How to Monitor Your Network from Your Smartphone

Transcription

1 How to Monitor Your Network from Your Smartphone by Marshall DenHartog Your job frequently takes you away from your desk. You need a monitoring system that seamlessly integrates with your smartphone. This fast guide will teach you what to look for - and what to avoid... Marshall DenHartog President DPS Telecom Version 2.1 Released August 28, We protect your network like your business depends on it TM US $36.95

2 Mobile Phone DPS DPS Telecom East East Yale Yale Avenue, Fresno, California (800) (800) Fax Fax (559) (559) Copyright 2017 DPS Telecom All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this white paper or portions thereof in any form without written permission from DPS Telecom. For information, please write to DPS Telecom 4955 E. Yale Ave., Fresno, CA Call: Printed in the U.S.A 2

3 Mobile Phone DPS DPS Telecom 4955 East East Yale Yale Avenue, Fresno, California (800) Fax Fax (559) How This Guidebook Will Help You As your network grows and technicians become increasingly mobile, a technician could be out fixing sites for hours without having a chance to check for new alarms at the NOC. You can t afford for anyone involved in maintaining your network to be out of the loop. Whether they re in the NOC or at a remote site, network blindspots could result in preventable service failures. How do you make sure that technicians get the information they need, whether they re at a site or on the road, to keep your network up and running? Cellular technology is the answer. Smartphones allow you to handle your network management via web interfaces, alerts, voice messages, and text messages. Equally as important, alarm collection and reporting over wireless is a powerful operations tool. This white paper is designed to help you optimize your network monitoring systems to work with wireless solutions. Contents The Portable NOC: A Letter from the President Ways to Integrate Your Network Monitoring Systems with Mobile Devices Use SMS & Avoid 100% of Firewall Issues... 7 Putting the NOC in Your Hands: the Evolution of the Mobile Web Interface Leverage Wireless RTUs for Monitoring Portable/Inaccessible Equipment The Top 7 Pitfalls to Avoid When Evaluating "Mobile-Friendly" Alam Masters The Top 6 Features Your Mobile Interface Must Have What About My Sites Without Cell Coverage? Case Study: Dickey Rural Networks Gets More Site Control with Smartphone Support, Integrated Building Access System How to Correctly Deploy a Monitoring System & Receive Voice Alerts on Your Phone Extending Mobile Access to Sites Without Standard Transport Using Cellular RTUs The Clicker: Remotely Controlling Relays with your Smartphone While You Were Out: Acknowledgable Notifications on your Smartphone Total Access: 3 Ways to Provide Smartphone/Browser Accessibility to Your Sites The Touch-Tone Technician: Using Voice Alerts and DTMF Functionality to Increase Mobility Wireless Monitoring Solutions

4 The Portable NOC A letter from the President At DPS, we understand that poor communication creates network visibility issues. It s no good if an alarm gets from the site to the NOC, but live personnel don't hear about the problem. An alarm has to get from the site to the technician qualified to fix the problem, or it s destined to go unresolved until service is affected. For a long time, you had to be in the right place to receive new alarms.. Technicians dispatched to handle one problem didn't have access to the NOC and new alarms until they returned to the NOC. This resulted in wasted time. After-hours, on-call technicians had to make sure they were by a land line in case an alarm came in. But having technicians in the field should not be an inconvenience to your network, and being on-call should not make your network an inconvenience to you. Eric Storm President DPS Telecom Your smartphone has the power to make network management both more predictable and convenient. Smartphones are hugely capable, granting you immense functionality even when you re out in the field. Where a decade ago you used to only make phone calls, you can now check your or access web interfaces. You can get text messages with greater detail, and you can use your phone s camera to capture on-site issues. This white paper is designed to help you adapt smartphones for use with your network monitoring systems, alleviating potential communication issues and making network management more convenient and efficient for you. Turning your smartphone into your personal, portable NOC will help you ensure that no network alarm goes unnoticed. It ll help grant you the freedom to leave the NOC and peace of mind when you do. Best regards, Marshall DenHartog President DPS Telecom 4

5 9 Ways to Integrate Your Network Monitoring Systems with Mobile Devices 1. Get a Master with a Smartphone Compatible Interface. As alarm masters improve, so do their interfaces. The best alarm master stations available support smartphones natively. Simple web access is not enough, as large format web applications simply waste too much of your time with scrolling and resizing. Some masters require an application to be installed, but alarm masters with native web-browser support are superior. They prevent technicians from ever being in a situation where they can t access the NOC because of missing or outdated software. With a mobile web interface, you can manage alarms as easily as you check your Configure automatic notifications direct to your technicians smartphones. With network monitoring systems that can send text messages or notifications direct to your phone, you can be sure that when an alarm occurs, technicians in the field will know about it. This is useful in any deployment but critical in 7x24 NOCs. 3. Acknowledgable alarm notifications help coordinate efforts on-the-go. With the right network alarm equipment, you can include acknowledgable links within alarm notifications. The technician can click on the link and let the NOC know that they have seen the alarm and are prepared to handle the problem. This creates quick, communication between technicians and the NOC, helping other technicians focus on unacknowledged alarms. 4. Use voice alerts to make sure technicians understand incoming alarms. On-call technicians might have a hard time understanding an alarm point message when they get that early-morning emergency call. Voice alerts can help mitigate any ambiguity about the nature of an alarm. With the right hardware, you can even set custom voice alerts, so you can make sure your technicians know exactly what the problem is when you have an emergency. The Mobile Web Interface for T/Mon LNX T/Mon LNX already has a convenient web interface you can use to get your alarm information on the go. The latest update for the T/Mon LNX alarm management platform automatically detects smartphone browser sessions and provides a mobile web interface, enabling you to conveniently manage network alarms right from your Android -based smartphone, iphone, or other smartphones. The new T/Mon Mobile Web interface displays standing/cos alarms across your network and allows you to acknowledge alarms or view alarm details while you're on the go, without booting up your laptop. Now, when you receive an alarm notification, you can log directly into the web interface from your smartphone and tap on your alarms to view detailed alarm information. Access text messages associate with alarms, so you can more easily diagnose and fix problems that other technicians have already encountered. You can even operate your control relays, right from your smartphone. The mobile web interface provides you with the information you need to maintain your network, in an interface sized perfectly for your smartphone, so you can navigate through your alarms on the go, quickly and easily. The T/Mon LNX Mobile Web Interface has been tested and proven to work with Android, ios, and other smartphones. Click here for a video containing more information about the mobile web interface for T/Mon LNX. For more information about the T/Mon LNX or the mobile web interface, contact DPS sales at or by at sales@dpstele.com 5

