BEYOND BARRIERS

PROTECTING ASSETS WITHOUT FENCES

Fiber SenSys

BEYOND BARRIERS: PROTECTING ASSETS WITHOUT FENCES

WHITE PAPER

BY

Duwayne Anderson

Duwayne Anderson is Chief Technologist at Fiber SenSys and has over 20 years experience in the area of fiber optics. Prior to joining Fiber SenSys Mr. Anderson was Principal Engineer at Phoseon where he designed high-power solid state lighting systems. Mr. Andersons career also spanned 15 years as a Principal Engineer at Tektronix where he was responsible for the design of fiber-optic test equipment for telecommunications companies. His other industry experience includes several years each at Honeywell and Goodyear Aerospace. Mr. Anderson has 28 patents and is the principal author of a text book on trouble shooting fiber-optic networks.

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Beyond Barriers: Protecting Assets Without Fences

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INTRODUCTION Some of the worlds most critical infrastructure is un-fenced and transports millions of pounds of dangerous chemicals through densely populated areas. Throughout subway stations around the world high-speed equipment travels daily within yards, and without benefit of a barrier, from hundreds of thousands of commuters. Rooftops across the world support critical infrastructure, including communications and environmental gear, largely accessible to anyone gaining access to the top of the building. Museums display priceless artifacts for public display with the dual requirements of making the objects visually accessible while protecting them from offenders intent on vandalism or theft. Airport facilities and maintenance hangers conduct essential service on aircraft requiring tight security in open areas. In each of these cases, and in many others, security personnel face the daunting task of effectively protecting high-value assets and people without the encumbrance of fences and other barriers. Often the public requires open access, as with subway stations and railroad crossings. In other instances the presence of physical barriers may be unattractive, as with rooftops and museum displays. The technical challenge in all these situations is to provide effective notification when someone enters a restricted area and to provide this information with a system that is ubiquitous and, where visible, aesthetically pleasing to the eye. An effective solution is one that warns about authentic ingress without the burden of nuisance or false alarms. Traditional solutions include invisible fences using infrared beams of light. Other approaches involve motion detectors using either passive or active infrared and/or microwave sensors. The most common problem with these sensors is their nuisance alarm rate

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due to nearby crowds of moving people, small animals, variations in lighting, and blowing debris. A new solution, designed and manufactured by Fiber SenSys, overcomes all these technical problems by using a specially designed mat with embedded fiber-optic sensor that detects the presence of a person standing, walking, or running over the surface. The mat also alarms when objects are dropped on it, yet it generates virtually no nuisance alarms, even in the presence of rain, nearby vibrating heavy equipment, small animals, wind, blowing papers, birds, etc. The SenSysMATTM is the ideal product for protecting open, critical infrastructure.

TRAIN AND SUBWAY STATIONS Subway stations provide a unique security challenge because of the large number of people congregating around critical and dangerous infrastructure. Large, massive high-speed equipment moves within a meter of passengers and high-voltage lines operate at ground level. Passengers that inadvertently jump, fall, or are pushed down to the tracks are at risk of personal danger to themselves and others. Those with disreputable motives might try to place objects around the tracks that damage or destroy the trains. The environment around trains, including vibration, noise, crowds, and blowing debris makes it difficult to construct reliable sensors capable of detecting accidental or nefarious behavior without unacceptable rates of nuisance alarms. Leaving the infrastructure unmonitored and unprotected, however, is becoming increasingly unacceptable. SenSysMATTM is an adaptation of Fiber SenSys fence perimeter sensor in which a tunable fiber-optic sensor, integrated with a durable and attractive mat, detects intruders or objects in and

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around rail tracks. The sensor is constructed by incorporating durable out-door fiber optic cable with a rugged and easily deployable mat. The resulting sensor mat meets fire codes for use in confined places, resists dirt and chemical contamination and is easily deployed beside and between the rails in subway stations. Sensing results from minute bend-induced birefringence caused by walking on the mat or tossing an object onto it. The unique construction and mat material insulates the fiber from ground tremors, making the sensor highly resistant to false or nuisance alarms due to vibrations from trains. The sensor is inherently immune to wind-born garbage like paper or plastic bags, blowing dust, and rain. Unlike sensors using microwaves or ported coaxial cable the SenSysMATTM is impervious to the presence of standing water. Sophisticated software algorithms distinguish the time-frequency signatures of small animals like bird and rodents from those of intruders or a tossed backpack so that the SenSysMATTM has high sensitivity with regard to threats while having virtually no nuisance or false alarms. Field tests conducted in public subway stations in the US and other countries have demonstrated the sensors unique ability to consistently detect simulated and actual intrusions of persons around the tracks, as well as simulated and actual objects tossed in the vicinity of the track, all while producing no nuisance alarms.

