Year
2003
Abstract
Radiation detection equipment is increasingly being incorporated into remote monitoring applications. For example, there exists a growing trend in Homeland Security for the deployment of networked detection equipment such as portal monitors, portable radiation detection devices, and mobile contamination monitors. In the past, vendors of radiation monitoring instruments typically provided the tools for uploading the monitoring data to a host. However, the proprietary nature of communication protocols lends itself to increased computer support needs and increased installation expenses. As a result, a working group of suppliers and customers of radiation monitoring instruments defined an open network protocol for transferring packets on a local area network from radiation monitoring equipment to network hosts. The data protocol was termed RadNet. While it is now primarily used for health physics instruments, RadNet's flexibility and strength make it ideal for remote monitoring scenarios. The incorporation of standard, open protocols ensures that future work will not render present work obsolete because RadNet utilizes standard Internet protocols, and is itself a nonproprietary standard. The use of industry standards also simplifies the development and implementation of ancillary services, e.g. E-mail generation or even pager systems. This paper overviews which Canberra detectors are being network-enabled via this open protocol and discusses how these networked devices can be incorporated into Homeland Security, Nuclear Power Plant, and other monitoring scenarios. We also offer insight regarding secure data transfer within these remote monitoring applications.