The Physical Security Interoperability Alliance (PSIA) announced the availability of its Access Control and Intrusion Detection Profiles as well as a tool for testing whether products conform to these profiles. The profiles will enable manufacturers to quickly adopt PSIA specifications by complying with a smaller subset of interoperability requirements, and expand plug-and-play compatibility across the security ecosystem, said David Bunzel, Executive Director of PSIA. The testing tool ensures integrators and end-users that products complying with each profile will interoperate smoothly with each other.
The Physical Security Interoperability Alliance (PSIA) announced the availability of its Access Control and Intrusion Detection Profiles as well as a tool for testing whether products conform to these profiles. The profiles will enable manufacturers to quickly adopt PSIA specifications by complying with a smaller subset of interoperability requirements, and expand plug-and-play compatibility across the security ecosystem, said David Bunzel, Executive Director of PSIA. The testing tool ensures integrators and end-users that products complying with each profile will interoperate smoothly with each other.
Profiles are common tools in technology standards and address a particular use case within a rich standard or specification. The access control and intrusion detection profiles draw their data elements from PSIA's broader Area Control Specification. The specification is very deep and encompasses many combinations of security use cases, said Larry Lien, Chairman of PSIA, and VP of Product Management for Proximex, a Tyco International Company.
The profiles test tool certifies that a product or system fully complies with either or both of the new profiles to ensure plug-and-play interoperability. Honeywell, Inovonics, and Kastle Systems are among the vendors who have used the tool to test conformance with the profiles. Additional vendors are using the tool and expect to announce conformant products soon.
The PSIA profiles test tool encompasses two distinct testers that simulate both “host” side systems as well as “device” side systems for profiles compliance. The tool's simulations capabilities help vendors test and validate their PSIA compliance throughout the product's design and development phases, said Neelendra Bhandari, Engineering Manager of Honeywell Security.
A large group of companies lead the PSIA profiles development, which reflects a broad range of industry requirements, said Lien. The profiles working group includes Assa Abloy, HID Global, Honeywell, Ingersoll Rand/Schlage, Inovonics, Kastle Systems, Mercury Security, Proximex and UTC/Lenel. Mohammad Soleimani, Kastle's CTO and Executive VP chairs the group.
We're very excited about how the profiles will increase the number of standards-based products in the physical security world,” said Bunzel. “Consultants, integrators and end-users will have many more choices for building powerful security solutions with low total cost of ownership.”