6 5. Configure notifications appropriate to your technicians and their schedules, so the right person knows about the right problem at the right place at the right time. 6. Add DTMF Functionality to alarm collection devices. Technicians on the go can have a hard time taking a proactive approach to monitoring. They get a call; they react. With DTMF functionality added to your network, technicians can call their sites and figure out site status on the go, all with the keypad on their smartphone. 7. Escalate notifications to make sure every alarm gets acknowledged. Technicians can miss alarm notifications for any number of reasons -- they could be in a cellular dead-zone, or just plain swamped with an existing list of duties. To ensure that no alarm goes unacknowledged, use network monitoring equipment that allows you to configure escalating notifications. That way, if one technician misses an alarm, another technician can pick up the slack, making sure that your network is always in good hands. 8. Remote control allows your technician to get more done from the field. RTUs with control relays allow you to remotely control hardware at remote sites, but, more often than not, there s no convenient interface for smartphone users. If they want to operate controls from the field, they either have to open up their laptop, or call-up someone at the NOC. Newer, more powerful master stations and RTUs allow for mobile-web or DTMF control operation, so your technicians can activate control relays with very little hassle or effort and get more done on the fly. 9. Where cellular coverage is unavailable, provide means for site-to-site (or NOC) communications. While optimizing your network monitoring systems to work with your mobile devices, you may encounter sites without adequate cellular coverage. Rather than leaving technicians in the dark at sites without cellular access, you should install an Order Wire capable or similar device, to keep the technician in contact with the NOC and his or her fellow technicians. An Order Wire system provides stable, private phone communications between your remote sites and the NOC. Order Wire systems with an OffNet option allow the technician to stay in the loop at all times. 8 T/Mon LNX Web Features Other Alarm Masters Can t Match 1. A mobile web interface. Monitor your alarms from your smartphone with the mobile web interface. Acknowledge alarms, view text messages, and operate controls, all without installing an app. 2. Detailed alarm notifications in plain English that your staff will immediately understand and take action on. Every notification includes full information about the alarm, including its severity, location, date/time stamp, and a user-defined description. 3. Immediate notification of changes of state (COSs), including new alarms and alarms that have cleared. You don t have to hunt to find out what s changed in your network T/Mon lists it for you. 4. Voice-Out Notifcations. so when you get that late-night alarm notification, you don't have to sort out a cryptic message to determine the meaning of a notification. You'll get a plain, voice message. 5. Text message windows displaying specific instructions for the appropriate action for an alarm. System operators, even without extra training, will know precisely what to do and who to call in case of an alarm. 6. Nuisance alarm filtering. Unimportant alarms that generate meaningless status notices or oscillate between alarm and clear conditions subconsciously train your staff to ignore the alarm monitoring system. T/Mon filters out nuisance alarms using multiple techniques, allowing your staff to focus its attention on serious threats. 7. Pager and notifications. Send alarm notifications directly to maintenance personnel, even if they re away from the NOC. 8. Derived alarms and controls that combine and correlate data from multiple alarm inputs and automatically control remote site equipment to correct complex threats. The T/Mon LNX Remote Alarm Monitoring System provides total visibility of your network status and automatically notifies the right people to keep your network running. Sign up for a Web demo of T/Mon LNX at demo 6

7 Use SMS to Easily Collect Alarms From Hard-to-Reach Sites By deploying wireless RTUs in your network, you can achieve superior visibility by bringing all of your remote sites - even the distant, hard-to-reach ones - under your monitoring umbrella. However, past wireless RTUs have created many problems. T/Mon Upgrade Discount Programs Do you have a T/Mon NOC master station? What about older T/Mon hardware? If so, you need to contact DPS to learn how much you could save on an upgrade to the new T/Mon LNX hardware. T/Mon LNX provides many advantages over earlier hardware platforms, so we've created some pretty interesting discount programs for our valued clients. We want you to have the best network management tools at your disposal (Take a minute to review the benefits list below). Wireless alarm reporting can provide you with visibility at remote sites or serve as a backup data transport. 4 Advantages of Wireless SMS Reporting: 1. Collect Alarms from Distant Sites - Just because a site is small and far way doesn't mean you can just overlook it. In this environment, it's important that you keep all of your clients happy. Past limitations on alarm reporting paths should no longer constrain you, your network, or your customers. With wireless SMS reporting, no longer is a faraway site out-of-reach. 2. Eliminate Third-Party Data Providers - By using direct SMS reporting, you can now transport alarms directly over the wireless network to your central NOC, instead of sending them over the public internet and through a firewall hole (see above diagram). This new technology simply involves using a wireless receiver connected to your LAN. Each triggered alarm will report an encoded SMS message to this wireless receiver, which passes the alarm data to your master for interpretation. This avoids the problem of being forced to work with a third-party data provider just to receive alarm information. In the past, you would have to pay recurring monthly fees for a static IP and a data plan. With wireless SMS receiver technology, you're no longer forced to work with these thirdparties just to receive alarm information. Key benefits of the T/Mon LNX platform: New Web 2.0 interface that includes animated analog gauges Mobile web interface for use with Android and iphone mobile devices -- requires no additional setup. See your alarms via WiFi or Cellular Internet Connection right on your phone. 6 10/100/1000 NICs, versus a single 10/100 in the NOC. With multiple LAN configurations becoming increasingly popular for security reasons, your T/Mon LNX can communicate on 6 networks while maintaining your segregation Processes more ASCII jobs, virtual polling loops, and more GFX connections Completely compatible with existing T/Mon EXP applications, such as the SQL History Agent and Voice Dialer On-board RAID 1 for true hard drive redundancy Better multi-tasking environment to allow more users to run more processes simultaneously. What T/Mon LNX discount will you qualify for? We want to make it easy for you to step up to T/ Mon LNX, so we've created some interesting discount programs. Finding out which ones apply to you is simple - just call your DPS Sales Representative at

8 3. Out of Band Advantage - Using a wireless transport for monitoring protects you from losing monitoring visibility during a major failure, exactly when you need remote monitoring the most. Wireless SMS technology can give you a reliable backup reporting path to boost reliability at any of your sites. 4. Prevent New Points of Failure - By circumventing a third-party provider for alarm transportation, this removes a potential point of failure in your alarm reporting chain. This means your monitoring receives a boost in reliability, because you're dependent on the service of one less company to transport your alarms. Fewer points in your alarm transportation path means there are fewer places for your alarms to fail. 5. Bypass Punching a Hole in Your Firewall - With your alarm data going to a wireless receiver, you're no longer using the public internet to receive alarm information. A wireless receiver will take the encoded SMS messages and forward them to either your T/Mon (or other SNMP manager) or straight to your phone. This bypasses opening a port to allow alarm traffic from the internet. Punching a hole in your firewall introduces new security risks. With an open port in your network, this means there is a public access point going straight into your network. Opening just a single port (no matter how obscure) for a single IP address is something many IT departments simply aren't willing to do. A wireless SMS receiver removes this unnecessary security risk, by allowing alarms to be sent over SMS into your network, rather than through an open port over the public internet - effectively providing an protective buffer by blocking wireless LAN access. Wireless-Ready RTUs Receive alarms wirelessly with these RTUs Even if your site is located out in the middle of nowhere, you can still receive monitoring coverage. These wireless RTUs allow you to provide a primary reporting path at sites without LAN or give you a reliable backup reporting path to sites with a primary transport. NetGuardian 216 SMS: 16 discretes, 2-8 analogs, and 2 controls Right-size capacity for smaller sites Web browser interface Wireless NetGuardian 832A G5: 32 discretes, 32 ping targets, 8 analogs, 8 controls 1 reach-through serial port Wireless connection option For a complete list of your wireless RTU options, visit: Leveraging SMS Technology for Superior Monitoring SMS reporting technology gets the additional alarm coverage you need, without all the extra hassle. Whether you want to add GSM/CDMA as a backup reporting path to LAN or use it as a primary data transport at a remote site, you shouldn't be forced into the trap of using a third-party data provider. Don't settle for inferior technology to wirelessly report your alarms, use cost-effective SMS reporting technology that won't compromise your network. SMS Interface Box - Wireless Receiving Technology The SMS Interface Box allows for alarm data to be transported wirelessly - without costing a fortune or punching a hole in your firewall. 8

9 Before Without the SMS Interface Box, you're forced to use third-party data providers and punch a hole in your firewall After Bypass firewall holes and thirdparty data providers with the SMS Interface Box and T/Mon Also you can receive SMS alerts straight to your phone 9

