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Contact Closure Alarms Protect Critical Remote Site Equipment

 

Overview

Many legacy and non-network based devices use contact closure outputs to indicate alarm and system status.  Asentria products can monitor contact closure inputs from environmental sensors, cameras, power systems, electronic equipment, door and window contacts (for intrusion detection), and many other devices. Add up the value of your equipment room hardware, or the hourly value of reliable operations, and you will realize the significance of contact closure alarms.


Solution

SNMP-Link Remote Site Manager and EventSensor modules can help safeguard your valuable equipment from a variety of threatening conditions which are not normally managed by network management systems.


Versatile alarm detection and notification functions make it easy for you to monitor and manage any contact closure input: water and humidity sensors; security door contacts; backup power or power failure; fuses; electronic equipment not enabled for notification; outputs from machinery; and countless others.


Contact closure alarms consist of events (triggers) and actions (responses). SNMP-Link recognizes changes in contact closure status (open/close, high/low voltage thresholds) as alarm events. Each alarm event can initiate up to 16 actions to quickly notify personnel by various means. You can define actions easily using the configuration menus.


Alarm actions include:

  • Pager callouts (up to four phone numbers, numeric or alphanumeric)
  • SNMP traps (up to eight different IP addresses)
  • Email (up to four different Email addresses)
  • Relays (Up to eight relays per ES-9)

Sending alarms over networks and phone lines requires appropriate data transfer protocols, that's why the SNMP-Link offers a full seven layer TCP/IP stack, SNMP MIB, and complete modem protocol options. You can utilize Telnet sessions, SNMP Gets/Sets/Traps, standard modem access, and other methods.


Key Benefits

Contact Closure Alarm Action messages may include time/date references, alarm name, user-defined message, and other data pertinent to the specific alarm. Data Alarms can also be generated from an SNMP-Link unit. The serial ASCII text string that originated the alarm can be captured and included within SNMP-traps, pager alphanumeric messages, and email messages. This is extremely valuable to field agents to help them know exactly what the original equipment error text was on their pager, or the network operations manager can have that information immediately available as the SNMP-trap alarm is received by their monitoring console, or a non-skilled security guard may get an email with a captured phone extension.


There are hundreds of ways to utilize the event/action features. One example might be to set up SNMP-Link's on-board temperature sensor to trigger alarm actions when the room exceeds 100 degrees. Loss of computing power to overheating is a common occurrence. You might set up your SNMP-Link to respond with four actions: send an alarm message to your LAN/WAN network management station via SNMP trap to document the alarm; turn on an exhaust fan to vent the hot air; send pager messages to several repair technicians; and send an email message to the front office to inform a security guard to allow access for your technician. The possibilities for contact closure applications are limited only by your imagination.


The Company

Asentria develops remote site monitoring and telemanagement solutions that enable providers of critical communications infrastructure to more efficiently and reliably run their networks. Asentria’s products help ensure quality of service and lower operational costs, while making it easier to provision, maintain and support remote equipment. Our strategic solutions fit both large and small communication networks and provide high-value, cost-effective and competitive differentiators to our customers.


Asentria helps administrators cost-effectively manage their call reporting data and remote site infrastructure, while extending confidence and security to ensure availability, integrity and performance. Asentria enables administrators to avoid failures from poor performing equipment that threaten end-user service expectations, while providing better control to predict the performance of remote infrastructure. These new levels of protection shield end-users from remote site equipment failure. Our service provider and enterprise customers trust their remote equipment sites to Asentria. The company is headquartered in Seattle, Washington.