Needless to say, the security industry is currently in the fastest-growing, hottest, and most exciting phase of history. In 2009, it began to become a popular word "Internet of Things," and a considerable part of it lies in the security industry. Following the principle of conversion of potential energy to kinetic energy, in the next few years, new demands emerging from the security industry will inevitably lead to rapid technological development and major changes, while major technological changes will bring about the restructuring of the industrial competition. Some time ago, a senior in the security industry said that it is now “throwing troops to securityâ€, which is not an exaggeration.
The promotion of the security industry has become a hot point and has a very clear and powerful endogenous factor: Informatization development has for decades been centered on the “convergence-discrete†and “centralization-distributionâ€. Conflicting keywords are carried out. The former is a business form, and the latter is a physical form. All developments and changes follow these two contradictions, intertwining and alternating. In business, the great integration of the IT industry and the telecommunications industry ten years ago and the further integration of today's security industry and the IT and communications industries have witnessed the power of "convergence," while at the same time the rise of unstructured data has brought multimedia services. The "discrete" video surveillance is precisely because it happens to be at the same time in the focus of convergence and discrete focus (multimedia business attributes), so the change is particularly dramatic. In terms of physics, the "Internet of Things" is actually proposing to duplicate the system organization model of the "Data Center + Big Networking" that has matured in the field of IT/Internet after 20 years of development to areas outside IT, and bear the brunt of it. It is security. The security industry has evolved from a highly discretized state in the past to a new state through networking. It may not necessarily be a 100% copy of IT, but the model must be unified, but at the same time, the IT industry is still in the “post-data center eraâ€. In the implementation of the centralized distribution/virtualization - that is, the "cloud mode". This is the power of opposition and unity. The security industry is exactly at the core of the two spirals.
First, the development of video surveillance
For the development of video surveillance, there are many claims in the industry: Some emphasize the enhancement of video clarity, such as standard definition to high definition; some emphasize the provision of intelligent services, and some emphasize integrated management... There are many opinions and opinions. In fact, based on the above-mentioned laws, judging the development trend of video surveillance will be a very simple topic. To sum up, it corresponds to three themes: the integration of IT and security, and the introduction of mature IT technology into the security industry.
The IT field has developed for decades. The core elements that have accumulated are layered architecture and standardization. Regardless of which technology is used, the two characteristics are essentially the essence of the essence. In the field of traditional security, there is a defect that the industrial hierarchy is not clear and the level of standardization is low. The mature concept of the IT field migrated to the field of security, spurring the great changes in the security and security fields. Traditional security from the bottom up, equipment and business, business and management are mixed together, in particular, there is no clear definition of the operating system layer, and often based on the secondary development of equipment-based SDK to solve business The problem - this is very different from the security industry. The idea of ​​layering will certainly drive the security industry to create a specialized, IT-based operating system. In addition, IP, SIP, and XML, which have been hammered and formed in the network, signaling, and application fields, will quickly spread to the next generation of security and greatly increase the standardization of the security industry. The so-called "security IT" is not to use IT technology to refresh the security industry, but in the integration process to adopt the absorption of the IT industry has matured advantages, strengths, thus transforming and upgrading security capabilities.
Separation of multimedia services, resulting in the evolution of multimedia services and architecture
Multimedia services represent a class of data types, that is, the most representative of unstructured data. How this data is collected, how it is transmitted, how it is stored, how it is used, and how it is used together are the biggest issues that need to be addressed in the multimedia service separation process. From an IT point of view, this involves many areas of data encoding and decoding, data and network adaptation, multimedia databases, and intelligent analysis of multimedia data. Most of these areas are still in the process of development and far from being discussed. Mature. Most of the time, we only noticed the technological evolution of the multimedia codec part, from CIF to 4CIF, from D1 to 720p to 1080p, and so on. In fact, only one quarter was considered. Just as high-definition is just a shorthand for 1920*1680, and Blu-ray DVD is a system, a complete multimedia system, from acquisition to display, from transmission to storage, from application to management, must be a multi-dimensional symbiotic development. Can solve the problem.