10 Putting the NOC in your Hands: Evolution of the Mobile Web Interface A web browser interface for your NOC helps ensure that you ll never be separated from your alarm data by proprietary software. You won t have to worry whether or not you have the right version of your NOC s interface software, or that you even have it installed. This both ensures accessibility, and it s maintenance-free. The Web Interface is a basic monitoring tool, providing access to your alarms and notifications when they set. It s a good way for on-call technicians to get access to alarms when outside the NOC, or for technicians on the go. Before the explosion in smartphone use, however, some users found the web interface useful only in situations in which they already had a laptop or workstation ready to go. It could take longer to boot up a laptop, start up a connection, and check the status of alarms than it took to call the NOC. So while, it was convenient in that it ensured accessibility, the web interface wasn t always the convenient tool that technicians in the field needed to get things done. Smartphones provided the power to check the status of alarms on the go, but most web interfaces, formatted for full-screen devices, required a lot of panning and zooming to use. To combine the conveniences of the smartphone and the web interface to the NOC, a few of the most forward-looking network alarm master stations have now implemented mobile web interfaces. These master stations recognize that a user is attempting to access the NOC from a mobile device, and issues a secure mobile version of the web interface, perfectly sized to your mobile device. Responding to touch-screen commands makes the mobile interface easy to navigate. Integrating features such as Text Messaging, Trouble Logging, and Control Operation right from the phone ensures that the user has quick access to the resources they ll need to quickly solve issues at your remote sites. A mobile web interface will dramatically improve your technicians' efficiency and proficiency. When considering an alarm master (or an upgrade), ensure that it supports a mobile web feature. The Top 6 Features That Your Mobile Interface Must Have Let DPS Help You Survey Your Network A Free Consultation at No Obligation to You Determining your alarm monitoring needs can be tough. If you ve got a busy job with a lot of responsibilities, you may not have a lot time to evaluate alarm systems and survey your remote sites. So why not get help from experts you can trust? DPS Telecom will help you survey your remote sites step-by step, making sure you don t miss any opportunities to make your network monitoring simpler, more effective and easier on your budget. Travis Mock DPS Sales DPS Telecom A DPS expert consultant can help your figure out what alarm system will most effectively meet your needs without overloading your budget. Our goal is to help you maximize your return on investment while minimizing your expenditure without pressuring you to buy a particular system. There s no hard-sell sales tactics. No harassing sales calls. No pressure to buy. We won t discuss specific equipment options until we ve helped you plan the right monitoring strategy for your network. For help surveying your network, call the sales engineers at DPS at Leverage Wireless RTUs for Monitoring Portable/Inaccessible Equipment Your wireless RTU can be used to connect to otherwise unreachable equipment: Portable generators - wirelessly receive alarms to monitor portable generators running during power outages. Emergency restoration trailers - Monitor trailers used during emergency restoration. Equipment on customer premises - It's there, but you can't get to it. 10

11 The Top 7 Pitfalls to Avoid When Evaluating "Mobile-Friendly" Alarm Masters Your alarm master is the all-important core of your monitoring system. If you want to remotely access alarm data (and even issue control commands) from your mobile phone, you need to choose a master that has the right combination of functionality. Here are 7 common pitfalls to avoid so that you'll be able to monitor your sites via phone after deployment: 1. It can't call you with a voice message. For critical alarms, there's nothing like receiving a quick phone call and getting up to speed. While a visual interface is an important part of any mobile monitoring strategy, phone calls are a better way to get your attention for very important alarms. A voice message alert will begin speaking when you answer the call and describe the alarm with good detail (severity, description, and site) so you can make a good dispatch decision. The very best alarm masters for mobile phone integration support on-the-fly generation of synthesized voice messages. This eliminates the need to pre-record a message for each alarm, and new alarms that you database into your system can instantly trigger voice alerts as needed. Also, a high-quality synthesized voice creates a professional "military grade" sound that inspires a fast response. 2. It can't send text message and voice alerts using your existing "on call" schedule. If you have a team to manage your network, it's likely that one or more members are "on call" at any given moment. If you don't choose the right alarm master, you'll never be able to import that schedule to control text message and voice alerts. A master that does have this capability will intelligently determine which person(s) to contact when an alert must be sent. The better master stations also accommodate temporary overrides for scheduled staff vacations. Finally, if an alert is not acknowledged within a few moments (ex. someone sleeps through a nighttime alert), your master station should be able to contact alternate people until the alarm is successfully acknowledged. Bridging the Wireless Gap - The SMS Interface Box The SMS Interface Box allows you to utilize wireless RTUs with your alarm master station without paying for an expensive third-party data provider or opening a hole in your firewall to receive alarms on your master station. Don't fall into the trap of using inferior solutions for wireless alarm reporting - proven SMS technology exists. Traditional wireless alarm reporting leaves you with these three problems: 1. Requires you to pay a third-party data provider for a static IP to report alarms. 2. Creates a new potential point of failure in your alarm reporting path. 3. Forces you to punch a hole in your firewall to allow alarm traffic - something many IT departments simply aren't willing to do. 4. Cost-effective 'texting plans' (as low as $2 per month for low volume scenarios). You don't have to be constrained by these limitations. By reporting alarms using SMS technology, you circumvent these problems while still gaining wireless reporting functionality in your network. How it works Rather than reporting alarms over IP, simply configure your wireless NetGuardians to send SMS alarm information to the SMS Interface Box. The SMS Interface Box then forwards the alarm information to T/Mon (or other SNMP manager) when polled over LAN or DCPx. The SMS Interface Box Receives SMS alarm information directly, so you don't need to deal with a third-party provider. 2. Provides a more straight-forward and direct link between your equipment - removing potential points of failure. 3. Bypasses punching a hole in your firewall for alarm data. This solution allows you to cheaply and easily deploy wireless RTUs or establish reliable back-up reporting paths in your network. 11

12 3. It doesn't have a built-in web interface at all. With the explosion of smartphone use, most network professionals have a full web browser in their pocket. This represents a great way to access your alarms at any time. Unfortunately, some alarm masters have not kept up with the technology curve and do not have a built-in web interface that's accessible from PC workstations security threats, many organizations place restrictions on what software can be installed on PCs and smartphones. Thanks to these policies, there's a very real chance that your monitoring deployment could be held up while you wait for IT Department approval that may never come. For this reason, it's unwise to select an alarm master that can only be accessed by phones running a dedicated application. and smartphone web browsers. 4.. The web interface it does have isn't designed with smartphones in mind. Before you rush out and select the first alarm master you see with a web interface, remember that all web interfaces are not created equal. Ask all vendors under consideration: "Does your alarm master's web interface automatically reformat itself for easy reading on a smartphone screen?" While modern smartphones can view just about any content designed for full PCs, large web pages require a lot of zooming and panning to view properly. A proper mobile phone web interface has larger text and is divided into smaller pages that require no zooming or horizontal scrolling. 5. Its web interface doesn't support SSL (HTTPS) security encryption. With security concerns growing larger than ever before, you need to protect your remote monitoring and control system from cyber threats. One excellent way to add a good layer of protection is by selecting a web interface that's encrypted. This is the same technology used to protect your financial information when you shop and bank online. At some organizations that are especially security-conscious, SSL encryption isn't so much a recommendation as it is an absolute requirement. 6. It relies on a dedicated smartphone app that requires installation and isn't universal. To counter Built-in web interfaces are a much better option for any alarm master, because they run inside your existing web browser without requiring any software installation at all. You also don't have to worry if you're using a new smartphone or a different OS, because a well designed web interface is universal. 7. It floods your phone with every single alarm that occurs, no matter the importance. All alarm monitoring, except in the quietest of networks, needs some form of nuisance alarm filtering. There are many miscellaneous status alarms (door alarms are a common example) that do not require a response from you or your team. These can flood your alarm display and blind you to the important alarms that come in. Mobile phones demand even more alarm filtering for two good reasons. First, you generally have a higher threshold for "important alarm" when you're out of the office. While on-duty NOC center staff just need help filtering the truly meaningless, you might only want to receive alarms on your phone if they demand an immediate response. Second, you don't have the same screen size on a phone that you do on a PC, so it's harder to view any given number of alarms. Your alarm master needs to help you by putting only important alarms on your phone's smaller screen. Click here to view DPS Telecom's 2012 Product Showcase for a listing of network alarm monitoring gear, including the mobile-web enhanced T/Mon LNX, to help you keep your network on a short leash. 12

