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
Version 2.1
President Released August 28, 2017
DPS Telecom
www.dpstelecom.com • 1-800-622-3314 US $36.95

“We protect your network like your business depends on it”TM

Mobile
MobilePhone
Phone• DPS
• DPS
Telecom
Telecom• 4955
• 4955
East
East
Yale
Yale
Avenue,
Avenue,
Fresno,
Fresno,
California
California93727
93727• (800)
• (800)
622-3314
622-3314• Fax
• Fax
(559)
(559)
454-1688
454-1688• www.dpstelecom.com
• www.dpstele.com

© Copyright 2017 DPS Telecom

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this white paper or portions thereof in any form with-
out written permission from DPS Telecom. For information, please write to DPS Telecom 4955 E. Yale
Ave., Fresno, CA 93727-1523 • Call: 1-800-622-3314 • Email: [email protected]

Printed in the U.S.A

2
 Mobile
Mobile
Phone
Phone
• •DPS
DPSTelecom
Telecom• •4955
4955
East
East
Yale
Yale
Avenue,
Avenue,
Fresno,
Fresno,
California
California93727
93727• •(800)
(800)
622-3314
622-3314• •Fax
Fax(559)
(559)
454-1688
454-1688• •www.dpstelecom.com
www.dpstele.com

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 blind-
spots 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 inter-
faces, email 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 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
9 Ways to Integrate Your Network Monitoring Systems with Mobile Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Use SMS & Avoid 100% of Firewall Issues. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Putting the NOC in Your Hands: the Evolution of the Mobile Web Interface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Leverage Wireless RTUs for Monitoring Portable/Inaccessible Equipment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
The Top 7 Pitfalls to Avoid When Evaluating "Mobile-Friendly" Alam Masters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
The Top 6 Features Your Mobile Interface Must Have. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
What About My Sites Without Cell Coverage?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Case Study: Dickey Rural Networks Gets More Site Control with Smartphone Support, Integrated Building
Access System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
How to Correctly Deploy a Monitoring System & Receive Voice Alerts on Your Phone . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Extending Mobile Access to Sites Without Standard Transport Using Cellular RTUs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
The Clicker: Remotely Controlling Relays with your Smartphone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
While You Were Out: Acknowledgable Notifications on your Smartphone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Total Access: 3 Ways to Provide Smartphone/Browser Accessibility to Your Sites. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
The Touch-Tone Technician: Using Voice Alerts and DTMF Functionality to Increase Mobility. . . . . . . . 24
Wireless Monitoring Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

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 Mobile Phone • DPS Telecom • 4955 East Yale Avenue, Fresno, California 93727 • (800) 622-3314 • Fax (559) 454-1688 • www.dpstele.com

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 prob-
lem. 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 dis-
patched 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. Eric Storm
President
DPS Telecom
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.

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 email 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

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 Mobile Phone • DPS Telecom • 4955 East Yale Avenue, Fresno, California 93727 • (800) 622-3314 • Fax (559) 454-1688 • www.dpstele.com

9 Ways to Integrate Your Network The Mobile Web Interface for

Monitoring Systems with Mobile T/Mon LNX
Devices T/Mon LNX already
1. Get a Master with a has a convenient web
Smartphone Compatible interface you can
Interface. As alarm masters use to get your alarm
improve, so do their interfaces. information on the go.
The best alarm master stations The latest update for
available support smartphones the T/Mon LNX alarm
natively. Simple web access is management platform automatically detects smartphone
not enough, as large format web browser sessions and provides a mobile web interface,
applications simply waste too enabling you to conveniently manage network alarms
much of your time with scroll- right from your Android®-based smartphone, iPhone®, or
ing and resizing. Some masters other smartphones.
require an application to be The new T/Mon Mobile Web interface displays stand-
installed, but alarm masters with ing/COS alarms across your network and allows you to
native web-browser support are acknowledge alarms or view alarm details while you're on
superior. They prevent techni- the go, without booting up your laptop.
cians from ever being in a situa-
tion where they can’t access the NOC because of miss- Now, when you receive an alarm notification, you can log
ing or outdated software. With a mobile web interface, directly into the web interface from your smartphone and
you can manage alarms as easily as you check your tap on your alarms to view detailed alarm information.
email. Access text messages associate with alarms, so you can
more easily diagnose and fix problems that other techni-
2. Configure automatic notifications direct to your cians have already encountered. You can even operate
technicians’ smartphones. With network monitoring your control relays, right from your smartphone.
systems that can send text messages or email notifica-
The mobile web interface provides you with the informa-
tions direct to your phone, you can be sure that when
tion you need to maintain your network, in an interface
an alarm occurs, technicians in the field will know
sized perfectly for your smartphone, so you can navigate
about it. This is useful in any deployment but critical
through your alarms on the go, quickly and easily.
in 7x24 NOCs.
The T/Mon LNX Mobile Web Interface has been tested
3. Acknowledgable alarm notifications help coordi- and proven to work with Android, iOS, and other smart-
nate efforts on-the-go. With the right network alarm phones.
equipment, you can include acknowledgable links
within alarm notifications. The technician can click on Click here for a video containing more information about
the link and let the NOC know that they have seen the the mobile web interface for T/Mon LNX.
alarm and are prepared to handle the
problem. This creates quick, com-
munication 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
For more information about the T/Mon LNX or the mobile
can help mitigate any ambiguity about the nature of
web interface, contact DPS sales at 1-800-693-0351 or by
an alarm. With the right hardware, you can even set
email at [email protected]
custom voice alerts, so you can make sure your techni-
cians know exactly what the problem is when you have
an emergency.

