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The Remote Monitoring Challenge
Many of today's intelligent systems work beautifully - if you start from scratch with a brand new installation and buy everything from the same vendor. But what about getting older pieces to fit into a newer puzzle? You sometimes get the feeling that vendors want you to throw everything away and buy all new equipment.
The Remote Monitoring Solution
Control Solutions products are sometimes used in very large networks. But thanks to the Internet, you don't need a large infrastructure or huge capital investment to take advantage of remote monitoring. If you can find a way to attach a sensor to it, we've got a way to see it on the Internet. You don't need special protocols. You just need a browser!
When you do need special protocols, Control Solutions can help with that, too. If you are a telecom company with a mix of Caterpillar, Kohler, and Cummins/Onan generators (for example) in your network, and you're finding it to be a challenge getting them to talk to the same network management software, we can help. We know protocols like Modbus, LonWorks, and SNMP inside out.
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GSM/GPRS Cellular Monitoring
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Control Solutions' i.Report® provides IP based monitoring for wide area wireless coverage. In this case, a central server provides the web browsing while i.Report® provides data to that server using IP access.
The i.Report® is configured to report data points periodically, and optionally configured to report events as they occur. Events are defined by thresold rules similar to i.CanDoIt® threshold rules and event reporting.
Monitoring: Initiated by HTTP client in i.Report, and requires a customized server as host for receiving the data. Data is provided in HTTP Get request format.
Alarm Notification: Notifications provided as HTTP Get request to server.
Alarm Responses: HTTP Reply may contain register data, and/or local programmed response via rule templates.
Data Logging: Data provided in Get request must be logged by server.
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SNMP is widely used in the telecommunications industry. The remote devices are known as "Agents" while the host or front end is known as a "Manager". SNMP management software typically runs on a PC or a server. There are a number of SNMP network management software packages available. One commonly referenced package is HP OpenView, which is tailored for large enterprise management.
Many of Control Solutions' products with Ethernet connectivity support SNMP. The majority of these products are based on i.CanDoIt® software and use the CSI_BBX2_MIB definition of its variables. All I/O points are mapped to registers that are accessible as variables or MIB objects. Users may Get or Set (read or write) these objects or registers to monitor or control I/O points.
Control Solutions' i.CanDoIt® provides rule templates to set up trap thresholds. SNMP v2c traps are sent when a rule tests "true" (or false if selected). The "trap" is the only message initiated spontaneously by an SNMP Agent. All other exchange of information is via Get and Set requests initiated by the Manager (host).
Monitoring: Initiated by host (manager) using SNMP Get
Alarm Notification: Generated by SNMP agent in the form of SNMP v2c trap messages.
Alarm Responses: SNMP Set by manager, and/or local programmed response via rule templates.
Data Logging: Must be done by host (manager).
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Embedded Server Based Monitoring
  
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Embedded server based monitoring is suitable for anything from single site installations, to small to medium size networks of installed sites. Any Control Solutions product with i.CanDoIt® software is a candidate for this type of monitoring.
Real time data may be viewed by simply browsing the embedded web site. The default tabular pages may be accessed, or the user may be redirected to the user HTML wrapper served by the embedded web server. A centralized host server may use HTTP queries to retrieve data from i.CanDoIt for aggregation into a larger central web site.
Automatic data logging may be set up in i.CanDoIt®. The log files may be retrieved via FTP, by an HTTP Get request, or sent as an attachment to an email.
Alarm notifications may be sent as an email message. Repeats and acknowledgement requirements for notification emails are supported by i.CanDoIt®. Both standard and cell phone message formats are provided. By emailing a cell phone format message to a cell phone, it will show up as a text message (when supported by the cell phone service).
Monitoring: Initiated by web browser, or by a server programmed to use HTTP Get requests to retrieve remote data.
Alarm Notification: Email notification messages in standard verbose format or abbreviated cell phone format.
Alarm Responses: Reply email acknowledgement, and/or local programmed response via rule templates or Basic scripts.
Data Logging: Automatic, with log files accessible for server retrival, or may be emailed as an attachment.
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Web Client Method
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Most of the Internet based remote monitoring methods require at least some network management such as router configuration and IP address assignment. Web client based monitoring allows installation of a network of remote monitoring devices that can be pre-configured for plug-and-play at the remote site without any router configuration. If your PC can reach Google on the Internet connection to be used for monitoring, your i.CanDoIt® based system can reach your server.
This type of configuration can be used with virtually any DSL or Cable modem/router combination, such as LinkSys, D-Link, etc. As long as your connection gives you Internet access from a PC configured to "obtain IP address automatically", i.CanDoIt® will be able to find your server.
The challenge with this type of service is that you do need to have a custom programmed server which will serve HTML pages as expected when i.CanDoIt® comes to "surf the web" at the server address you told it to find. Data is reported by i.CanDoIt® to the central server using HTTP Get requests with argument strings. Data is returned to i.CanDoIt® when the server constructs an HTML page on the fly that is customized for that i.CanDoIt®. Control Solutions uses Apache on Linux for testing this API, but the API should be compatible with any HTTP server.
Monitoring: Initiated by HTTP client in i.CanDoit, but requires a customized server as host for receiving the data. Data is provided in HTTP Get request format.
Alarm Notification: Notifications provided as HTTP Get request to server.
Alarm Responses: HTTP Reply may contain register data, and/or local programmed response via rule templates or Basic scripts.
Data Logging: Data provided in Get request must be logged by server. This method assumes no email access available.
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