13 Featured Application: T/Mon Mobile Web This white paper is all about helping you take your alarm information with you, when you leave the CO, when you're at the sites, or somewhere in between. The new T/ Mon mobile web application provides a shining example of these principles in action. How it Works: Your T/Mon LNX recognize the difference between a mobile device and a standard web browsing session. So, when you connect to your alarm master, whether it's over a cellular network or WiFi, you'll automatically enter a mobile web session. This prevents unnecessary scrolling and resizing when you just want to look at an alarm or text message when you're on the go. All you have to do is enter your secure login information to gain access to your mobile web interface. T/Mon supports HTTPS/SSL encryption, and allows you to control user rights as well, making the mobile web application accessible but not unsecure. Viewing Your Sites Upon logging in, you'll have the opportunity to pick between your standing alarms and alarms that have changed state (COS). Picking either option will take you to a list of sites with relevant alarms. You can either choose to see all of your alarms, regardless of site, or choose a site to narrow down your search. This ability to narrow down which alarms you view helps simplify alarm management, especially on your smartphone, where a full monitor's worth of alarms simply wouldn't fit. Using the breadcrumb navigation links at the top of the browser interface, you can quickly return to the sitesummary screen to view information about other sites. What's Currently Wrong in My Network? Back at the Home window of the mobile web interface, choosing your Standing Alarms will show you a list of points that are currently set in your network. You can narrow the problem by site or simply view all of your alarms. Alarms in the mobile web interface (as in the standard web and virtual interfaces) are color coded, showing you severity at a glance. The Site Summary view will display a color next to each site noting the highest severity alarm at each site, and each individual alarm is color coded to let you know the urgency of the alarm. What's Changed Since I Last Checked My Alarms? Clicking on your COS Windows will show you alarms that have changed state from clear to set or set to clear. From here, you also have the option to acknowledge alarms. Acknowledging alarms tells the NOC either that you've seen and are responding to a set alarm, or that you've verified the status of a cleared alarm. This tells the NOC both where technicians are, and where they need to go, helping quickly coordinate repair and maintenance throughout the network, all without worrying about dropped voice-calls or the time wasted in booting up laptops. You can acknowledge alarms either by tapping ACK next to an alarm, checking the box next to multiple alarms and tapping the ACK Selected button at the bottom of the mobile web page, or by selecting ACK Page or ACK Window to acknowledge an entire page or window's worth of alarms respectively. You can even tap on an alarm to view details, including the full alarm description and any associated text messages, and acknowledge the alarm from there.. T/Mon Mobile Web gives you the power to manage your network alarms on the go, and streamlines network management by helping automate communications between the NOC and techs on the go. T/Mon mobile web is available for T/Mon XM 6.7 on the LNX platform. For more information about the mobile web interface or the T/Mon LNX, contact DPS Sales at or sales@dpstele.com. 13

14 1. It must be secure. Using a mobile web interface means making your alarm information accessible, but only to the right people. The conveniences of the mobile interface should not compromise network security. Use a mobile web interface that can operate using HTTPS/ SSL encryption. Also, make sure that you can implement access profiles restricted for web access to help secure your network. 2. It has to work with your technician's mobile devices. Don't bother with alarm masters that require you to install an application that's only supported on one mobile OS or another. Even if the alarm master does support multiple platforms, all phones are different. They have different screen resolutions and capabilities. Ensure that it scales to the screen-size of your handheld devices, and that it works with all smartphone models in use at your company. 3. It must be intuitive. The mobile interface is meant as a convenience, something that allows you monitor your network on the fly. If it is cumbersome or has intricate visuals that take too long to load, it could be more of a curse than a blessing. A technician fumbling around with his phone is going to take longer to respond to and resolve alarms. If you're looking for a mobile-web enabled alarm master station, find one with a web interface that you and your technicians can pick up and use from the get-go. 4. It must allow users to acknowledge alarms. If your technicians in the field can't conveniently recognize and claim alarms, you won't be able to coordinate maintenance and repair efforts very well. Acknowledgable alarms help you make sure that multiple technicians don't respond to the same problem, and it helps the NOC know which problems are still outstanding and which ones are in the process of being fixed. 5. It must provide detailed alarm information. A good mobile web interface won't just tell technicians where the problems are. It will provide them with the necessary information they need to quickly resolve the issue. If a mobile web interface provides nothing more than a point reference, then it isn't doing its job. A mobile web interface should provide alarm descriptions and text messages with information explaining the nature of the alarm and what tools the technician will need to clear it. Protect Your Return on Investment Make Sure Your Vendor Offers Guaranteed Results In my experience, clients who think hard about cost justification have a more important concern than just price. They want to make sure that they re not spending their company s money on a system that doesn t work as advertised. Bob Berry Chief Executive Officer DPS Telecom That s smart. You have to be careful when working with equipment vendors, especially on protocol mediation projects. Most vendors can t support all your legacy equipment, and they don t have the development capabilities to make integration work. Some vendors will charge you large NRE (non-refundable engineering) fees up front for custom work, and give no guarantee that the resulting product will meet your performance requirements. Personally, I think that s a lousy way to do business. I give all my clients a 30-day guarantee: If my product doesn t completely satisfy you, return it for a full refund. If I can t give you a solution, I don t want your money. If I m doing custom work for you, I don t expect you to pay for it until I ve proven that it works to your satisfaction. Very few vendors will make that guarantee. But you need to demand the best level of service from your vendor to ensure that your implementation is 100% 6. It provides access to control relays. Control relays allow your technicians to be in multiple places at once, activating equipment remotely. Coupling this convenience with the mobile web just makes network maintenance that much easier, preventing a call to the NOC or the wasted time that the technician would normally have to spend getting out a laptop to operate controls. 14

15 What About Voice Communication Sites Without Cell Coverage? Most networks have at least a few sites that are precisely located in "the middle of nowhere." Whether they're on top of mountains or in a desolate corner of flat land, you're simply not going to have mobile phone service at or around these locations. Communications at these locations obviously can't involve the use of your mobile phone on the cell network. Even so, patching this communications gap with other technologies is an important topic for the mobile monitoring white paper because communications impacts both safety and effectiveness. If you choose the right remote monitoring gear, this actually isn't too difficult. One of the best techniques for getting voice communications at your sites is by deploying an engineering order wire system. Order wire is a private phone network used only by your company to manage your operations. When your technician has a question or needs to call in additional help, your NOC center can be reached by simply picking up a rack-mounted phone handset. If you're trying to contact a technician, you can send an "all call" (a.k.a. Hoot 'n' Holler) voice page through a speakerphone at all of your sites. The technician can then pick up the handset and begin speaking with you. If your tech needs to call any phone (including the mobile phone of a coworker who is within the cell network), that can be achieved by dialing out through an "off-net" order wire station that has a built-in POTS phone jack. You need to understand that orderwire now comes in a few different varieties. Only one is ideal. First, you have the older order wire systems that run on dedicated circuits. These use legacy technology, but they do have good communication features like "all call" paging and off-net access. Second are modern VoIP systems made by a variety of telecom companies that don't specialize in network management. While these do use modern IP to communicate, they frequently force you to live without the convenient communications capabilities of traditional order wire systems. Finally, an ideal modern order wire system communicates over IP/LAN but still incorporates "all call" paging and off-net. This design really gives you the best of both worlds. Even better, because the best order wire systems are produced by remote monitoring manufacturers (who obviously must understand network management practices), you can even order alarm remotes (RTUs) that include VoIP order wire in the same device. This not only reduces complexity and rack space requirements, but also reduces the amount of purchasing hassles you have to go through to get your gear. In addition to VoIP order wire, it's an excellent idea to have LAN access available using a network switch. That way, your on-site techs can access all of your LAN resources from your most remote sites. Just like order wire, a network switch can also be built into your alarm remotes to improve cost efficiency and reduce installation time. DPS Custom Technologies: Products Designed with Your Needs in mind DPS builds custom solutions with you in mind. If there s an alarm monitoring feature or device you re looking for that you just can t find, DPS may well be able to make your dream-product a reality. DPS custom solutions: 1. Don t cost extra with a minimum order 2. Don t require you to lock into a purchasing agreement. 3. Don t require a long lead time 4. Are supported by trained support engineers, just like any of DPS Telecom s products Don t settle for a patchwork of products that don t quite fit the bill when you can get products perfectly designed to fit your needs from DPS Telecom. Contact DPS Sales at to discuss potential solutions today. Visit DPS Labs to see what new technologies we ve got in the toolbox, then send a message to the Engineering dept! 15