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 Mobile Phone • DPS Telecom • 4955 East Yale Avenue, Fresno, California 93727 • (800) 622-3314 • Fax (559) 454-1688 • www.dpstele.com

5. Configure notifications appropriate to your techni-

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

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 Mobile Phone • DPS Telecom • 4955 East Yale Avenue, Fresno, California 93727 • (800) 622-3314 • Fax (559) 454-1688 • www.dpstele.com

Use SMS to Easily Collect Alarms T/Mon Upgrade Discount

From Hard-to-Reach Sites Programs
By deploying wireless RTUs in your network, you can Do you have a T/Mon NOC master station? What about
achieve superior visibility by bringing all of your remote older T/Mon hardware? If so, you need to contact DPS to
sites - even the distant, hard-to-reach ones - under your learn how much you could save on an upgrade to the new
monitoring umbrella. T/Mon LNX hardware.

However, past wireless RTUs have created many problems. T/Mon LNX provides many advantages over earlier hard-
ware 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).

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 maintain-
ing your segregation
Wireless alarm reporting can provide you with visibility
• Processes more ASCII jobs, virtual polling loops, and
at remote sites or serve as a backup data transport.
more GFX connections
4 Advantages of Wireless SMS Reporting: • Completely compatible with existing T/Mon EXP
applications, such as the SQL History Agent and Voice
1. Collect Alarms from Distant Sites - Just because a site Dialer
is small and far way doesn't mean you can just overlook • On-board RAID 1 for true hard drive redundancy
it. In this environment, it's important that you keep all of
• Better multi-tasking environment to allow more users to
your clients happy. Past limitations on alarm reporting
run more processes simultaneously.
paths should no longer constrain you, your network, or your
customers. With wireless SMS reporting, no longer is a far-
away 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.
What T/Mon LNX discount will you qualify for?
This avoids the problem of being forced to work with a We want to make it easy for you to step up to T/
third-party data provider just to receive alarm information. Mon LNX, so we've created some interesting discount
In the past, you would have to pay recurring monthly fees programs. Finding out which ones apply to you is
for a static IP and a data plan. With wireless SMS receiver simple - just call your DPS Sales Representative at
technology, you're no longer forced to work with these third- 1-800-693-0351.
parties just to receive alarm information.

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 Mobile Phone • DPS Telecom • 4955 East Yale Avenue, Fresno, California 93727 • (800) 622-3314 • Fax (559) 454-1688 • www.dpstele.com

3. Out of Band Advantage - Using a wireless transport for

monitoring protects you from losing monitoring visibility Wireless-Ready RTUs
during a major failure, exactly when you need remote moni-
toring the most. Wireless SMS technology can give you a Receive alarms wirelessly with these RTUs
reliable backup reporting path to boost reliability at any of Even if your site is located out in the middle of
your sites. nowhere, you can still receive monitoring coverage.
These wireless RTUs allow you to provide a primary
4. Prevent New Points of Failure - By circumventing a reporting path at sites without LAN or give you a
third-party provider for alarm transportation, this removes reliable backup reporting path to sites with a primary
a potential point of failure in your alarm reporting chain. transport.
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 trans-
portation path means there are fewer places for your alarms
to fail.
NetGuardian 216 SMS:
5. Bypass Punching a Hole in Your Firewall - With your • 16 discretes, 2-8 analogs, and 2 controls
alarm data going to a wireless receiver, you're no longer • Right-size capacity for smaller sites
using the public internet to receive alarm information. A • Web browser interface
wireless receiver will take the encoded SMS messages and
forward them to either your T/Mon (or other SNMP man-
ager) or straight to your phone. This bypasses opening a port
to allow alarm traffic from the internet.
Wireless NetGuardian 832A G5:
Punching a hole in your firewall introduces new security
• 32 discretes, 32 ping targets, 8 analogs, 8 con-
risks. With an open port in your network, this means there
trols
is a public access point going straight into your network.
• 1 reach-through serial port
Opening just a single port (no matter how obscure) for a
• Wireless connection option
single IP address is something many IT departments simply
aren't willing to do. A wireless SMS receiver removes this
For a complete list of your wireless RTU options,
unnecessary security risk, by allowing alarms to be sent over
visit:
SMS into your network, rather than through an open port
www.dpstele.com/rtus?wireless=1
over the public internet - effectively providing an protective
buffer by blocking wireless LAN access.

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 wire-
lessly - without costing a fortune or punching a hole in your firewall.

