Indian Defence Review

Functional Characteristics

It is critical to define the key functional requirements before designing the solution. This is perhaps the most important part, as designing functional requirements requires a simultaneous and in-depth understanding of security requirements as well as of the state-of-the-art in electronic security technology. These requirements should be the “Heart and Soul” of any system developed. With the installation of this IP based system, the following objectives are intended to be achieved.

•  Early, Wide Warning Zone. The system shall provide detection and alerting against human and vehicle-sized intruders, in a 3D zone within at least 20m on both sides of the fence-line and above.

•  Reliable Alerts. The system is to detect all intrusions with very low false alerts, in environmental conditions ranging from clear day light to all weather and all lighting conditions including low light up to dark moonless night (0 lux), dawn/dusk and cloudy skies, fog and rain.

•  Automated Verification. The system is to provide for hands-free intruder verification and tracking of target throughout its footprint. System shall cater for automated re-acquisition and continuous tracking independent of temporary occlusions.

•  Continuous Automatic Intruder Tracking. The intruder needs to be automatically tracked continuously for at least 20m before and 20m after fence line/ boundary wall in three dimensions for seamless handover to quick response team.

•  Situational Awareness. The system is to provide an aerial view of intruder’s location. Geo-registered rectangular coordinates shall be continuously reported right from the detection sensor, along with intruder tracking information. Such information could be sent directly to quick reaction team and control centre for quick response without human intervention.

•  Multi-sensor Co-ordination and Handover to QRT. The system is to have the capability to carry out target tracking using its geo-registered rectangular co-ordinates to enable correlation between multiple sensors, camera, microwave and radar including easy sensor-to-sensor handover and multi-sensor validation.

•  Full-IP architecture. The system is to be of full IP for easier integration with other systems and operations. The system is to use Standards-based IP architecture (non proprietary).

•  Interoperability. The system is to provide seamless integration of PIDS with Security Operations Centre (SOC) without middleware or custom integration.

•  Scalability. The system should be capable of linear scalability without additional central processing hardware. There shall exist the possibility of expanding the configuration of the system by integrating a new Camera or Monitor into the system. The system should be scalable to enterprise level so that it is operative at different locations seamlessly.

•  Environmental Protection. Each sensor enclosure is to be sealed, nitrogen filled and pressurised, to prevent moisture incursion.

•  Maintainability. All equipment shall be designed to ensure continuous satisfactory operation of not less than fifteen years under the environmental conditions specified.

•  Zones. The system’s field of view can be divided into a collection of independent zones or regions, each with the ability to specify different alert criteria. Zones shall be capable of being designated as alarm or mask types.

•  Analytic Modes. The system shall provide the following Analytic Modes that are programmable with ease in the field of view of the sensor:

.  •  Time-based alert policies

.  •  Motion zone

.  •  Multi-Mode tripwire

.  •  Directional Zone violation

.  •  Loitering

.  •  To and From zone

•  Target Attributes. The system shall provide the following Target Attributes and analytic modes that are programmable with ease in the field of view of the sensor:

.  •  Height

.  •  Width

.  •  Speed

.  •  Direction

.  •  Aspect-ratio

.  •  Absolute Geo-registered Rectangular Coordinates (Lat/Long, Grid Reference)

Surveillance of Areas Within

After the intrusion, if the intruder manages to evade interception and comes into zone where surveillance is not available, another system provides area coverage. This system can be integrated at the SOC with ease. It consists of a rotating thermal camera mounted on a mast to provide uninterrupted coverage of the area of interest in all weather and day/night conditions. This system can also detect drones, low flying small aircraft etc which tend to breach the perimeter by air.

Cost Factor

The cost of such systems would be in the region of 0.2 to 0.3 per cent of the value of the assets being protected. A small price to pay for enhancing security.

Conclusion

Effective enhancement of security needs to have components that carry out continuous gapless ‘Surveillance’ of the perimeter, through day and night, in all weather and outdoor conditions (vegetation, forest, over water) and the area within. To achieve this, the system needs to ‘Detect’ the object/entity, ‘Identify’ whether it has hostile intent and if so the “What, Where and How Many” of the threat, before they can attack the targets within the airfield. All this needs to be accomplished in good time to ‘Intercept’. Once intercepted, the identity of the individual can be ascertained through other means that will be more effective.

Empirical studies have proved that the attention span of a person watching a monitor is not greater than 22 minutes. Registering any matter of consequence if he is given an array of 16 camera views is impossible. The surveillance system needs to be ‘Intelligent’ in that it should be able to weed out false alarms that are generated due to moving clouds, their shadows and animals; ‘automatic’ so that it provides an alert automatically when a target of interest is detected so that the Officer On Duty (OOD) is free to attend to other tasks on hand and look at the screen (Figure 1) only when an alert is sounded. This solution suggests installation of a system with intelligent, automatic, un-cooled thermal sensors as it will suit static establishments the best. It will be all weather with true Day and Night capability.