to Monitor
Your Network for Free
It’s not enough to simply have a NOC gathering information. You can’t be stuck your desk, staring at the master
terminal day and night, least of all when your network is
under assault from the elements. You need the information to come to you. When there’s a problem, you need to
know, wherever you are.
Factory training events at DPS Headquarters in Fresno are
designed not only to teach you to use DPS products, but
to provide the information you need to more effectively
monitor your network.
At the free (for qualified professionals), four-day event,
taught by professional engineers, you’ll learn:
• T/Mon Databasing and
Monitoring
• NetGuardians
• ASCII Alarm Processing
• SNMP Trap Processing
Smartphones have the capability to view e-mail and webbrowse. Take full advantage of them and make them your
link to the NOC.
1.
The first step is to configure email notifications. Many
remotes allow you to configure email notification direct
from the unit. Or you can configure alarm notifications
to be sent to you directly from your master station. A
decent master’s alarm notifications will provide you
with all the information about the alarm, and some even
include a link you can click to acknowledge the alarm.
With these notifications, you can be fully aware of any
problems in your network and take action from wherever you are.
Learn by Doing
Training is provided in a hands-on environment as well:
you’ll be able to try out what you learn on powered, databased equipment.
Personalized Training and Response
More than that, you’ll have a chance to sit down with
DPS engineers to discuss any specific problems you may
be having with your equipment, logistical issues with
your network monitoring systems, or pitch ideas for new
products you wish were available to help you with your
network.
What People are Saying About Factory
Training
“Coming out for the whole training has really improved
my confidence. The teachers have been great. DPS has
really taken care of me. I now have the ability to use the
equipment more to its full potential. ”
-Matt Jordan (CO Technician, RT Communications)
“It was amazing to see the tour and everything that goes
on. Combined with the hands-on training, you can’t beat
the class!”
-Glenn Greg (Technician, CT Communications)
Classes are held regularly throughout the year. For more
details about our factory training events or simply to sign
up for a class, visit DPS Telecom’s Factory Training
Sign-up Page or email [email protected]
Setting up email notifications from T/Mon
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Mobile Phone • DPS Telecom • 4955 East Yale Avenue, Fresno, California 93727 • (800) 622-3314 • Fax (559) 454-1688 • www.dpstele.com
2.
While email is a great tool for receiving alarms,
depending on how your alerts are configured, whether
you have your phone set to alert you of incoming mail
by vibrating alert or not at all, you could potentially
miss important alarm notifications. To increase visibility, you could add a device to your network that
provides direct voice alerts for your phone. With voice
notifications, when you get a page in the middle of the
night, you won’t have to wait for your eyes to adjust
and your brain to convert text into meaning. Simply
answer your phone and have your most important alerts
spelled out for you, so you’ll never miss a beat.
3.
Even better, you can act on the notifications you receive
using your smartphone’s web browser, provided your
RTU’s or master station provide a browser-accessible
interface. If they do, you can simply log in and view
the issue through IP cameras at your site or operate
controls remotely to solve the problem without having
to roll a truck on your weather-worn site.
With mobile web, you can check your T/Mon alarms using your
mobile device.
When disaster strikes, what was "good enough" before
may not be anymore. Even in good times, there’s no sense
in rolling a truck on a site when you could simply flick a
switch from the convenience of your smartphone. Setting
up notifications and web-access can help boost efficiency,
reduce return-to-service times, and, most importantly, keep
you safe when your sites are dealing with service-affecting
issues.
SiteDialer for T/Mon topology, showing how you can get voice alerts
direct to your phone.
The Touch-Tone Technician: Adding Voice Alerts and DTMF functionality to Increase Mobility
Without rolling a truck out to a site, checking on the status of your site usually involves using a workstation to either log
into the NOC or an on-site RTU directly. While this is not particularly convenient to those sitting in the NOC, it does
make things hard on technicians in the field or on-call technicians who are out of the office.
