Year
2001
Abstract
This paper describes the current effort to analyze historical alarm data and discusses applications and methods for secure, near-realtime communications of data. The objective of analyzing historical alarm data is to determine if trends in system or subsystem performance can be detected that may affect system maintenance activities and operational costs. A wealth of data is potentially available, and this paper will discuss initial efforts to extract useful information from that data. As an example, some sensors may report excessive nuisance alarms that correlate well with certain weather conditions, and sensor reinstallation may prove remedial. In the future, fielded sensors that report ID codes could also report serial numbers that map into a vendor’s database with manufacturing dates and recall information. In a more timely context, system maintainers often require the assistance of others – either component manufacturers, system integrators, or simply “recognized experts” – to diagnose problems and effect appropriate repairs. The ability to “reach back” to assistance personnel from a remote location is highly desirable. The type and amount of data, communications, data analysis, and security are all critical parts of this project. Historical and near-realtime data may consist of alarm logs, sensor repair history, video snapshots or clips, and other status or performance information. Two-way communications would facilitate remote diagnostics and could be used to establish a virtual presence. Since system performance and status will always be a classification issue with security of a facility, the appropriateness of commercially available, standard methods for protection of this information during transit is also being researched and will be highlighted.