16 Case Study: Dickey Rural Networks Gets More Site Control with Smartphone Support, Integrated Building Access System Dickey Rural Networks (DRN) has provided telecommunications, Internet, and television services to 7 counties in the North Dakota Region and 2 counties in the South Dakota region since Over the years they've expanded their services to local and long distance phone services, custom calling features, voice mail, small and large business telephone systems, special circuits, high-speed and dial-up internet services, personal internet security services, wired and wireless network consulting, web design and hosting, business system software design, and television services. DRN's extensive network spans a wide geographic area of almost 100 square miles. Nolan Baldwin, a Central Office The whole concept is to see little things before they can become big things. Technician, works with telephone switching equipment. He deals with equipment vital to DRN's daily operations, such as backup generators and server cabinets. With this equipment located at different remote sites and outbuildings, Baldwin tracks many access points for their personnel and outside vendors. Physical security over DRN's interior and exterior operations is a serious issue for him. Smartphone support makes it easier to be "on call" For Baldwin, one key feature of the T/Mon master is the web interface, which is compatible with his smartphone. "It used to be that, when you were on call, you had to wait at home near a phone," he said. Now, Baldwin can make sure his network is "all green" from just about anywhere, including the stands of a stock car race, as you can see in the included photo. An integrated Building Access System adds total site control Baldwin operates with a fully-integrated T/Mon NOC alarm master with a collection of NetGuardians to monitor exterior operations. Their Building Access System to monitors interior operations like building entry, remote site access, and cabinet entry. Nolan Baldwin monitors alarms from his smartphone With T/Mon and the NetGuardian already in place, Baldwin can integrate the Building Access System at an incremental price, associated with the necessary keypads and ECUs. And with the NetGuardian's expandable capabilities, a single unit can support up to 6 building access systems. Baldwin uses the BAS to control multiple outbuildings, some as far as ft away from a host NetGuardian. BAS User Profiles allow for customized access across the network The Building Access System integrates building access functionality into your existing network monitoring systems 16

17 Baldwin makes full use of the system's capacity to create over 1,000 user profiles and codes. The system lets Baldwin easily keep track of every external and internal user. These codes can be customized to restrict users to specific locations and times. For enhanced security, BAS allows administrators to even drill down to sections within sites, individual doors, days of weeks, and time of day. "Internal employees have their own codes and access to almost everywhere," said Baldwin. "But it's the delivery people, carpenters, and outside vendors that only need access to a specific location for a specific period of time." The system makes it easy to dispose of codes and profiles, so that making changes doesn't leave Baldwin with his guard down. Special Building Access mode reduces nuisance alarms Baldwin's most utilized feature of the Building Access System is the "stay open" mode. This application temporarily overrides the door strike for a specific time frame. It helps avoid nuisance alarms from multiple re-entries, while still keeping login history. Baldwin uses the "stay open" mode as a discrete alarm input for his Building Access System. He uses it at up to 4 major locations, primarily those that shouldn't be frequented often and require a keypad for entry. If the stay open mode is activated or left on during hours of non-operation, notification is sent out immediately via , pager, etc. With all of these features, building security can be left unmanned until necessary. "If [a building] is left in "stay open" mode after hours, it will let us know and we can close it from home or wherever," said Baldwin. To stay ahead of network problems, Dickey Rural monitors "everything" I would be really uncomfortable not having the visibility that we have He makes full use of the system's alarm monitoring capacities for optimal network monitoring solutions. "The whole concept is to see little things before they can become big things," said Baldwin. Baldwin's fleet of NetGuardians monitor doors, temperature, and even generators. Derived alarms keep him informed when the systems undergo routine testing and everyday monitoring of his backup generators. "The newer ones have an alarm point that tells us that the generator is running, the load is transferred, and it's happening because a test is in progress," said Baldwin. When artificial or non-critical alarms go off, the NetGuardian intuitively ignores these alarms so that he's not bothered with meaningless alarm data. "If the power goes out and everything functions as it should, it just shows us as a status," said Baldwin. "If power goes out and something doesn't function, then it becomes a critical page". Ping alarms warn when links go down - before customers report the problem... With their extensive wireless services, network downtime is a critical hazard to their operations. Ping alarms constantly Since switching to the T/Mon, it's been error free. monitor for broken connections, giving Baldwin quick notification as soon as one is down. Baldwin used this feature on the NetGuardian to consistently monitor remote equipment that delivers Internet to customers via IP links. With rapid notification with the NetGuardian, Baldwin is able to respond quickly while minimizing downtime. "If the link goes down, we'd know it usually before we get a customer report," said Baldwin. "It gives us a heads-up to get it fixed." Tech support is "very helpful" in the rare event of trouble Since his implementation of T/Mon NOC, Baldwin has seen less network threats. "Since switching to the T/Mon NOC, it's been error free," said Baldwin. When trouble does arise, DPS tech support is behind him every step of the way. "Everything's positive," said Baldwin. "They're very helpful when we have trouble, which has been rare". With better control over his network, Baldwin is able to protect his unmanned remote sites. Baldwin knows that early, detailed alarm notifications mean less customer churn and downtime. "I would be really uncomfortable not having the visibility that we have today," said Baldwin. 17