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Mobile Phone • DPS Telecom • 4955 East Yale Avenue, Fresno, California 93727 • (800) 622-3314 • Fax (559) 454-1688 • www.dpstele.com

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 third-

party data providers with the
SMS Interface Box and T/Mon

Also you can receive SMS

alerts straight to your phone

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 Mobile Phone • DPS Telecom • 4955 East Yale Avenue, Fresno, California 93727 • (800) 622-3314 • Fax (559) 454-1688 • www.dpstele.com

Putting the NOC in your Hands: Let DPS Help You Survey
Evolution of the Mobile Web Your Network — A Free
Interface Consultation at No Obligation
to You
A web browser interface for your NOC helps ensure that
you’ll never be separated from your alarm data by proprie- Determining your alarm monitoring needs can be tough.
tary software. You won’t have to worry whether or not you If you’ve got a busy job with a lot of responsibilities, you
have the right version of your NOC’s interface software, or may not have a lot time to evalu-
that you even have it installed. This both ensures accessi- ate alarm systems and survey your
bility, and it’s maintenance-free. remote sites.

The Web Interface is a basic monitoring tool, providing So why not get help from experts
access to your alarms and notifications when they set. It’s you can trust? DPS Telecom will
a good way for on-call technicians to get access to alarms help you survey your remote sites
when outside the NOC, or for technicians on the go. step-by step, making sure you
don’t miss any opportunities to
Before the explosion in smartphone use, however, some make your network monitoring
users found the web interface useful only in situations in simpler, more effective — and
which they already had a laptop or workstation ready to go. easier on your budget. Travis Mock
It could take longer to boot up a laptop, start up a connec- DPS Sales
tion, and check the status of alarms than it took to call the A DPS expert consultant can DPS Telecom
NOC. So while, it was convenient in that it ensured acces- help your figure out what alarm
sibility, the web interface wasn’t always the convenient tool system will most effectively meet your needs without
that technicians in the field needed to get things done. overloading your budget. Our goal is to help you maxi-
mize your return on investment while minimizing your
Smartphones provided the power to check the status of expenditure — without pressuring you to buy a particular
alarms on the go, but most web interfaces, formatted for system.
full-screen devices, required a lot of panning and zooming
to use. There’s no hard-sell sales tactics. No harassing sales
calls. No pressure to buy. We won’t discuss specific
To combine the conveniences of the smartphone and the equipment options until we’ve helped you plan the right
web interface to the NOC, a few of the most forward-look- monitoring strategy for your network.
ing network alarm master stations have now implemented
mobile web interfaces. These master stations recognize For help surveying your network, call the sales engineers
that a user is attempting to access the NOC from a mobile at DPS at 1-800-693-0351
device, and issues a secure mobile version of the web inter-
face, perfectly sized to your mobile device.

Responding to touch-screen commands makes the mobile

interface easy to navigate. Integrating features such as Text Leverage Wireless RTUs for Moni-
Messaging, Trouble Logging, and Control Operation right toring Portable/Inaccessible Equip-
from the phone ensures that the user has quick access to
the resources they’ll need to quickly solve issues at your
ment
Your wireless RTU can be used to connect to otherwise
remote sites.
unreachable equipment:
• Portable generators - wirelessly receive alarms to
A mobile web interface will dramatically improve your
monitor portable generators running during power
technicians' efficiency and proficiency. When considering
outages.
an alarm master (or an upgrade), ensure that it supports a
mobile web feature. • Emergency restoration trailers - Monitor trailers
used during emergency restoration.

The Top 6 Features That Your • Equipment on customer premises - It's there, but
you can't get to it.
Mobile Interface Must Have

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 Mobile Phone • DPS Telecom • 4955 East Yale Avenue, Fresno, California 93727 • (800) 622-3314 • Fax (559) 454-1688 • www.dpstele.com

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

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 Mobile Phone • DPS Telecom • 4955 East Yale Avenue, Fresno, California 93727 • (800) 622-3314 • Fax (559) 454-1688 • www.dpstele.com

3. It doesn't have a built-in web interface at all. With security threats, many organizations place restrictions
the explosion of smartphone use, most network profes- on what software can be installed on PCs and smart-
sionals have a full web browser in their pocket. This phones. Thanks to these policies, there's a very real
represents a great way to access your alarms at any chance that your monitoring deployment could be held
time. Unfortunately, some alarm masters have not kept up while you wait for IT
up with the technology curve and do not have a built-in Department approval that
web interface that's accessible from PC workstations may never come. For this
reason, it's unwise to select
an alarm master that can
only be accessed by phones
running a dedicated applica-
tion.