To make network management more convenient for those who don't want to be handcuffed to their laptop or stuck sitting
in front of a workstation, you can install remotes that support voice alerts and control to provide technicians with easily
understandable alarm notifications and provide DTMF access to operate controls and check on the status of sites with a
phone call. They'll also provide voice alerts when an alarm occurs, making alarm management easier on your on-call staff
when they're out of the office.
While some small, plastic devices can send voice alerts out from your existing remotes, they typically only send generic
critical, major, and minor alerts, which don't tell the technician much about what sort of alarm has set at their site. To
provide detailed alerts your technicians need to make informed decisions about maintaining their sites, you'll either want
to install an RTU that natively supports custom voice notifications for each point, or use an IP-based voice-reporting
device that can send voice alerts for multiple remotes.
IP-based voice-reporting devices allow you to send detailed voice alerts from multiple RTUs over LAN. Rather than
installing plastic, voice-reporting retrofits at multiple sites, you can install one IP-based device to provide detailed voice
reporting for multiple devices.
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Mobile Phone • DPS Telecom • 4955 East Yale Avenue, Fresno, California 93727 • (800) 622-3314 • Fax (559) 454-1688 • www.dpstele.com
Call DPS for Help Making Your Network More Mobile Friendly
Retrofitting your network to make it mobile friendly may seem easy enough -- send alerts to
the phone, and you're done, right?
The truth is, however, that making your network mobile friendly without disrupting current
operations can be somewhat difficult. The experts at DPS have tested and installed their
equipment in a number of different environments, and can help you with tips and tricks to make
sure that your mobile transition goes smoothly.
If you don't get expert advice when implementing new mobile network monitoring features or
devices, you may disrupt current operations. Incorrectly configured notifications and mobile
phones can result in blind spots. The experts at DPS have tested their mobile software and
configured alarm notifications of every conceivable type. DPS can help you go mobile without
making mistakes that can result in network downtime or equipment damage.
To contact the professionals at DPS for help making your network more mobile friendly or implementing
voice and DTMF capable devices, call 1-800-693-0351.
DPS Telecom Guarantees Your Success...or Your Money Back
When you’re choosing a network monitoring vendor, don’t take chances. Be skeptical. Ask the hard questions.
Above all, look for experience. Don’t take a sales rep’s word that his company can do custom development. Ask
how many systems they’ve worked with, how many protocols they can integrate to SNMP, and check for client
testimonials.
DPS Telecom has created hundreds of successful SNMP monitoring implementations for telecoms, utility telecoms, and transportation companies. (Check out www.dpstelecom.com/case-studies for some examples.) DPS
Telecom monitoring solutions are proven performers under real-world conditions.
You’re never taking any risk when you work with DPS Telecom. Your SNMP monitoring solution is backed by
a 30-day, no-risk, money-back guarantee. Test your DPS monitoring solution at your site for 30 days. If you’re
dissatisfied for any reason, just send it back for a full refund.
What to Do Next
Before you implement technologies to make your network monitoring systems more mobile friendly, there’s a lot
more you need to know. There are dangers you want to avoid — and there are also opportunities to improve your
remote site maintenance that you don’t want to miss.
Get the information you need — register now for a free, live Web demonstration of mobile-ready monitoring
solutions with the T/Mon Remote Alarm Monitoring System. There’s no obligation to buy — no high-pressure
salesmen — just straightforward information to help you make the best decision about your network monitoring.
You’ll get complete information on hardware, software, specific applications, specifications, features and benefits
. . . plus you’ll be able to ask questions and get straight answers.
Call 1-800-622-3314 today to schedule your free Web demo of SNMP monitoring solutions — or
register on the Web at www.dpstelecom.com/tmon-webdemo.
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Mobile Phone • DPS Telecom • 4955 East Yale Avenue, Fresno, California 93727 • (800) 622-3314 • Fax (559) 454-1688 • www.dpstele.com
Get the Facts Before You Purchase Your Next Network Monitoring System
If you found the information in this white paper useful, you’ll also be interested in the other white papers in the DPS Telecom
Network Monitoring Guide series. Each paper is a complete guide to an essential aspect of network monitoring. These are the
facts you need to know to make an informed purchase of your next network monitoring system.
