British Security Industry Association Publishes BT 21st Century Network Test Results

The 21CN test results focus on 21CN compatibility and network delay induced by the network change

The testing, which has taken place over 18 months, has been undertaken on a live 21CN network in order to understand how communications equipment is affected by the network. BT has been the only Communications provider that has fully engaged with the security industry on this network change and this has led to the creation of a specific security equipment test plan, which provides a rigorous sequence of tests that covers the various signaling formats used in the industry.

BSIA Technical Director, Alex Carmichael, comments: "All BSIA communications equipment manufacturers have attended the BT facility in Swansea and tested their core products against the BSIA test plan. Today we are publishing the results of this work in order to inform the industry further on the effect that 21CN will have on equipment."

"The test results focus on both 21CN compatibility and the additional network delay introduced by the technological change to the network. Reading the results on their own may not provide a straightforward answer to whether certain equipment is at risk as there are two other factors that can affect the overall delay of alarm signals. These are the type of receiving equipment and the type of network it is transmitted on."

"To assist with this, BSIA has also produced a web based risk calculator which allows you to enter the two fundamental values under consideration, those being the communicator delay and the receiver processing delay. Once these values are entered, a graphical representation is produced showing you the potential risk of failure on each of the known network routing configurations."

BT 21CN Project Director, Mike Piggott, comments: "We are pleased with the progress made with security industry equipment manufacturers in testing hosted at BT's Swansea testing facility, part of the live 21CN network already rolled out in South Wales which to date has carried in excess of thirty million calls on approximately 75,000 migrated lines. We believe the publication of these test results is an important step in informing the industry of the facts around 21CN compatibility in advance of planned further migrations."

"It remains the responsibility of suppliers/manufacturers to ensure conformity of CPE with relevant standards and published interfaces. Testing is important because communications providers like BT cannot control the design and manufacture of CPE by third parties, and so cannot be liable for apparatus which does not conform to such standards and interfaces."