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
and smartphone web browsers. smartphone or a different OS, because a well designed
web interface is universal.
4.. The web interface it does have
isn't designed with smartphones
in mind. Before you rush out and 7. It floods your phone with every single alarm that
select the first alarm master you occurs, no matter the importance. All alarm moni-
see with a web interface, remember toring, except in the quietest of networks, needs some
that all web interfaces are not cre- form of nuisance alarm filter-
ated equal. Ask all vendors under ing. There are many miscel-
consideration: "Does your alarm laneous status alarms (door
master's web interface automatically alarms are a common example)
reformat itself for easy reading on a that do not require a response
smartphone screen?" While modern from you or your team. These
smartphones can view just about can flood your alarm display
any content designed for full PCs, and blind you to the important
large web pages require a lot of zooming and panning alarms that come in.
to view properly. A proper mobile phone web interface
has larger text and is divided into smaller pages that
require no zooming or horizontal Mobile phones demand even more
scrolling. alarm filtering for two good rea-
sons. First, you generally have a
higher threshold for "important alarm" when you're out of
5. Its web interface doesn't sup- the office. While on-duty NOC center staff just need help
port SSL (HTTPS) security filtering the truly meaningless, you might only want to
encryption. With security concerns receive alarms on your phone if they demand an immediate
growing larger than ever before, response. Second, you don't have the same screen size on a
you need to protect your remote phone that you do on a PC, so it's harder to view any given
monitoring and control system from number of alarms. Your alarm master needs to help you
cyber threats. One excellent way to add a good layer of by putting only important alarms on your phone's smaller
protection is by selecting a web interface that's encrypt- screen.
ed. This is the same technology used to protect your
financial information when you shop and bank online. Click here to view DPS Telecom's
At some organizations that are especially security-con- 2012 Product Showcase for a list-
scious, SSL encryption isn't so much a recommendation ing of network alarm monitoring
as it is an absolute requirement. gear, including the mobile-web
enhanced T/Mon LNX, to help
you keep your network on a short
6. It relies on a dedicated smartphone app that
requires installation and isn't universal. To counter leash.

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 Mobile Phone • DPS Telecom • 4955 East Yale Avenue, Fresno, California 93727 • (800) 622-3314 • Fax (559) 454-1688 • www.dpstele.com

Featured Application: T/Mon What's Currently Wrong in My Network?

Back at the Home window of the mobile web interface,
Mobile Web choosing your Standing Alarms will show you a list of
points that are currently set in your network. You can
This white paper is all about helping you take your alarm narrow the problem by site or simply view all of your
information with you, when you leave the CO, when alarms. Alarms in the mobile web interface (as in the
you're at the sites, or somewhere in between. The new T/ standard web and virtual interfaces) are color coded,
Mon mobile web application provides a shining example showing you severity at a glance. The Site Summary
of these principles in action. view will display a color next to each site noting the high-
est severity alarm at each site, and each individual alarm
How it Works: is color coded to let you know the urgency of the alarm.
Your T/Mon LNX recognize
the difference between a What's Changed Since I Last
mobile device and a standard Checked My Alarms?
web browsing session. So, Clicking on your COS Windows
when you connect to your will show you alarms that have
alarm master, whether it's over changed state from clear to set or
a cellular network or WiFi, set to clear. From here, you also
you'll automatically enter have the option to acknowledge
a mobile web session. This alarms. Acknowledging alarms
prevents unnecessary scroll- tells the NOC either that you've
ing and resizing when you just seen and are responding to a set
want to look at an alarm or alarm, or that you've verified the
text message when you're on status of a cleared alarm. This
the go. tells the NOC both where techni-
cians are, and where they need to go, helping quickly
All you have to do is enter coordinate repair and maintenance throughout the net-
your secure login information work, all without worrying about dropped voice-calls or
to gain access to your mobile web interface. T/Mon sup- the time wasted in booting up laptops.
ports HTTPS/SSL encryption, and allows you to control
user rights as well, making the mobile web application You can acknowledge alarms either by tapping ACK next
accessible but not unsecure. to an alarm, checking the box
next to multiple alarms and
Viewing Your Sites tapping the ACK Selected but-
Upon logging in, you'll have the opportunity to pick ton at the bottom of the mobile
between your standing alarms and alarms that have web page, or by selecting
changed state (COS). Picking either option will take you ACK Page or ACK Window
to a list of sites with relevant alarms. You can either to acknowledge an entire
choose to see all of your alarms, regardless of site, or page or window's worth of
choose a site to narrow down alarms respectively. You can
your search. This ability to even tap on an alarm to view
narrow down which alarms details, including the full alarm
you view helps simplify description and any associated
alarm management, espe- text messages, and acknowl-
cially on your smartphone, edge the alarm from there..
where a full monitor's worth
of alarms simply wouldn't T/Mon Mobile Web gives you the power to manage your
fit. network alarms on the go, and streamlines network man-
agement by helping automate communications between
Using the breadcrumb navi- the NOC and techs on the go. T/Mon mobile web is
gation links at the top of the available for T/Mon XM 6.7 on the LNX platform.
browser interface, you can
quickly return to the site- For more information about the mobile web interface
summary screen to view or the T/Mon LNX, contact DPS Sales at 1-800-693-
information about other sites. 0351 or [email protected].