The 3 Fatal Mistakes Telecom Executives Commonly Make When They Attempt
To Maintain Service Levels at Remote Sites In the Face Of Reduced Staffing ...
And How You Can Avoid Them
Your network monitoring can be an asset to your business, or it can be a threat. Here are the three fatal
mistakes telecom executives make in planning their network monitoring-and how you can avoid the mistakes and gain a competitive edge. To receive this report, send an e-mail to: 3fatalmistakes@dpstelecom.
com.
SNMP Tutorial: A Fast Track Introduction to SNMP and its Practical Use in
Network Alarm Management
An introduction to SNMP from the perspective of network alarm management. It summarizes the history
and structure of the protocol, and offers some concrete applications for using SNMP for network alarm
management. To receive this report, send an e-mail to: [email protected].
Unsupported Legacy Network Alarm Monitoring Equipment: Why It’s a Problem What You Can Do About It
Many companies are dependent on legacy network monitoring equipment that is no longer supported by
the manufacturer. This guide to legacy support issues explains why legacy equipment is a dead-end-and
how you can escape the legacy trap. To receive this report, send an e-mail to: legacytrap@dpstelecom.
com.
Give Us Your Feedback
Send your comments to [email protected]
This all sounds great, but where can I get product details?
If you would like to know more about the products and services mentioned in this white paper, visit www.dpstelecom.com
and click “Applications.” or “Products.”
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Mobile Phone • DPS Telecom • 4955 East Yale Avenue, Fresno, California 93727 • (800) 622-3314 • Fax (559) 454-1688 • www.dpstele.com
Wireless Monitoring Solutions from DPS
Remote Telemetry Units (RTUs)
Master Station
NetGuardian 832A: RTU monitors 32 alarm
points, 8 analog inputs, 8 control relays, 32
ping targets, 8 terminal server ports; features a
wireless option.
T/Mon LNX: Full-featured alarm master for up
to 1 million alarm points. Features support for
25 protocols, protocol mediation, alarm forwarding, pager and e-mail alarm notification, Web
Browser access, multi-user access, standing
alarm list, alarm history logging. Available with
accessories that allow for wireless alarm reporting.
•
•
•
NetGuardian 216 SMS: RTU monitors 16
alarm points, 2 analog inputs, 2 control relays;
reports alarms wirelessly via SMS..
Supports SMS Interface Box (DCPx) for
wireless alarm monitoring
Mobile web interface for T/Mon LNX only
Compatible with T/Mon Voice Dialer for
verbal notifications to cell phones and land
lines
CellVoice 16: Features custom voice alerts,
SMS messaging, and email notifications for 16
discrete points and 8 analog points
CellVoice 4: Cost-effective design for smaller
sites. Monitor 4 discrete alarm points and
receive alarms wirelessly using SMS technology.
SMS Interface Box: Works in conjunction with the
T/Mon master station to provide wireless alarm
reporting via SMS technology.
Call 1-800-622-3314 for price and ordering information
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Mobile Phone • DPS Telecom • 4955 East Yale Avenue, Fresno, California 93727 • (800) 622-3314 • Fax (559) 454-1688 • www.dpstele.com
What People Are Saying About Crisis Management with DPS Telecom
Equipment
“Hurricane Rita struck last year, and where we had NetGuardians, we
were able to look at the voltage and watch it drop. We were able to determine from that number when we needed to take a generator out. We
could look at sites and tell, ‘This one has more voltage than this one, so
we need to move a generator here.’ These proved to be an invaluable tool
during one of our company’s biggest crises.”
—Billy Young, Consolidated Communications
“We were still able to monitor all of our sites and pick up alarms. DPS
monitoring allowed us to have an accurate overview of our entire network
at a very critical time.”
—Keith Liles, Cameron Communications
About the Author
Eric Storm is the president of DPS Telecom and an engineer with over 20 years’
experience designing network alarm monitoring hardware and software.
Storm’s experience with both the theoretical and practical sides of network monitoring systems have equipped him to write a straightforward guide to making your network mobile device-friendly.
www.dpstelecom.com
1-800-622-3314
US $36.95
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