18 How to Correctly Deploy a Monitoring System & Receive Voice Alerts on Your Phone If you want to monitor your network from your mobile phone, voice alerts are one excellent tool for doing so. Here's an example: One evening in May, you receive a phone call. The automated voice of your network monitoring system tells you that your HVAC system has failed at your "Northwestern Microwave Tower" site. Since the weather has been quite cool recently, you don't anticipate that the building's internal temperature will heat up too quickly. Especially with nightfall approaching, the site should easily make it through the night at a reasonable temperature level. In the morning, you can drive out to the site and fix the HVAC problem. Since this alarm doesn t seem terribly urgent, you press "1" on your phone to acknowledge the alarm. Your monitoring system says "Goodbye" and hangs up. Unfortunately, the outside temperature has been changing rapidly as summer approaches. Without much of a nighttime cooling effect, your site is heating up quickly. A few hours later, you receive another phone call from your monitoring system: "Critical Alarm at Northwest Microwave Tower. Temperature at 95 degrees." Now you know that you have an emergency. You press "1" again to acknowledge the alarm and immediately drive out to the site. With a prompt response, you're able to prevent a thermal shutdown, a service outage, and hundreds of upset customers. Notice in the example how effective the phone alerts were. After both phone calls, you knew exactly what was happening at your remote site. While you obviously need to make an improvement in the urgency you assign to HVAC failures, your monitoring system ultimately got the job done by providing a second warning that temperature had indeed risen to service-threatening levels. This is precisely what makes phone alerts, although technically less sophisticated than smartphone web interfaces, so valuable. Even today, a phone call gets your attention quickly. It's not lost in a flood of s or text messages. Also, a phone call can optionally go to a land line. So how do you select a monitoring system that can intelligently send you voice alerts? First, you need to consider the size and scope of your network. That's because voice alerts can be generated at two different monitoring layers: your alarm remotes and your alarm master. DPS Support, Live Engineers: Ready to Help You Go Mobile DPS Telecom is as invested in your network's uptime as you are. That's why DPS provides live support, with emergency support available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. As you increasingly look to ways to take your network monitoring systems on-the-go, DPS Telecom is prepared to support you every step of the way. Whether you're Chris Hower Senior Support Engineer setting up custom voice notifications or working with the new mobile-web interface for T/Mon, DPS Support are ready to help. And the person you talk to at DPS will never be - as it is at so many companies - an untrained intern or an outsourced contractor reading from a script. Every DPS support tech is an engineer at DPS with experience working with your system. When you call DPS Tech Support, the people you talk to know how to use the system. They've installed it, actually set it up and done the things you're trying to do. Or they've helped design the products you use. It's a big difference from the tech support norm. At DPS, you talk to people who know how the product works in the real world, and they've made the product work in real-life installations, so you can be sure that whenever you call in, you'll get to the bottom of a problem. Tech support's close relationship with engineering means that they see every product to go through the custom engineering process. It's likely they even tested it. So, even if you have a one-of-a-kind, custom-engineered product, you can be sure that the DPS support staff can handle whatever problem you encounter as you transition to a mobile friendly environment. To speak to a support representative about implementing your DPS mobile-friendly network monitoring system, contact DPS Telecom Support at , day or night. Click here to visit DPS Telecom s TKP repository for quick tips to configure and voice notifications, or other features for DPS equipment. 18

19 If you have a small or medium network with fewer than 10 sites or so, you can get good results from voice-capable alarm remotes (a.k.a. remote telemetry units or RTUs). Just make sure that the remote you select has telco-grade build quality, a convenient web interface for unit configuration, and the ability to synthesize voice messages based on your custom text. Since RTUs have less processing power than alarm masters, you shouldn't expect to find on-the-fly voice generation on an RTU. Instead, look for a device with a software utility that generates voice files and saves them to the remote's non-volatile memory for later use. If you're looking to gain voice alerts from existing remotes, you can install an accessory that'll send voice alerts for your already databased points. However, if you're planning to install voice reporting accessories, don't bother with small, plastic voice reporting accessories that'll only send a few generic alerts, no matter what alarm sets. Install a LAN-based voice reporting accessory that can send voice alerts for multiple RTUs. This will provide better, more sophisticated voice alerts while costing less over-all and taking less time to implement. Of course, if your network has a dozen sites or more, it's just not practical to manually coordinate an alarm remote at every site. At this network size, voice capability isn't as important at the RTU level. Your RTUs will simply send alarm information to your central master station via SNMP A diagram of the SiteDialer for NetGuardians providing Voice Alerts via LAN or another open protocol (I've written plenty of other white papers on the dangers of getting trapped using one manufacturer's proprietary protocol). After receiving alarms, it will be your master station that will be responsible for generating voice messages and calling your phone. Setting up your voice alerts at the alarm master level offers several horsepower advantages. Because masters are more powerful than RTUs, the good ones are able to generate voice clips on-the-fly. This ensures that your voice files never become outdated after you update your alarm database with new text descriptions. Also, alarm masters are able to survey your entire network of RTUs for alarm conditions. With this "bird's eye view", intelligent master stations will be capable of analyzing root causes and calling you with an overarching problem. Imagine getting a flood of alarms when a regional power failure knocked out several of your sites. A smart alarm master will be able to detect the root cause, suppress all the detail alarms, and call you only once to tell you that "a major power failure has occurred and multiple sites are unresponsive." Once you've determined whether your RTUs or your alarm master will be responsible for sending you voice alerts, you need to make sure that you can customize the alarms that will trigger a voice message. You obviously don't want to be called in the middle of the night for a status message or minor problem that can wait until the morning. For your phone alerts to be effective, you can't be overwhelmed by them. You need to make certain that every voice alert refers to an important alarm that needs attention. Finally, don't forget that some monitoring systems require you to jump through the hoop of recording a voice message for each and every alarm. It's much faster (and sounds more professional) when a high-quality automated voice is generated automatically based on your custom text alarm description. A diagram of the SiteDialer for T/Mon providing on-the-fly voice alerts 19

20 Extending Mobile Access to Sites Without Standard Transport Using Cellular RTUs You may find that, despite your efforts to modernize your network monitoring systems, you may still have some stubborn sites with limited connectivity or no connection at all. How do you integrate these sites into your monitoring network? How can you make them a part of your new, mobile-capable network monitoring system? The first step is to find a cellular capable RTU. Manufacturers of network monitoring systems have long realized that your remote sites don't necessarily have the same connection options as your CO, and that some sites that don't necessarily house operational equipment. For sites outside your normal connection path, manufacturers are now building GSM and CDMA RTUs to provide means to monitor your most remote sites. Beyond simply finding a cellular RTU, you'll want to find a device that both fits your site and best integrates with your increasingly mobile network operations. Options for some of the better cellular RTUs include: Voice Alerts. It's likely that your remote site without standard connectivity or little or no operational equipment won't often require your attention. But you know the saying: "out of sight, out of mind." When a problem does arise, you don't have the time to fish out a single alarm point to determine it's location and meaning. Voice alerts remove any ambiguity from an alarm, so you'll know exactly what the problem is when something goes wrong. Redundant or Text notification on your phone. If your site cannot reliably communicate with the NOC, or your remote site exists outside your normal monitoring systems, having the RTU send or text messages straight to your phone can help you keep up with your site, even if your site can't keep up with the NOC. Redundant notifications or escalating notifications make sure that the RTU can always get a hold of someone when there's a problem. Easy Migration Path to LAN. A site may not have LAN connectivity right now, but that doesn't mean it'll always be that way. Deploying wireless RTUs New From DPS, GSM/CDMA Cellular Voice Reporting RTUs DPS Telecom recently launched the CellVoice series of remote telemetry units, designed to send voice notification from sites without available LAN transport. With the CellVoice line, you can setup voice notifications that not only tell you what alarm point has set an alarm, but actually provide a brief description of the alarm, so you ll know what s wrong without having to check your database. With CellVoice remotes from DPS, you can provide reliable network monitoring from anywhere you can pickup a cell signal. The CellVoice line also offers DTMF call-in functionality, so you can check on your alarms with a simple phone-call. You can even operate the units' control relays with touch-tone commands, putting you in total control of even your most remote sites. CellVoice 16 Based on the popular NetGuardian Voice 16, the CellVoice 16 is perfectly designed for your mediumsized sites, offering 16 discrete alarm inputs, 8 analogs, and 2 to 18 control relays depending on your build option. The CV 16 also sends traps to your SNMP manager and provides notification for alarms as well. CellVoice 4 The CellVoice 4 is designed after the NetGuardian LT, to provide visibility at your small, outlying sites. It supports 2 or 4 discrete alarm points, an integrated analog sensor to measure the unit s environment with an option for an external temperature sensor, and a single control relay. The CellVoice 4 allows you to acknowledge alarms and operate the control relay by dialing in, so you can manage your site with a simple phone call. Don't leave sites without available transport unmonitored. Take charge at your remote sites with the remote that provides cellular notification, so you don t have to worry about available transport to know what s going at your sites. For more information about the CellVoice products from DPS, call DPS Sales at