13
 Mobile Phone • DPS Telecom • 4955 East Yale Avenue, Fresno, California 93727 • (800) 622-3314 • Fax (559) 454-1688 • www.dpstele.com

1. It must be secure. Using a mobile web interface means

making your alarm information accessible, but only to Protect Your Return on
the right people. The conveniences of the mobile inter-
face should not compromise network security. Use a Investment — Make Sure Your
mobile web interface that can operate using HTTPS/ Vendor Offers Guaranteed
SSL encryption. Also, make sure that you can imple-
ment access profiles restricted for web access to help Results
secure your network.
In my experience, clients who
2. It has to work with your technician's mobile devices.
think hard about cost
Don't bother with alarm masters that require you to
justification have a more
install an application that's only supported on one
important concern than just
mobile OS or another. Even if the alarm master does
price. They want to make
support multiple platforms, all
sure that they’re not spending
phones are different. They have
their company’s money on a
different screen resolutions and
system that doesn’t work as
capabilities. Ensure that it scales
advertised. Bob Berry
to the screen-size of your handheld
Chief Executive Officer
devices, and that it works with all DPS Telecom
smartphone models in use at your That’s smart. You have to
company. be careful when working
3. It must be intuitive. The mobile with equipment vendors, especially on protocol media-
interface is meant as a convenience, tion
something that allows you moni- projects. Most vendors can’t support all your legacy
tor your network on the fly. If it is equipment, and they don’t have the development capa-
cumbersome or has intricate visuals bilities to make integration work.
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 Some vendors will charge you large NRE (non-refund-
alarms. If you're looking for a mobile-web enabled able engineering) fees up front for custom work, and
alarm master station, find one with a web interface that give no guarantee that the resulting product will meet
you and your technicians can pick up and use from the your performance requirements.
get-go.
4. It must allow users to acknowledge alarms. If Personally, I think that’s a lousy way to do business. I
your technicians in the field can't conveniently rec- give all my clients a 30-day guarantee: If my product
ognize and claim alarms, you won't be able to coor- doesn’t completely satisfy you, return it for a full
dinate maintenance and repair efforts very well. refund. If I can’t give you a
Acknowledgable alarms help you make sure that mul- solution, I don’t want your money. If I’m doing custom
tiple technicians don't respond to the same problem, work for you, I don’t expect you to pay for it until I’ve
and it helps the NOC know which problems are still proven that it works to your satisfaction.
outstanding and which ones are in the process of being
fixed.
5. It must provide detailed alarm information. A good Very few vendors will make that guarantee. But you
mobile web interface won't just tell technicians where need to demand the best level of service from your
the problems are. It will provide them with the neces- vendor to ensure that your implementation is 100%
sary 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 tenance that much easier, preventing a call to the NOC
web interface should provide alarm descriptions and or the wasted time that the technician would normally
text messages with information explaining the nature have to spend getting out a laptop to operate controls.
of the alarm and what tools the technician will need to
clear it.

6. It provides access to control relays. Control relays

allow your technicians to be in multiple places at once,
activating equipment remotely. Coupling this conve-
nience with the mobile web just makes network main-

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 Mobile Phone • DPS Telecom • 4955 East Yale Avenue, Fresno, California 93727 • (800) 622-3314 • Fax (559) 454-1688 • www.dpstele.com

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 actu-
ally isn't too difficult.
One of the best techniques for getting voice communications at your sites is by deploying an engineering order wire sys-
tem. 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 moni-
toring 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 Don’t settle for a patchwork of products that don’t
an alarm monitoring feature or device you’re looking for quite fit the bill when you can get products perfectly
that you just can’t find, DPS may well be able to make designed to fit your needs from DPS Telecom. Contact
your dream-product a reality. DPS Sales at 1-800-622-3314 to discuss potential solu-
tions today.
DPS custom solutions:
1. Don’t cost extra with a minimum order
2. Don’t require you to lock into a purchasing agree-
ment.
3. Don’t require a long lead time Visit DPS Labs to see what new technologies
4. Are supported by trained support engineers, just like we’ve got in the toolbox, then send a message
any of DPS Telecom’s products to the Engineering dept! www.DPSTele.com/labs

15
 Mobile Phone • DPS Telecom • 4955 East Yale Avenue, Fresno, California 93727 • (800) 622-3314 • Fax (559) 454-1688 • www.dpstele.com

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 1950. Over the years they've expanded their ser-
vices 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 Nolan Baldwin monitors alarms from his smartphone
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 cabi-
net entry.

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 300-
450 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

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 Mobile Phone • DPS Telecom • 4955 East Yale Avenue, Fresno, California 93727 • (800) 622-3314 • Fax (559) 454-1688 • www.dpstele.com

Baldwin makes full use of the system's capacity to create over 1,000 user profiles and codes. The system lets Baldwin eas-
ily 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 over-
rides 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 acti-
vated or left on during hours of non-operation, notification is sent out immediately via email, 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 con-
cept 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 vis-
ibility that we have today," said Baldwin.

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 Mobile Phone • DPS Telecom • 4955 East Yale Avenue, Fresno, California 93727 • (800) 622-3314 • Fax (559) 454-1688 • www.dpstele.com

How to Correctly Deploy a DPS Support, Live Engineers:

