The Road to Open Systems
ONVIF's single standard brings benefits for end users and integrators alike
- By Jonas Anderson
- Jun 01, 2011
Providing a comprehensive, long-term security solution requires more than one manufacturer’s state-of-the-art technology; it requires a pathway for current systems to communicate not only with each other but also with systems of the future. End users want the flexibility to be able determine which products best suit their security needs for both today’s purchases and tomorrow’s upgrades without being locked into using solutions from a single manufacturer.
Standardization and interoperability, spurred on by the work of ONVIF—an open-industry forum that has led the charge for the past four years to bring standardization to IP technology in physical security—is enabling the security market to make significant strides resulting in better product choices, connectivity and return on investment for the end user.
Ensuring that the drive for interoperability and integration remains at the forefront in the industry is part of ONVIF’s goal. The forum’s ongoing work to develop a framework for global interoperability is also aimed at changing the current experiences of systems integrators and consultants who integrate network cameras, storage devices and encoders from different manufacturers.
Today’s end users recognize the benefits of an IP-based physical security system: remote accessibility, flexibility, cost-effectiveness and future-proof scalability. More often than not, they request a security solution that avoids single-vendor lock-in. But experienced integrators also know that, unless interfaces have already been written to enable devices from different manufacturers to talk to one another, creating an interoperable system from multiple vendors can require an investment in manual configuration
and testing.
Creating such an integrated IP system from different manufacturers’ components to meet end users’ needs can be an expensive and time-consuming task, even for the most nowledgeable, tech-savvy professional. But for integrators and end users, the wait is over for being able to identify among truly interoperable, IP-based physical security solutions among a vast sea of network video transmitters, such as cameras or encoders; receivers; video analytic solutions; storage devices; and other related systems from hundreds of different manufacturers. The introduction of ONVIFconformant products now provides end users and the security market at large with a greater freedom of choice to select best-of-breed IP-based physical security solutions from disparate manufacturers and has helped to drive the migration from analog to digital solutions, bringing the benefits of network video to everyone along with interoperability, flexibility, quality and future-proofing.
Information Exchange
First released in 2008, the ONVIF specification defines a common protocol detailing how nework video devices exchange such information as live video, audio, metadata and control information. Conformant network video devices from different participating ONVIF manufacturers are able to communicate with each other by requesting and sending live-view video streams. The specification also ensures that conformant devices are automatically discovered and connected to network applications such as video management systems, which makes significant inroads toward solving overarching issues of interoperability within IP-based products.
The ONVIF core specification 2.0 includes core and test specifications to cover local and remote device discovery, device management, imaging configuration, media configuration, real-time streaming of audio and video, event handling, video analytics, and PTZ control and security. This latest version of the specification also encompasses recording, storage, display and interfaces for analytic devices.
As of April 2011, there were nearly 800 conformant products, identified with an ONVIF logo, that fall under categories such as network cameras, encoders, decoders, network video recorders and video management software. In early 2010, IMS Research estimated that the group’s 180 members accounted for more than 70 percent of the network video equipment market share. Since then, ONVIF’s membership ranks have swelled to nearly 300 companies.
But despite this progress, several specific questions remain. Security professionals still want to know how interoperability will contribute to the design, retrofit and management process. End users want to hear about the global benefits of standards and the potential cost benefits for their companies. Real-World Solutions for Interoperability Few in the security industry would dispute that when an end user implements a new or upgraded IP-based physical security system at his facility, his or her overriding goal is to install a best-ofbreed solution. End users want a system that is not only costeffective but also reliable.
Previously, if an Application Programming Interface (API) didn’t already exist between two different products from different manufacturers, it wasn’t uncommon for an end user to stick with one product from a single manufacturer instead of mixing and matching, for fear of technological challenges. Now, when end users see an ONVIF logo on a product to indicate that it follows the group’s specifications, they can be confident that the product has been through a rigorous set of self-certification testing to ensure it works properly with other ONVIF-conformant products.
This level of product interoperability helps remove much of the complexity of network video system design and product selection, as well as help decrease costs in several areas of the design/build process. Many projects include costly field hours spent by integrators to conduct product-acceptance testing, a crucial step to ensuring for the customer that components will work together as part of the overall system. ONVIF-conformant products can dramatically reduce the time spent in this process, since the devices have been pre-certified to work together, making for much faster results. In some projects, this line item can be dramatically reduced or eliminated.
A single, standard interface would also greatly reduce training time for technicians. In an industry already begging for qualified, network-proficient technicians, the need for training on only one network interface—instead of the constant fine-tuning to make products work together—would be a tremendous benefit to integration firms. Technicians would no longer be expected to learn the specific installation details and interoperability challenges of many combinations of products, but rather could focus on employing the best practices of the ONVIF standard.
Ensuring Future Compatibility
The same benefit is true for end users looking to expand, fix or upgrade their security system. Instead of culling together an IPbased physical security system from a single manufacturer, end users can update and upgrade their IP security systems by selecting best-of-breed products from multiple manufacturers.
This can also present end users looking to deploy new video system components on a national or global scale with significant cost savings. While there would likely still be benefits to a global system using identical components in all locations, now an ONVIF-conformant system can be built around existing ONVIF components—the Shanghai office, for example, can keep its 15 existing, ONVIF-conformant PTZ cameras because those devices are already certified to work with the new video management system being deployed to centrally manage locations around the globe.
Additionally, when it comes to replacing a broken device, such as an IP camera, end users are no longer locked into replacing it with an identical match. An end user can branch out and use a camera with higher image resolution or different capabilities, or even a more cost-effective solution. The overriding benefit is being able to select the solution that best fits your security needs and your budget.
Because of these benefits, the market has begun to see consultants and end users incorporate the ONVIF name into specifications, instead of specifications identifying a specific brand as part of the RFP process. Many end users or consultants currently specify that all devices in a security system need to be able to integrate with a particular brand of management software. But not all software has integrated with, for example, all camera manufacturers. Now, that RFP can say the interface between the management software and devices should be ONVIF-conformant, providing everybody with a greater freedom of choice.
How and Why It Works
The technology used by the ONVIF specification, Web Services, is equally suitable for other technologies such as physical access control, an area in which ONVIF is working to expand its scope. By including access control, ONVIF is further facilitating the integration of IP-based security and safety devices using a global open standard.
Standardization within access control has started with the definition of main application/use cases, establishing the basic technical architecture and the creation of interfaces for basic functions with the emphasis on system expandability. Main nodes in the drafted architecture are the identification point (e.g. a credential reader), the door infrastructure and an authentication and authorization engine. The first drafts are scheduled to be available in 2011.
This article originally appeared in the June 2011 issue of Network-Centric Security.