The testing, which has taken place over 18 months, has been undertaken on a live 21CN network in order to understand how communications equipment is affected by the network.
A statement from the BSIA said: “BT has been the only communications provider that has fully engaged with the security industry on this network change and this has led to the creation of a specific security equipment test plan, which provides a rigorous sequence of tests that covers the various signalling formats used in the industry.”
BSIA technical director Alex Carmichael said: “All BSIA communications equipment manufacturers have attended the BT facility in Swansea and tested their core products against the BSIA test plan. Today we are publishing the results of this work in order to inform the industry further on the effect that 21CN will have on equipment.
21CN compatibility
“The test results focus on both 21CN compatibility and the additional network delay introduced by the technological change to the network. Reading the results on their own may not provide a straightforward answer to whether certain equipment is at risk as there are two other factors that can affect the overall delay of alarm signals. These are the type of receiving equipment and the type of network it is transmitted on.
“To assist with this, BSIA has also produced a web based risk calculator which allows you to enter the two fundamental values under consideration, those being the communicator delay and the receiver processing delay. Once these values are entered, a graphical representation is produced showing you the potential risk of failure on each of the known network routing configurations.”
Progress with security equipment
BT 21CN project director, Mike Piggott, said: “We are pleased with the progress made with security industry equipment manufacturers in testing hosted at BT’s Swansea testing facility, part of the live 21CN network already rolled out in South Wales which to date has carried in excess of thirty million calls on approximately 75,000 migrated lines.
“We believe the publication of these test results is an important step in informing the industry of the facts around 21CN compatibility in advance of planned further migrations.
“It remains the responsibility of suppliers/manufacturers to ensure conformity of CPE with relevant standards and published interfaces.
“Testing is important because communications providers like BT cannot control the design and manufacture of CPE by third parties, and so cannot be liable for apparatus which does not conform to such standards and interfaces.”
Visit the new 21CN web area on the BSIA site, which features test results and the risk calculator.