Monitoring System & Receive Ready to Help You Go Mobile
Voice Alerts on Your Phone
DPS Telecom is as invested in
If you want to monitor your network from your mobile your network's uptime as you
phone, voice alerts are one excellent tool for doing so. are. That's why DPS provides
Here's an example: live support, with emergency
support available 24 hours a day,
One evening in May, you receive a phone call. The auto- 7 days a week.
mated voice of your network monitoring system tells you
that your HVAC system has failed at your "Northwestern As you increasingly look to ways
Microwave Tower" site. Since the weather has been quite to take your network monitoring
cool recently, you don't anticipate that the building's inter- systems on-the-go, DPS Telecom Chris Hower
nal temperature will heat up too quickly. Especially with is prepared to support you every Senior Support Engineer
nightfall approaching, the site should easily make it through step of the way. Whether you're
the night at a reasonable temperature level. In the morning, setting up custom voice notifications or working with the
you can drive out to the site and fix the HVAC problem. new mobile-web interface for T/Mon, DPS Support are
Since this alarm doesn’t seem terribly urgent, you press "1" ready to help.
on your phone to acknowledge the alarm. Your monitoring
system says "Goodbye" and hangs up. And the person you talk to at DPS will never be - as it
is at so many companies - an untrained intern or an out-
Unfortunately, the outside temperature has been changing sourced contractor reading from a script. Every DPS sup-
rapidly as summer approaches. Without much of a night- port tech is an engineer at DPS with experience working
time cooling effect, your site is heating up quickly. with your system.

A few hours later, you receive another phone call from When you call DPS Tech Support, the people you talk to
your monitoring system: "Critical Alarm at Northwest know how to use the system. They've installed it, actu-
Microwave Tower. Temperature at 95 degrees." Now you ally set it up and done the things you're trying to do. Or
know that you have an emergency. You press "1" again they've helped design the products you use. It's a big
to acknowledge the alarm and immediately drive out to difference from the tech support norm. At DPS, you talk
the site. With a prompt response, you're able to prevent a to people who know how the product works in the real
thermal shutdown, a service outage, and hundreds of upset world, and they've made the product work in real-life
customers. installations, so you can be sure that whenever you call in,
you'll get to the bottom of a problem.
Notice in the example how effective the phone alerts were.
After both phone calls, you knew exactly what was hap- Tech support's close relationship with engineering means
pening at your remote site. While you obviously need to that they see every product to go through the custom engi-
make an improvement in the urgency you assign to HVAC neering process. It's likely they even tested it. So, even
failures, your monitoring system ultimately got the job done if you have a one-of-a-kind, custom-engineered product,
by providing a second warning that temperature had indeed you can be sure that the DPS support staff can handle
risen to service-threatening levels. whatever problem you encounter as you transition to a
mobile friendly environment.
This is precisely what makes phone alerts, although techni-
cally less sophisticated than smartphone web interfaces, To speak to a support representative about implementing
so valuable. Even today, a phone call gets your attention your DPS mobile-friendly network monitoring system,
quickly. It's not lost in a flood of emails or text messages. contact DPS Telecom Support at 1-559-454-1600, day or
Also, a phone call can optionally go to a land line. night.

So how do you select a monitoring system that can intelli-

gently send you voice alerts? First, you need to consider the
Click here to visit DPS Telecom’s TKP
size and scope of your network. That's because voice alerts
repository for quick tips to configure
can be generated at two different monitoring layers: your
email and voice notifications, or other
alarm remotes and your alarm master.
features for DPS equipment.

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 Mobile Phone • DPS Telecom • 4955 East Yale Avenue, Fresno, California 93727 • (800) 622-3314 • Fax (559) 454-1688 • www.dpstele.com

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, plas-
tic 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 prac-
tical to manually coordinate an alarm
remote at every site. At this network
size, voice capability isn't as impor-
tant 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 sta-
tion 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 pow-
erful 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 send-
ing 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 effec-
tive, 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 sys-

tems require you to jump through the hoop of
recording a voice message for each and every
alarm. It's much faster (and sounds more profes-
sional) when a high-quality automated voice is
generated automatically based on your custom
A diagram of the SiteDialer for T/Mon providing on-the-fly voice alerts
text alarm description.

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 Mobile Phone • DPS Telecom • 4955 East Yale Avenue, Fresno, California 93727 • (800) 622-3314 • Fax (559) 454-1688 • www.dpstele.com

Extending Mobile Access to Sites New From DPS, GSM/CDMA

Without Standard Transport Cellular Voice Reporting RTUs
Using Cellular RTUs DPS Telecom recently launched the CellVoice series of
You may find that, despite your efforts to modernize your remote telemetry units, designed to send voice notifica-
network monitoring systems, you may still have some stub- tion from sites without available LAN transport. With
born sites with limited connectivity or no connection at all. the CellVoice line, you can setup voice notifications that
not only tell you what alarm point has set an alarm, but
How do you integrate these sites into actually provide a brief description of the alarm, so you’ll
your monitoring network? How can know what’s wrong without having to check your data-
you make them a part of your new, base. With CellVoice remotes from DPS, you can pro-
mobile-capable network monitoring vide reliable network monitoring from anywhere you can
system? pickup a cell signal.