MUSEUMS Museums house the wealth of a nations history and art; irreplaceable artifacts of incomparable beauty and historical value. As a public trust these artifacts are openly available for viewing, but how to fulfill this obligation without exposing the artifacts and great works of art to vandalism and other threats? SenSysMATTM can be unobtrusively placed on the floor around open displays so that it alarms

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when anyone steps inside the restricted area. It can be used during normal business hours to warn of museum visitors in restricted areas (as, for example, when a small child climbs inside a life-sized diorama), and after hours to warn of intruders. When needed the mat is easily hidden beneath carpeting or other floor coverings so it can be completely innocuous even as it provide optimum protection.

ROOFTOPS Rooftops used to just keep the rain off but today they are prime real estate hosting millions of dollars worth of equipment. On typical metropolitan highrise buildings you can find rooftops encumbered with elevator and air-conditioning equipment, cell-site antennae, satellite dishes, microwave telecommunications gear, solar panels, wind mills, backup generators, water tanks and window-washing equipment. Often personnel will be allowed on the roof to service or use one of these pieces of equipment while being un-cleared to use others. Complicating the situation are leases and multiple owners, each expecting a degree of security for their property. Often individual equipment owners want specific guarantees for their equipment, requiring sensors with high discriminating power. Exacerbating these engineering problems are building codes that restrict or prohibit rooftop structures like fences. The optimum solution often precludes coaxial cable sensor because of excess nuisance alarms caused by the presence of so much electrical equipment on the roof. Tightly confined spaces and birds also make infrared beams inherently susceptible to excessive nuisance alarms. Lightning, a common visitor to tall buildings, is another concern for sensitive electronic circuitry. SenSysMATTM is largely immune to these problems and makes an ideal solution for rooftop security. Its easily deployable around specific limited-access areas without baring entry for legitimate personnel. It lays flat on the roof,

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making it effectively invisible and fully consistent with virtually all building codes. Formed of highly resistant outdoor polymer material, the SenSysMATTM is impervious to rain, wind, snow and sunlight. And because the mat and fiber are dielectric and installable with an insensitive lead-in fiber, SenSysMATTM can be remotely located from the sensing electronics (in an equipment rack in the basement, for example). Thus deployed SenSysMATTM is immune to rooftop lightning strikes and electromagnetic interference emanating from such things as microwave antennae and electric motors.

AIRPORTS Airports service highly sophisticated machines carrying critical cargo, from overnight packages to people to nuclear weapons. Efficiency requires open access for aircraft (to and from hangers, for example) while security demands that access to those machines remains limited, controlled and secure. TM provides an SenSysMAT obvious solution since its easily and quickly deployable and reconfigurable. And once installed the mat is highly stable and not dislodged by wind or adjacent jet blasts. Most importantly, the mat is virtually immune to nuisance alarms, including vibrations generated by other aircraft and heavy maintenance equipment. With the mat configured in a perimeter around the aircraft intruders cannot approach without sounding an alarm yet the mat is rugged enough for even heavy aircraft to roll over it (as they leave the perimeter) without causing permanent damage.

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BUILDINGS Many buildings and national monuments require limited access in all or part of the structure. Banks are a prime example, including the ATM machines found outside. SenSysMATTM was designed to provide optimum security for areas like telecommunications and computing rooms, bank vaults, etc. In these areas SenSysMATTM can be placed on the floor (or hidden under flooring) at entrances, or it can be used on the entire floor in which case it become virtually impossible for intruders to enter a room without tripping an alarm. When placed under existing flooring (such as carpets) the mat is undetectable, providing unprecedented security. The experience of 911 taught us to always be vigilant but we cannot risk commerce by placing a barrier around every valuable thing. Society needs security while maintaining vital access to key infrastructure. SenSysMATTM provides the solution to this security problem through information about the presence of potential intruders, and it does this elegantly, effectively, and unobtrusively.

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