The process of networking and data centering brings business and technology changes.
DVR is the representative product of the traditional security industry in the digital age from the analog era. Today, the term has a new generation called “NVRâ€, which is the difference between the word and the “network-data center†model. Security industry impact. As the name suggests, DVR's design idea is based on the local small system, non-networked environment, the business must be the end of the local, management must use the buttons on the remote control and the device, this application mode is essentially home and home use Electrical appliances are a routine. The NVR is based on a large system, network design, business may be "data center", and management is based on the console. The evolution of the name indicates in a certain sense the trajectory and direction of the evolution of the entire industry and technology. For a period of time in the future, the security industry's synchronization with the evolution of specific technologies will inevitably be a process of eliminating data islands and networking. The most essential driving force comes from the need for data processing. After all, it is only recorded locally. Local things are far from satisfying the real management and business needs. The so-called Internet of Things (IoT) is to realize the full business potential through networking, integration of points, and transformation of nodes into systems. This is a change of the times. This change has just been realized in the IT industry about five or six years ago and will now shift to the security industry.
Second, build a better video surveillance system
Video surveillance, as the natural intersection of the security industry and IT industry in the "multimedia business" dimension, is the first step in all business branches of the security industry to step out of industry integration.
Since 2007, the emergence and widespread application of IP network monitoring has become the catalyst and vane of this large industrial integration process. Prior to this, the entire video surveillance industry was in the stage where the traditional analog system and the digital-analog system were combined. The digitalization was not yet complete, and all aspects of the entire industry still retained a lot of analog information processing and conversion. Not only in the entire system There are analog cameras, analog-digital conversion devices such as DVRs, and a large number of analog switching devices such as matrices exist, which makes the entire system appear complicated, poorly scalable, and poorly manageable. In the IP network monitoring solution, to be exact, except for the first step of analog-to-digital conversion and the last step of digital-to-analog conversion, all intermediate links (transmission, storage, scheduling, and application) should be purely digital. All should be a combination of 0101. This architecture is very clear, and has a strong imitation with mature IT systems in terms of architecture, scalability, and management capabilities. This is also the reason why the industry generally regards IP network monitoring as the third stage of the development of the entire video surveillance after the digital-analog-combining era, and is also the reason for the latest stage.
In the standard definition phase, analog cameras, encoders, or DVRs (which can be understood as NVRs in an IP surveillance solution, or encoders with storage) have become front-end equipment combinations due to the mature and affordable cost of analog cameras. In the high-definition stage, digital cameras (IPCs) that directly embed coding functions are more cost-effective than those of high-definition encoders and high-definition analog cameras, and will gradually become mainstream.
This change is easy to understand, but it is not really the core, most important, most decisive part of the overall plan. The core part is the system's architecture and operating system platform. This is similar to IT. The one that really determines whether the system is good or bad and high or low is the architecture (whether it is data center mode, whether it is hierarchical mode, whether It is SOA...) and the second is an operating system (such as Windows for PC, Symbian, Android for Nokia, GOOGLE for mobile phones). In other words, future-oriented video surveillance, evaluation indicators will increasingly tend to rationalize the overall architecture, operating system features and management, rather than one or two front-end devices. In this process, the rapid digitization of front-end cameras, matrices, and other analog devices is only a natural evolution under the framework of the entire solution system. With the expansion of coverage, the devices will be serialized and applied to the industry at all levels of the system. However, the overall architecture has always been organized around several application scenarios such as wide area, metropolitan area, local area, and data center. This is the characteristic of the IT system. After a period of development, it will also become a feature of the video surveillance system.
We will follow through on the core features of these two evaluation systems to see how we can fundamentally build a better video surveillance system.
1. Architecture
The architecture depends on the business needs, and the architecture must first analyze the business.