The first step is to find a cellular The CellVoice line also offers DTMF call-in function-
capable RTU. Manufacturers of net- ality, so you can check on your alarms with a simple
work monitoring systems have long phone-call. You can even operate the units' control relays
realized that your remote sites don't with touch-tone commands, putting you in total control of
necessarily have the same connection even your most remote sites.
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 CellVoice 16

device that both fits your site and best integrates with your Based on the popular
increasingly mobile network operations. Options for some NetGuardian Voice 16,
of the better cellular RTUs include: the CellVoice 16 is perfectly designed for your medium-
sized sites, offering 16 discrete alarm inputs, 8 analogs,
• Voice Alerts. It's likely that your remote site without and 2 to 18 control relays depending on your build option.
standard connectivity or little or no operational equip- The CV 16 also sends traps to your SNMP manager and
ment won't often require your attention. But you know provides email notification for alarms as well.
the saying: "out of sight, out of mind." When a prob-
lem does arise, you don't have the time to fish out a CellVoice 4
single alarm point to determine it's location and mean- The CellVoice 4 is designed
ing. Voice alerts remove any ambiguity from an alarm, after the NetGuardian LT, to
so you'll know exactly what the problem is when some- provide visibility at your small,
thing goes wrong. outlying sites. It supports 2 or 4 discrete alarm points, an
integrated analog sensor to measure the unit’s environ-
• Redundant Email or Text notification on your ment with an option for an external temperature sensor,
phone. If your site cannot reliably communicate with and a single control relay. The CellVoice 4 allows you to
the NOC, or your remote site exists outside your nor- acknowledge alarms and operate the control relay by dial-
mal monitoring systems, having the RTU send email or ing in, so you can manage your site with a simple phone
text messages straight to your phone can help you keep call.
up with your site, even if your site can't keep up with
the NOC. Redundant notifications or escalating notifi- Don't leave sites without available transport unmonitored.
cations make sure that the RTU can always get a hold Take charge at your remote sites with the remote that
of someone when there's a problem. provides cellular notification, so you don’t have to worry
about available transport to know what’s going at your
• Easy Migration Path to LAN. A site may not have sites. For more information about the CellVoice products
LAN connectivity right now, but that doesn't mean from DPS, call DPS Sales at 1-800-693-0351.
it'll always be that way. Deploying wireless RTUs

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 Mobile Phone • DPS Telecom • 4955 East Yale Avenue, Fresno, California 93727 • (800) 622-3314 • Fax (559) 454-1688 • www.dpstele.com

that also support LAN connection is a great way to

add monitoring now while keeping an eye on the Get More from Your Gear:
future. You'll save money on the wasteful cost of buy- Add Functionality to Your DPS
ing another, LAN-ready RTU when the time comes,
plus you'll get the benefits of remote monitoring now. Systems
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 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
Your smartphone can do just about anything. It's an get voice alerts for multiple sites without purchasing and
amazing tool. So are the control relays that allow you installing loads of new equipment.
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

VoIP OrderWire
The VoIP OrderWire
sites cellular-accessible, so you can operate control relays
(and OrderWire with
right from your phone, making network management easy
Offnet) products plug
and stress free.
right into your LAN
• Use RTUs and Masters with a web interface. A web
and deliver free voice
interface allows you to access your sites just like your
communications
email. If possible, use devices that offer a mobile-
between sites. You’ll
web interface that scales to your phone to prevent you
contact sites directly
from having to zoom and pan to access your control
using station-to-station mode, use the “Hoot N’ Holler”
relays. The most convenient web interfaces provide
mode to make an all-call to page technicians, and setup
clickable commands for your control relays, allowing
conference calls using the “Party Line” mode. OrderWire
you to tap to manage your network. Web interfaces
products are also available from DPS with RTU function-
ensure that you don't have to install an app and worry
ality, so you can add capacity at existing sites while gain-
about versionization to access your sites.
ing telephony functionality.
• Look for devices with DTMF control features. The
better DTMF-enabled RTUs allow you to simply
The OrderWire line allows you to bridge the gap where
make a phone call to your remote, press the right key
you don't have cell coverage. Even in the cell network,
(or keys) to navigate to your control, and operate the
some sites will suffer poor coverage indoors. You need
control with any touch-tone device. This prevents
to be able to get a hold of your technicians, and your
your technicians from having to install any special
technicians need to be able to raise you, no matter where
software or stay tethered to a workstation to operate
they are. You can even order your OrderWire system
controls
with OffNet, allowing an orderwire system to call out, so
your technician can contact cellular phones and other sites
Your phone can do everything else. Why shouldn't it also
outside the site-to-site network.
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. For more information about these and other accessories
for DPS Products, contact DPS sales at 1-800-622-3314.

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 Mobile Phone • DPS Telecom • 4955 East Yale Avenue, Fresno, California 93727 • (800) 622-3314 • Fax (559) 454-1688 • www.dpstele.com

While You Were Out: Voice-Capable RTUs Notify You

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

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 Mobile Phone • DPS Telecom • 4955 East Yale Avenue, Fresno, California 93727 • (800) 622-3314 • Fax (559) 454-1688 • www.dpstele.com