21 that also support LAN connection is a great way to add monitoring now while keeping an eye on the future. You'll save money on the wasteful cost of buying another, LAN-ready RTU when the time comes, plus you'll get the benefits of remote monitoring now. This will save you tons of money on Cap-X and Op-X expenses while boosting the reliability of your network. The Clicker: Operating Relays from your Smartphone Your smartphone can do just about anything. It's an amazing tool. So are the control relays that allow you to operate equipment on-site without rolling a truck. Wouldn't it be great to marry the two technologies? With a few tweaks to your network, you can make your sites cellular-accessible, so you can operate control relays right from your phone, making network management easy and stress free. Use RTUs and Masters with a web interface. A web interface allows you to access your sites just like your . If possible, use devices that offer a mobileweb interface that scales to your phone to prevent you from having to zoom and pan to access your control relays. The most convenient web interfaces provide clickable commands for your control relays, allowing you to tap to manage your network. Web interfaces ensure that you don't have to install an app and worry about versionization to access your sites. Look for devices with DTMF control features. The better DTMF-enabled RTUs allow you to simply make a phone call to your remote, press the right key (or keys) to navigate to your control, and operate the control with any touch-tone device. This prevents your technicians from having to install any special software or stay tethered to a workstation to operate controls Your phone can do everything else. Why shouldn't it also be able to help you remotely control your sites? With the right set of equipment, you can take control of your network with your smartphone. Get More from Your Gear: Add Functionality to Your DPS Systems SiteDialer Products Send custom voice notification for points already databased in your DPS equipment with the SiteDialer line from DPS. With the SiteDialer products, you can also acknowledge alarm notifications from your phone. Models of the SiteDialer are available for your NetGuardian remote or to send voice notifications on the fly, direct from your T/Mon Master. SiteDialers are available for direct use with your RTUs, or for your T/Mon alarm system. Multiple RTUs can take advantage of a single SiteDialer, allowing you to get voice alerts for multiple sites without purchasing and installing loads of new equipment. VoIP OrderWire The VoIP OrderWire (and OrderWire with Offnet) products plug right into your LAN and deliver free voice communications between sites. You ll contact sites directly using station-to-station mode, use the Hoot N Holler mode to make an all-call to page technicians, and setup conference calls using the Party Line mode. OrderWire products are also available from DPS with RTU functionality, so you can add capacity at existing sites while gaining telephony functionality. The OrderWire line allows you to bridge the gap where you don't have cell coverage. Even in the cell network, some sites will suffer poor coverage indoors. You need to be able to get a hold of your technicians, and your technicians need to be able to raise you, no matter where they are. You can even order your OrderWire system with OffNet, allowing an orderwire system to call out, so your technician can contact cellular phones and other sites outside the site-to-site network. For more information about these and other accessories for DPS Products, contact DPS sales at

22 While You Were Out: Acknowledgable Notifications on Your Smartphone The hardest part about managing your network is communication. Alarms may come in but they may go unnoticed. Someone at the NOC could notice the alarm, but they may not be able to communicate it to the right person. You need a way to make sure that your alarms make it to the right people. The easiest way to ensure that the right person is always notified of incoming alarms is to provide automated, acknowledgable notifications for your technicians. Acknowledgable notifications: Ensure that alarms are always communicated to the right people Provide a record of notifications, and whether or not the technicians have seen them Help the NOC coordinate maintenance and repair efforts by showing which alarms are under control and which alarms have not yet been acknowledged. Before smartphones, notifications were sent by pager and had to be acknowledged by phone call. The notifications didn't necessarily tell the whole story about the alarm, and technicians didn't want to waste time calling-in to acknowledge alarms that they'd already been notified of. While this may have helped you make sure that your technicians were aware of alarms, it wasted valuable time that could've been spent managing the network. With more capable network monitoring systems and smartphones, you can alleviate these problems, by sending a notification with a convenient link to acknowledge the alarm within the notification. When looking at network monitoring equipment (or updating existing equipment), look to devices that can: Send notifications with an acknowledgable link Send SMS notifications Issue voice notifications with DTMF acknowledgement Couple these with a robust web interface that allows the user to login from their smartphone and perform more complex operations, and you'll be sure that your technicians don't miss a thing. Voice-Capable RTUs Notify You of Network Problems Before Customers Do The NetGuardian line of RTUs now offers models with voice notification for alarms, providing detailed alarm descriptions in a crisp, clear tone. Voice alerts make sure you understand the alarm and aren't left to decipher a point reference and a generic critical, major, or minor description when you wake up to get that 4:00 AM alarm. They offer detailed descriptions in a crisp, clear voice. The NetGuardian voice notification remotes even offer custom voice alerts, so you can make sure that an alarm tells you what it means to your network. These NetGuardians are DTMF enabled as well, so when an alarm comes in, you can acknowledge it with the press of a button on your phone's keypad. With various makes and models, you can be sure that there's a Voice enabled NetGuardian with the right number of alarms to handle your sites. The NetGuardian Voice 16 This remote provides alarm coverage and voice alerts for your medium-sized sites. It features a web interface allowing you to enter full descriptions for your alarm points, that will then be repeated in voiced-alarm notifications, so when an alarm goes off at your site, you won't have to wonder what a point-reference or cryptic message means. You'll be prepared to respond. The NetGuardian LT G2 The LT G2 offers custom voice alerts for your smaller sites, with 2 or 4 discrete alarms, a single analog input, and 2 control relays. For more information about these and other Voice/DTMF enabled network monitoring systems from DPS Telecom, 22

23 Total Access: 3 ways to provide Smartphone/Browser Accessibility to Your Sites It s not enough to simply have a NOC gathering information. You can t be stuck your desk, staring at the master terminal day and night, least of all when your network is under assault from the elements. You need the information to come to you. When there s a problem, you need to know, wherever you are. Smartphones have the capability to view and webbrowse. Take full advantage of them and make them your link to the NOC. 1. The first step is to configure notifications. Many remotes allow you to configure notification direct from the unit. Or you can configure alarm notifications to be sent to you directly from your master station. A decent master s alarm notifications will provide you with all the information about the alarm, and some even include a link you can click to acknowledge the alarm. With these notifications, you can be fully aware of any problems in your network and take action from wherever you are. Factory Training at DPS: Learn to Use DPS Products to Monitor Your Network for Free Factory training events at DPS Headquarters in Fresno are designed not only to teach you to use DPS products, but to provide the information you need to more effectively monitor your network. At the free (for qualified professionals), four-day event, taught by professional engineers, you ll learn: T/Mon Databasing and Monitoring NetGuardians ASCII Alarm Processing SNMP Trap Processing Learn by Doing Training is provided in a hands-on environment as well: you ll be able to try out what you learn on powered, databased equipment. Personalized Training and Response More than that, you ll have a chance to sit down with DPS engineers to discuss any specific problems you may be having with your equipment, logistical issues with your network monitoring systems, or pitch ideas for new products you wish were available to help you with your network. What People are Saying About Factory Training Coming out for the whole training has really improved my confidence. The teachers have been great. DPS has really taken care of me. I now have the ability to use the equipment more to its full potential. -Matt Jordan (CO Technician, RT Communications) It was amazing to see the tour and everything that goes on. Combined with the hands-on training, you can t beat the class! -Glenn Greg (Technician, CT Communications) Classes are held regularly throughout the year. For more details about our factory training events or simply to sign up for a class, visit DPS Telecom s Factory Training Sign-up Page or factorytraining@dpstele.com Setting up notifications from T/Mon 23

