Subscriber Discussion

Cameras On Security Network Or Enterprise Network?

U
Undisclosed #1
Aug 26, 2015

I’m working on a project for a large public institution. We’re deploying many cameras at multiple, distant sites. There’s an enterprise network connecting the sites, but management wants to create a separate 'Security" network for the cameras. I believe the current conventional wisdom is to put the cameras on the enterprise network by creating a V-LAN, but I’m curious to hear the pros & cons for each approach from this knowledge bank. Thanks in advance for your kind help.

JH
John Honovich
Aug 26, 2015
IPVM
UI
Undisclosed Integrator #2
Aug 26, 2015

Set up a V-lan, this is a good thing. This will allow you to from a networking perspective to not kill the network, and if you look at the above reports there are other advantages to it, most of our installs accross WAN's are done this way.

JH
John Honovich
Aug 26, 2015
IPVM

"to not kill the network"

If the video overloads the network, it will still kill the entire link / network that is overloaded, VLAN or not.

(1)
UI
Undisclosed Integrator #2
Aug 26, 2015

I should have gone into more detail about bandwidth capping and prioritizing of traffic to not bog things down that are more important such as voice and data.

JH
John Honovich
Aug 26, 2015
IPVM

QoS / DSCP sure, applied to a VLAN.

You may though kill the surveillance video feeds :)

UI
Undisclosed Integrator #2
Aug 26, 2015

yeah those are over rated though...

But for the question at hand, I would be more concerend about available bandwidth as a whole between sites. Talk to their networking folks if they are semi-competent, they should be able to tell you their link and average utilization. Thats a great indicator of how this project will go for the multiple distant sites. Also verify that they have a stable connection between sites if you are going to be doing any sort of centralized recording.

MM
Michael Miller
Aug 26, 2015

Question I like to ask is who is going to manage the network? If you add VLANs to the customers network then there IT department gets involved and I tell them they are the first group we are going to call when we have a network issue. Once they understand that they will be involved normally they tell us to build our own network. I prefree building our own network which we fully manage without having there IT department involved.

SM
Steve Mitchell
Aug 26, 2015

Depends on what you mean by "separate network."

Some advocate a separate physical network--with dedicated routers, switches and links, paid for as part of the security system and governed/operated by the security personnel or their contractors (which might be you).

Fewer advocate that while the physical network can remain the IT department's responsibility, a separate logical network should be created for the security equipment (i.,e via VLAN). The idea here being that IT can provide the underlying infrastructure but the security staff is responsible for all the equipment on "their" network.

When connectivity between remote sites comes into play, it makes much more sense to share wide area network connectivity with the IT infrastructure, as setting up and maintaining those links can be very expensive and require more extensive and classical IT networking expertise. The caveat being that it may be the existing wide area network links are already insufficient for video traffic, which of course complicates things.

My personal opinion (with which many here disagree) is that the best and most efficient use of IP technology comes from aggregating responsibility for underlying infrastructure with IT, then treating surveillance as just another customer of that infrastructure (recognizing that, in terms of bandwidth and performance requirements it may be the biggest customer of that infrastructure). I feel like arguments that say the IT infrastructure can’t “handle” IP video just forgives IT of their responsibilities to provide adequate infrastructure to meet the enterprise’s needs.

I recognize that politics can come into play that can completely perturb the above vision. Maybe IT reports into Finance or Facilities or some such, is always in the dog house for poor performance at what is perceived as too much cost, and has no real representation at the executive level in the absence of a CIO/CTO. Or maybe as a public institution the security system is being paid for via a grant or some funding source that requires the money ONLY be spent on security and prevents it from being spent on “IT” etc. And of course there’s pre existing corporate culture, bureaucracy, politics and personal history that I know in public institutions can cut deep into effectiveness.

I’m just saying that in terms of what IP is designed for as a technology, stacking applications on top of a shared, common, well managed infrastructure is its technological vision.

(2)
U
Undisclosed #1
Aug 26, 2015

I was hoping for a broad spectrum of thought & suggestion, and that’s what I got. Thanks All.

Our organization has a robust department of network professionals. I’m lobbying for their early involvement in the V-LAN concept-development process. By this means, the network folks will be advised of video bandwidth requirements, and can design a standards-compliant V-LAN architecture to support it. Because of their involvement, it will be expected that the V-LAN will fall under the existing standard monitoring & service provisions. The idea is; to let the network folks support the network hardware & infrastructure, while also taking advantage of established network monitoring & service procedures. The Security folks will operate the VMS like a client.

It’s a grand vision, which I’m sure will work out perfectly.

PS: IPVM has become a valued resource to me. I'm willing to pay the anual fee so my boss thinks I'm much better-informed than I actually am.

U
Undisclosed #3
Aug 26, 2015
IPVMU Certified

I'm willing to pay the annual fee so my boss thinks I'm much better-informed than I actually am.

This quote has a promising and exciting future ahead of it as an IPVM testimonial... :)

Avatar
Michael Silva
Aug 27, 2015
Silva Consultants

I'm willing to pay the anual fee so my boss thinks I'm much better-informed than I actually am.

Having a resource such as IPVM to tap into means that you are well-informed - technology is so expansive these days that no one person can know everything - the key is to know how to get the information when you need it.

Coincidentally, I had the separate versus shared network debate with a client just last week. Once their IT folks understood the magnitude of the video traffic on the network and the security department's expectations regarding level of service, they concluded that a separate network was in everyone's best interests. The compromise was that all cabling, switches and hardware used in the security network would be the same brands/models as used in the business network.

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