Total Access: 3 ways to provide Factory Training at DPS: Learn

Smartphone/Browser Accessibility to Use DPS Products to Monitor
to Your Sites Your Network for Free
It’s not enough to simply have a NOC gathering informa- Factory training events at DPS Headquarters in Fresno are
tion. You can’t be stuck your desk, staring at the master designed not only to teach you to use DPS products, but
terminal day and night, least of all when your network is to provide the information you need to more effectively
under assault from the elements. You need the informa- monitor your network.
tion to come to you. When there’s a problem, you need to
know, wherever you are. At the free (for qualified pro-
fessionals), four-day event,
Smartphones have the capability to view e-mail and web- taught by professional engi-
browse. Take full advantage of them and make them your neers, you’ll learn:
link to the NOC. • T/Mon Databasing and
Monitoring
1. The first step is to configure email notifications. Many • NetGuardians
remotes allow you to configure email notification direct • ASCII Alarm Processing
from the unit. Or you can configure alarm notifications • SNMP Trap Processing
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
Learn by Doing
Training is provided in a hands-on environment as well:
include a link you can click to acknowledge the alarm.
you’ll be able to try out what you learn on powered, data-
With these notifications, you can be fully aware of any
based equipment.
problems in your network and take action from wher-
ever you are.
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 email [email protected]

Setting up email notifications from T/Mon

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 Mobile Phone • DPS Telecom • 4955 East Yale Avenue, Fresno, California 93727 • (800) 622-3314 • Fax (559) 454-1688 • www.dpstele.com

2. While email is a great tool for receiving alarms, 3. Even better, you can act on the notifications you receive
depending on how your alerts are configured, whether using your smartphone’s web browser, provided your
you have your phone set to alert you of incoming mail RTU’s or master station provide a browser-accessible
by vibrating alert or not at all, you could potentially interface. If they do, you can simply log in and view
miss important alarm notifications. To increase vis- the issue through IP cameras at your site or operate
ibility, you could add a device to your network that controls remotely to solve the problem without having
provides direct voice alerts for your phone. With voice to roll a truck on your weather-worn site.
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.

With mobile web, you can check your T/Mon alarms using your
mobile device.

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
SiteDialer for T/Mon topology, showing how you can get voice alerts
direct to your phone.
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 function-

ality 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.

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 Mobile Phone • DPS Telecom • 4955 East Yale Avenue, Fresno, California 93727 • (800) 622-3314 • Fax (559) 454-1688 • www.dpstele.com

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 1-800-693-0351.

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 tele-
coms, and transportation companies. (Check out www.dpstelecom.com/case-studies 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 1-800-622-3314 today to schedule your free Web demo of SNMP monitoring solutions — or
register on the Web at www.dpstelecom.com/tmon-webdemo.

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 Mobile Phone • DPS Telecom • 4955 East Yale Avenue, Fresno, California 93727 • (800) 622-3314 • Fax (559) 454-1688 • www.dpstele.com

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 mis-
takes and gain a competitive edge. To receive this report, send an e-mail 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 e-mail to: [email protected].

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 e-mail to: legacytrap@dpstelecom.
com.

Give Us Your Feedback

Send your comments to [email protected]

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 www.dpstelecom.com
and click “Applications.” or “Products.”

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 Mobile Phone • DPS Telecom • 4955 East Yale Avenue, Fresno, California 93727 • (800) 622-3314 • Fax (559) 454-1688 • www.dpstele.com

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 NetGuardian 216 SMS: RTU monitors 16
25 protocols, protocol mediation, alarm forward- alarm points, 2 analog inputs, 2 control relays;
ing, pager and e-mail alarm notification, Web reports alarms wirelessly via SMS..
Browser access, multi-user access, standing
alarm list, alarm history logging. Available with
accessories that allow for wireless alarm report-
ing.
• Supports SMS Interface Box (DCPx) for
wireless alarm monitoring CellVoice 16: Features custom voice alerts,
• Mobile web interface for T/Mon LNX only SMS messaging, and email notifications for 16
• Compatible with T/Mon Voice Dialer for discrete points and 8 analog points
verbal notifications to cell phones and land
lines

CellVoice 4: Cost-effective design for smaller

sites. Monitor 4 discrete alarm points and
SMS Interface Box: Works in conjunction with the receive alarms wirelessly using SMS technol-
T/Mon master station to provide wireless alarm ogy.
reporting via SMS technology.

Call 1-800-622-3314 for price and ordering information

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Mobile Phone • DPS Telecom • 4955 East Yale Avenue, Fresno, California 93727 • (800) 622-3314 • Fax (559) 454-1688 • www.dpstele.com

What People Are Saying About Crisis Management with DPS Telecom
Equipment

“Hurricane Rita struck last year, and where we had NetGuardians, we

were able to look at the voltage and watch it drop. We were able to deter-
mine from that number when we needed to take a generator out. We
could look at sites and tell, ‘This one has more voltage than this one, so
we need to move a generator here.’ These proved to be an invaluable tool
during one of our company’s biggest crises.”
—Billy Young, Consolidated Communications

“We were still able to monitor all of our sites and pick up alarms. DPS
monitoring allowed us to have an accurate overview of our entire network
at a very critical time.”
—Keith Liles, Cameron Communications

About the Author

Marshall DenHartog is the president of DPS Telecom and an engineer with over 20
years’ experience designing network alarm monitoring hardware and software.
DenHartog’s experience with both the theoretical and practical sides of network mon-
itoring systems have equipped him to write a straightforward guide to making your
network mobile device-friendly.

www.dpstelecom.com
1-800-622-3314

US $36.95

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