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Get the latest facts aboutWhy Mesh Radio is BetterBy Jim Burditt | Vice President of Sales, The Americas

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Out with the OldThere’s no time like the present for alarm dealers, installers, and central stations to take a good hard look at the rapidly changing security landscape and re-evaluate options for alarm monitoring. The discontinuance of AlarmNet-A is over and it’s common knowledge that traditional phone lines known as Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) or Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) are going away. Copper to fiber conversions are a known issue for signal transmission and call completion. When it comes to security systems, consumers and businesses alike are finding that land lines are not reliable. Public service carrier Voice over IP (VoIP) networks often don’t work with Fire Alarm Control Panels (FACPs) and involve having to pay a recurring monthly cost which can quickly add up to a big expense.

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Local landlines were shut down in Florida after a local Collier County phone company abruptly closed putting delivery of fire alarms in jeopardy.

MAR2015

Get the latest facts aboutWhy Mesh Radio is BetterBy Jim Burditt | Vice President of Sales, The Americas

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Say Goodbye toUpgrade, Replace, Repeat With monthly fees and multiple service calls, running daily operations on a cellular network can be very expensive. Cellular communications require a signal booster and present a multitude of issues including poor coverage, the constant threat of jamming, monthly cost and additional charges for aggressive check-in rates as mandated by Underwriters Laboratories (UL) requirements and Authorities Having Jurisdiction (AHJs). Long standing sunset issues are ongoing with 2G underway, followed by 3G and 4G on the horizon. The sunset cycle will likely shrink to 5 years due to increased performance demands as dictated by smartphone applications.

Some alarm communication systems such as GSM, 3G, LTE, etc. utilize the cellular spectrum which is public knowledge and thus susceptible to jamming. In the United States and most countries, it is illegal for private citizens to jam cell phone transmission. The fact that it’s illegal does not prevent it from happening. Some countries allow businesses and government organizations to install jammers in areas where cell phone use is seen as a public nuisance. There are plenty of low cost commercial off-the-shelf handheld jamming devices readily available over the Internet, therefore the jamming threat is real and can be costly. The potential impact to life safety, property loss, and damages cannot be ignored.

Any alarm communication system leveraging either unlicensed or cellular licensed spectrum is vulnerable to Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) and jamming. Mesh protocol is proven to be more dynamic, less disruptive, and more tolerable under RFI or jamming conditions compared to cellular technology. Due to the centralized nature of cellular design, a substantial territory could potentially be shut down seriously impacting a number of customers served by a single base station cellular tower.

All of the above issues impact deployment of alarm communication networks serving critical fire, life safety, and intrusion applications. While sticking with cellular may seem like a quick fix for now, the short term solution will end up costing network owners and operators big money in the long run.

Almost Doesn’t Count

Relying on Internet technology alone as a sole-path for alarm delivery is simply not reliable enough when it comes to fire and life safety protection for a multitude of well-known reasons in the majority of cases. Local Area Network and Wide Area Network infrastructure including equipment such as routers and switches require battery backup. Using the Internet as a standalone method of alarm monitoring is inadequate for the delivery of critical event signals, providing limited fault-tolerant and redundant capabilities. There is no comparison when it comes to competing alternatives, mesh radio technology is clearly the best option for security applications delivering the highest reliability available via smart routing and multiple path validation.

AT&T set the deadline for 2G sunset by the end of 2016, following a similar move by T-Mobile back in early 2014

moving away a portion of its 2G network in favor of deploying LTE to more

areas. Verizon plans to shut down both its 2G and 3G networks by 2021 as well.

DEC2016

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Northern Arizona experienced the loss of land lines, cell phones, cable, and internet connections. A local provider of all these services lost connectivity in its only set of fiber cables running from Southern Arizona to Northern Arizona due to the cable being cut near a riverbed in the area. This silent period meant no access to 911 emergency calls, no credit card transactions for merchants, and no access to cloud-based applications or data. Customers had to wait 6-15 hours before service was restored.

It’s Happening…Time & Time Again

Attacks on fiber networks in California and more than a dozen breaches in the Bay area caught the

attention of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and authorities. The attacker was able to slice

a series of cables that collectively carried billions of bits of Internet data simply by climbing into a

manhole at the mouth of California’s Niles Canyon.Residents in northwest California were impacted by another phone and broadband outage situation due to fiber damage caused by a case of vandalism between Santa Rosa and Ukiah. These types of events seriously affect public safety making the community at large vulnerable.

AT&T reported a similar situation in midtown Eureka of Humboldt County during a massive outage taking phones and internet offline, blame was placed on yet another cable slasher for the incident.

T-Mobile U.S. confirmed that it suffered a network outage that appeared to affect customers’ ability across the country to make voice calls over Wi-Fi

and LTE.

CTA riders in Chicago complained of dropped calls before the arrest of an alleged cell phone jammer using an illegal device. Federal law prohibits the selling, buying, or operation of such devices that block cell phone reception, police radios, and emergency calls yet they are still sold online for as little as $30-$300. Sprint also experienced a major network outage that affected both 3G and 4G voice and data services in Northeast U.S. markets.

Just recently, major Florida markets suffered Verizon network outages over a span of two and a

half hours. Thousands of users couldn’t make voice calls, while others reported no data service.

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It’s a fact, more and more instances of outages have been widely reported with increased frequency over the past couple of years.

Occasional network outages are nothing new for mobile network operators, but they’re becoming a more prevalent and invasive problem.

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Wireless Communications Technology Sunset Timeline

RETIREMENT BEGINS 2015

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For more information, go to www.aes-corp.com or call (800) 237-6387 or contact us at sales@aes-corp.com

© Copyright 2016 AES Corporation | AES-IntelliNet is a registered trademark of AES Corporation

Jim BurdittVice President of Sales, The Americas Jim Burditt is responsible for leading the US & Canada, Central America, and South America sales team including inside sales reps and outside regional sales managers. Jim drives all facets of sales activities including promotions and programs, corporate marketing, management of revenue and operating expenses. Jim brings the Company over 20 years of sales management experience and over 15 years of experience in the physical security industry. His expertise resides in building strong dealer networks as well as leading rapid-growth, highly-professional sales teams. Mr. Burditt is a graduate of Bentley University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance and an Associate of Science degree in Management.

About the Author, AES Corporation

Embrace the New With mesh radio you can count on, you only need to make one call to AES Corporation. Patented wireless mesh radio technology is not only lasting, but it is also the fastest and most reliable method of alarm communications available in the security industry. Private wireless mesh networks built using AES-IntelliNet® technology provide the quickest response time possible with the fastest signal transmission speed of only 1-3 seconds. Consider this fact when seconds count and lives depend on it, compared to alternative methods that can take up to 45 seconds. Mesh radio is easy to install and manage, saving time and money with less service calls and truck rolls. Mesh networks are infinitely scalable over large geographic areas and not susceptible to weather conditions or interference problems.

Professional network planning and proper design helps alarm dealers and installers deliver world-class reliability and peak performance of their networks. Installation of the right number of IP Links adequately spaced several miles apart serving a large number of Subscribers is a key component to building a highly resilient network at multiple sites that have different terrain and varied complexity. Preventative maintenance goes a long way when it comes to managing your network for optimum

network health and improved performance. Network management tools can also help drive down overall operating costs while supporting efficiency and ease of network expansion.

Mesh radio is the best alarm communications option for commercial, residential, corporate, educational, and military applications offering network stability, increased profits, higher reliability and speed, and control of critical event communications. Having a licensed private radio alarm communications system provides significant performance and cost benefits over legacy telephone, radio tower, or cellular based systems.