1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to property and perimeter security networks and, more particularly, to security networks having significantly greater configurability and adaptability to environmental conditions.
2. Description of the Related Art
The following descriptions and examples are given as background only.
Individuals and enterprises, including corporate, municipal, government and military enterprises, are increasingly concerned with the issue of property and perimeter security. Significant investments are made each year to secure property and perimeters in a wide variety of installations, such as corporate campuses, manufacturing plants, chemical plants, energy and water infrastructure, government buildings, airports, storage depots, utility substations and military bases.
Conventional security systems often rely on an individual sensor technology, or a combination of different sensor technologies, to monitor a security network for “threat events,” or events or actions that pose a risk to security. In building security, for example, magnetic door sensors are commonly used to monitor the opening and closing of a door or gate. Motion sensors are also commonly employed in building and perimeter security systems to alert security personnel to the presence of a possible intruder. In some cases, magnetic door sensors and motion sensors are combined within a security network to increase the level of protection. However, the different sensor technologies are usually monitored independently for threat events.
Conventional security systems configured to monitor a perimeter typically do so by attaching a sensing cable to a barrier or fence surrounding a building, facility, campus or other property, and an alarm is generated if the sensing cable is disturbed for any reason. In some cases, the disturbance may be caused by a threat event, such as an attempted or successful intrusion. However, the sensing cable may also be disturbed by a non-threat event, such as an animal brushing up against the fence, or some other environmental event (such as weather).
Conventional security systems are inadequate for many reasons, including but not limited to, efficiency of threat detection, accuracy of threat detection, and the inability to determine the exact location of a threat. For example, a single faulty sensor could generate false data, thereby causing the system to generate a false alarm. False or nuisance alarms may also be generated due to the inability of conventional systems to distinguish threat events from environmental conditions.
Many modern large scale security systems include thousands of sensors. Once the system alerts personnel to a potential threat event, the personnel are tasked with investigating the event to evaluate whether or not it is an actual threat to security. For sites in remote locations, the dispatched personnel are hindered when they do not know the exact location of the event. This gives the perpetrator more time to cause damage and escape. In such an environment, dispatching personnel to investigate non-threatening events and delaying the interruption or apprehension of an intruder is a waste of time and resources.
Often times, individuals and enterprises will install multiple individual security systems in an attempt to achieve a desired level of protection. However, scalability is a limitation for all systems. As the size of the area to be protected increases, so do the infrastructure requirements necessary to support such systems. For instance, the cabling needed in conventional security systems to connect power and communications, as well as the labor needed to install these systems, can greatly impact the cost of a project. This is true for single technology applications and is exacerbated when multiple sensor technologies are combined.
Attempts have been made to improve the scalability, efficiency and accuracy of conventional security systems. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,450,006 to Doyle et al. describes a distributed perimeter security threat confirmation system in which a plurality of sensor systems, or nodes, are interconnected to form a security network. Doyle reduces false alarms and increases accuracy by providing intelligent sensor nodes, which are capable of confirming threats via inter-sensor communication. Doyle also improves scalability and efficiency by performing the threat evaluation at the sensor node, instead of at a central control system. This reduces the processing requirements of the central control system, which is included merely for transferring threat notifications to a user interface system, where they can be displayed to a user. Distributing threat evaluations to the sensor nodes also reduces the time and effort required of personnel to investigate the events, as the sensor nodes responsible for issuing the threat notifications will provide indication of the location of the threat.
However, security systems such as those described by Doyle, are still lacking in many areas. For example, although such systems are capable of detecting non-threat events (such as wind or rain), they lack the configurability and flexibility needed to adapt the threat evaluation algorithms to changes in the environment, which could mask true security threats. Consider, for a moment, that it is raining. In Doyle's system, a sensor node may detect a rain event, communicate with one or more other nodes to confirm the rain event, and upon confirmation, generate and transmit an event message to the central control system identifying the rain event. However, as it is raining, an intruder may attempt to breach the security perimeter. If the intruder's attempts cause disturbances on a level similar to those produced by the rain, the real security threat may be masked by the rain response and go undetected.
A need exists for a security network having greater configurability and adaptability. Specifically, a need exists for a security network that adapts to changes in the environment so that the security network may tune-out non-threat events, while continuing to monitor the network for true security threats. In addition to changes in environment, an adaptive security network is needed with the capability for identifying new events that have not yet been identified by the network and predicting future events, which may present a threat to security. Such a security network is currently lacking in the prior art and accomplished by the invention set forth herein.