In general, the business needs of monitoring can be summarized as "see control and depository use" five words. The five major business needs are actually divided into two directions, of which "seeing" and "control" come from the basic business form of security business. Strictly speaking, the security system is a branch of the automation system, and the basic working principle is a negative feedback process of “acquisition of signals—processing of signals—responseâ€. The monitoring of "see" and "control" as basic business, also follow this process. “Look†is the process in which the front-end captures the video signal up to the human eye, and the “control†is the process in which the control-end collector's operation signal is fed back to the front-end electromechanical device to respond. The two occlude each other and form a complete control system. The special point is that the endpoint of the conversation is a person at the front end that can be visualized and the backend. Therefore, it can be said that "seeing" and "control" are the most explicit interpretations of the "security automation properties" of monitoring from the business.
The "save" and "use" services are the key requirements for the shift from traction monitoring to IT. Industrial control is good, security is also good, the basic principle is through the feedback mechanism, a feedback response to solve a problem, that is, adhering to the principle of real-time, and the basic starting point of "storing" is non-real-time, that is not to operate as The core is the operation of the operation object-information as the core, the information can be recorded, and the information-oriented management system - and this is exactly the essential service features of the IT system. A simple requirement of "playback" combined with digital technology actually puts a bridge from the security field to the IT field. Then because the information can be recorded, originally in the monitoring system, the information that originated in the collection, the end of the display, and the invisible shuttles and tangibles become tangible resources, which can be reorganized, arranged, comparable, and modifiable. It formed a "use" business. From this perspective, all of the "intelligent" business assumptions about video surveillance are based on the four "useful" services that are based on the above.
Comparing the business development trajectory of IT systems over the past few years, there is no doubt that the business attributes of “save†and “pipekeeping†are affixed to the video surveillance with clearer IT labels, and the center of gravity of monitoring services is constantly changing from a simple “lookâ€. After the “control†move, the IT characteristics of the monitoring are becoming stronger and stronger, and the IT of its architecture will become more and more in-depth. The last “management†is a generalized business requirement for pan security and IT, but the subtle change is that often the “pipe†of security is based on stand-alone and the “pipe†of IT is based on the system. In reality, it is A security guard uses a remote control or a panel button to operate a DVR and an operation manager to perform management operations using a management platform in the control room. There is no doubt that the generalization of networking needs has led to the management approach to the direction of system management. What is changing at the same time is “seeing†and “controllingâ€. In fact, networking allows “seeing†and “controlling†to go remote, from one-on-one development to many-to-many, and the future “see†and “control†in this Under the drive of change, it gradually moved away from traditional areas of industrial control and security, but also more systematically. Therefore, from the perspective of changes in business needs, video surveillance based on "seeing control and depository use" as the basic business element is clearly and systematically oriented toward systematic and IT-based development.
Then we look again, what kind of architecture can maximize the promotion of this systematic, global "see deposit control" ability? The conclusion that can be deduced is that if an architecture has such features, it must be the direction of future development of the entire video surveillance system.
The answer is “hierarchical standard architecture + data center + SOAâ€. This is the crystallization of the IT world's evolution for decades. It is the foundation of the enterprise IT system and the Internet. It is also the video surveillance and security system that will reach the IT process. The architectural goal.
Layered standard architecture
Whether it is the OSI seven-layer model or the NGN four-layer model, the basic principles to follow are: standardization of function definitions of layers and standardization of interface definitions between layers. The standardization of interface definitions between layers determines the system's stackability (vertical), which can make the implementation of each layer of the system as the basis of the upper layer; and the functional definition of layers determines the spatial distance of the system. The ability (horizontal) can make the processing of information no longer distinguish between local and remote. After years of development, IP standards (infrastructure), SIP (media control signaling), XML (applications), etc. have been developed in the intra-layer standards, while inter-layer standards are either in the form of API interfaces or in the form of middleware entities.
