Be prepared: Physical security is migrating to your (IT) domain

Tips on integrating video surveillance into your IT network without swamping bandwidth

This vendor-written tech primer has been edited by Network World to eliminate product promotion, but readers should note it will likely favor the submitter's approach.

Here is a re-enactment of typical crowd reactions during a soapbox presentation in a booth at the most recent Interop show:

Presenter: "How many people here care about security?"

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This vendor-written tech primer has been edited by Network World to eliminate product promotion, but readers should note it will likely favor the submitter's approach.

Here is a re-enactment of typical crowd reactions during a soapbox presentation in a booth at the most recent Interop show:

Presenter: "How many people here care about security?"

Half the hands shoot up.

Presenter: "How many people care about physical security? We're talking perimeter walls, not firewalls."

One or two hands raise.

Presenter: "How many people think video surveillance on the network is a good idea?"

No show of hands.

Presenter: "How many people think, 'There's no way you're putting video surveillance on my network'?"

Every single hand shoots into the air.

It is clear that video has a terrible reputation, and also clear that the IT industry on the whole is relatively unaware of trends in video surveillance and security. But, just as VoIP brought the world of telephony under the IT umbrella, the rise of network-based surveillance systems is bringing physical security under the network administrator's province as well.

THE FUTURE: Going where no cameras have gone before

With the physical security market now opting more and more often for IP-based devices over analog coax predecessors, IT professionals will be hard pressed to avoid the technology overlap for much longer. Still, it was evident at the show that a lot of education is needed to root out misconceptions about IP video.

The bottom line: Don't let the thought of surveillance video riding your network give you a panic attack. It's not the same "video" that network administrators often loathe.

Much of the fear is based on performance degradations experienced when dozens of employees simultaneously download popular YouTube clips or stream live events like March Madness or the Royal Wedding. But the surge in downloadable content is a different technical reality from surveillance content created and viewed internally by a limited group of viewers.

Here are four tips on how to manage this growing stream of network video surveillance and seamlessly balance this new format with other traffic sharing the network.

Bandwidth requirements

In the world of video surveillance, frame rates and resolution have a direct impact on bandwidth consumption. The more frames per second and the higher the resolution required by physical security personnel, the greater the bandwidth needed to send the video images. Also, the more activity you have in the "scene," the more data will be created. The first step is to determine how many frames per second and how high you really need the resolution to be to achieve specific surveillance objectives.

Take a high school scenario as an example. When students are between classes, hallway activity is much higher than when class is in session. During class breaks, school administrators want cameras to operate at a good resolution and high frame rate to capture enough detail to defuse fights and prevent vandalism. Conversely, they could accept throttling down the resolution and frame rate at night when there are no evening activities on the calendar.