24 2. While is a great tool for receiving alarms, depending on how your alerts are configured, whether you have your phone set to alert you of incoming mail by vibrating alert or not at all, you could potentially miss important alarm notifications. To increase visibility, you could add a device to your network that provides direct voice alerts for your phone. With voice notifications, when you get a page in the middle of the night, you won t have to wait for your eyes to adjust and your brain to convert text into meaning. Simply answer your phone and have your most important alerts spelled out for you, so you ll never miss a beat. 3. Even better, you can act on the notifications you receive using your smartphone s web browser, provided your RTU s or master station provide a browser-accessible interface. If they do, you can simply log in and view the issue through IP cameras at your site or operate controls remotely to solve the problem without having to roll a truck on your weather-worn site. With mobile web, you can check your T/Mon alarms using your mobile device. SiteDialer for T/Mon topology, showing how you can get voice alerts direct to your phone. When disaster strikes, what was "good enough" before may not be anymore. Even in good times, there s no sense in rolling a truck on a site when you could simply flick a switch from the convenience of your smartphone. Setting up notifications and web-access can help boost efficiency, reduce return-to-service times, and, most importantly, keep you safe when your sites are dealing with service-affecting issues. The Touch-Tone Technician: Adding Voice Alerts and DTMF functionality to Increase Mobility Without rolling a truck out to a site, checking on the status of your site usually involves using a workstation to either log into the NOC or an on-site RTU directly. While this is not particularly convenient to those sitting in the NOC, it does make things hard on technicians in the field or on-call technicians who are out of the office. To make network management more convenient for those who don't want to be handcuffed to their laptop or stuck sitting in front of a workstation, you can install remotes that support voice alerts and control to provide technicians with easily understandable alarm notifications and provide DTMF access to operate controls and check on the status of sites with a phone call. They'll also provide voice alerts when an alarm occurs, making alarm management easier on your on-call staff when they're out of the office. While some small, plastic devices can send voice alerts out from your existing remotes, they typically only send generic critical, major, and minor alerts, which don't tell the technician much about what sort of alarm has set at their site. To provide detailed alerts your technicians need to make informed decisions about maintaining their sites, you'll either want to install an RTU that natively supports custom voice notifications for each point, or use an IP-based voice-reporting device that can send voice alerts for multiple remotes. IP-based voice-reporting devices allow you to send detailed voice alerts from multiple RTUs over LAN. Rather than installing plastic, voice-reporting retrofits at multiple sites, you can install one IP-based device to provide detailed voice reporting for multiple devices. 24

25 Call DPS for Help Making Your Network More Mobile Friendly Retrofitting your network to make it mobile friendly may seem easy enough -- send alerts to the phone, and you're done, right? The truth is, however, that making your network mobile friendly without disrupting current operations can be somewhat difficult. The experts at DPS have tested and installed their equipment in a number of different environments, and can help you with tips and tricks to make sure that your mobile transition goes smoothly. If you don't get expert advice when implementing new mobile network monitoring features or devices, you may disrupt current operations. Incorrectly configured notifications and mobile phones can result in blind spots. The experts at DPS have tested their mobile software and configured alarm notifications of every conceivable type. DPS can help you go mobile without making mistakes that can result in network downtime or equipment damage. To contact the professionals at DPS for help making your network more mobile friendly or implementing voice and DTMF capable devices, call DPS Telecom Guarantees Your Success...or Your Money Back When you re choosing a network monitoring vendor, don t take chances. Be skeptical. Ask the hard questions. Above all, look for experience. Don t take a sales rep s word that his company can do custom development. Ask how many systems they ve worked with, how many protocols they can integrate to SNMP, and check for client testimonials. DPS Telecom has created hundreds of successful SNMP monitoring implementations for telecoms, utility telecoms, and transportation companies. (Check out for some examples.) DPS Telecom monitoring solutions are proven performers under real-world conditions. You re never taking any risk when you work with DPS Telecom. Your SNMP monitoring solution is backed by a 30-day, no-risk, money-back guarantee. Test your DPS monitoring solution at your site for 30 days. If you re dissatisfied for any reason, just send it back for a full refund. What to Do Next Before you implement technologies to make your network monitoring systems more mobile friendly, there s a lot more you need to know. There are dangers you want to avoid and there are also opportunities to improve your remote site maintenance that you don t want to miss. Get the information you need register now for a free, live Web demonstration of mobile-ready monitoring solutions with the T/Mon Remote Alarm Monitoring System. There s no obligation to buy no high-pressure salesmen just straightforward information to help you make the best decision about your network monitoring. You ll get complete information on hardware, software, specific applications, specifications, features and benefits... plus you ll be able to ask questions and get straight answers. Call today to schedule your free Web demo of SNMP monitoring solutions or register on the Web at 25

26 Get the Facts Before You Purchase Your Next Network Monitoring System If you found the information in this white paper useful, you ll also be interested in the other white papers in the DPS Telecom Network Monitoring Guide series. Each paper is a complete guide to an essential aspect of network monitoring. These are the facts you need to know to make an informed purchase of your next network monitoring system. The 3 Fatal Mistakes Telecom Executives Commonly Make When They Attempt To Maintain Service Levels at Remote Sites In the Face Of Reduced Staffing... And How You Can Avoid Them Your network monitoring can be an asset to your business, or it can be a threat. Here are the three fatal mistakes telecom executives make in planning their network monitoring-and how you can avoid the mistakes and gain a competitive edge. To receive this report, send an to: 3fatalmistakes@dpstelecom. com. SNMP Tutorial: A Fast Track Introduction to SNMP and its Practical Use in Network Alarm Management An introduction to SNMP from the perspective of network alarm management. It summarizes the history and structure of the protocol, and offers some concrete applications for using SNMP for network alarm management. To receive this report, send an to: snmpfasttrack@dpstelecom.com. Unsupported Legacy Network Alarm Monitoring Equipment: Why It s a Problem - What You Can Do About It Many companies are dependent on legacy network monitoring equipment that is no longer supported by the manufacturer. This guide to legacy support issues explains why legacy equipment is a dead-end-and how you can escape the legacy trap. To receive this report, send an to: legacytrap@dpstelecom. com. Give Us Your Feedback Send your comments to feedback@dpstelecom.com This all sounds great, but where can I get product details? If you would like to know more about the products and services mentioned in this white paper, visit and click Applications. or Products. 26

27 Wireless Monitoring Solutions from DPS Master Station Remote Telemetry Units (RTUs) NetGuardian 832A: RTU monitors 32 alarm points, 8 analog inputs, 8 control relays, 32 ping targets, 8 terminal server ports; features a wireless option. T/Mon LNX: Full-featured alarm master for up to 1 million alarm points. Features support for 25 protocols, protocol mediation, alarm forwarding, pager and alarm notification, Web Browser access, multi-user access, standing alarm list, alarm history logging. Available with accessories that allow for wireless alarm reporting. Supports SMS Interface Box (DCPx) for wireless alarm monitoring Mobile web interface for T/Mon LNX only Compatible with T/Mon Voice Dialer for verbal notifications to cell phones and land lines NetGuardian 216 SMS: RTU monitors 16 alarm points, 2 analog inputs, 2 control relays; reports alarms wirelessly via SMS.. CellVoice 16: Features custom voice alerts, SMS messaging, and notifications for 16 discrete points and 8 analog points SMS Interface Box: Works in conjunction with the T/Mon master station to provide wireless alarm reporting via SMS technology. CellVoice 4: Cost-effective design for smaller sites. Monitor 4 discrete alarm points and receive alarms wirelessly using SMS technology. Call for price and ordering information 27