Operating systems and databases in the past due to strong binding with hardware and less emphasis on interoperability, formed the trend of monopolizing the replacement standard with the fact of the big manufacturers (such as windows to the operating system, Oracle to the database), but in the entire IT network Trends are also changing under the trend of globalization, cloudization and mobilization. The popularity of virtualization in recent years is a typical example. In short, the hierarchical standard architecture, and its included factual standards such as IP, XML, and SIP, as well as middleware and virtualization, will continue to be reflected in the IT security process. The reason why IP video surveillance has become the acknowledged development direction of the digital-analogue combined third-generation video surveillance system is that it completely relied on the idea of ​​a hierarchical standard architecture to reorganize the system. Analog monitoring is non-hierarchical, so it can not be standardized. The combination of digital and analog is semi-hierarchical. The standardization is not complete. Only IP monitoring is implemented, and a complete full layering and full standardization from the bottom layer to the top layer is realized.
data center.
Data center is another architectural theme in the IT field. The fashionable title is called “cloudâ€. The core idea is to disassemble the operation of the information into a segment, use the network connection, distribute the operation, and realize the flexible allocation of the entire operation process at the local end and the remote end. The two major advantages of the data center architecture are the breakthrough of performance bottlenecks and the realization of information concentration to provide a data foundation for deep information applications. Almost all large-scale IT systems are now data centered, and the Internet itself further provides the most basic physical carriers for data centers. The large-scale search engine is a typical representative of the two characteristics of “breakthrough performance bottlenecks†and “implement information for deep applicationâ€. In the Internet context, we are already accustomed to the binary relationship between e-books and remote e-books. In the context of the Internet of Things, we must be accustomed to the collection of front-end cameras and centralized storage on the data center side. Binary data processing application binary relationship. In fact, the unstructured data of video surveillance class has a stronger demand for performance bottlenecks and data concentration applications. The more intelligent services develop, the more urgent the data centering of video surveillance is. IP surveillance is the only solution based on the data center model in the current video surveillance field. From this point of view, it is not difficult to understand why the use of a network management software to connect a bunch of DVRs and an IP surveillance solution looks like a god, because the former is not a data center model.
SOA
SOA is a "service-oriented architecture." As its name implies, it is puzzling, but the analogy of stacking wood games is to understand: you have a number of basic shapes, and different combinations of arrangements produce different results. SOA is essentially another way of saying “standardization, modularity†and is a solution to the natural contradiction between infrastructure standardization and application personalization. In terms of re-implementation, SOA is often implemented through a middleware that isolates the basic resources and upper-layer applications. It shows the ability of process and programming. This is extremely important for the application of video surveillance. Traditional video surveillance does not emphasize this feature, so naturally it will encounter bottlenecks in the development of smart services.
It must be noted that the data center architecture is implemented based on a "layered standard architecture", SOA is implemented, and it is based on the data center architecture. The three major architectural goals are logically linked. The symbiosis of the three together constitutes the most mainstream IT system architecture at the moment, and will become the future evolution goal of security systems and video surveillance systems.
2. Operating system
The core of the IT system will also be the core of the security system.
Traditionally, the operating system is a purely IT concept, and there are basically no such references and concepts in other fields. According to its originality, IT is targeted at data from the beginning of development, while systems such as security, communications, and industrial control are based on functions. IT is based on data and focuses on the ever-changing processing of data. Security is based on the function of security protection. Communication is based on the function of voice transmission. It is a collection of functions for data resource operation control. The operating system, with specific functions as the core, is the initial form of functional control of the human machine. It is often simple and easy to use. It is very similar to the difference between computers and home appliances. Compare the windows desktop, buttons, and remote control of the TV in the PC, and you will understand the differences. In the era of individual and small systems, for example, a PC stands for IT, and a DVR plus a camera stands for security, IT's operating system and security remote control are all in place, but when security must also be networked to large systems, then It must also embark on the road to using an operating system instead of a remote control. In other words, with the large system as a benchmark, the new security era that places more emphasis on data management, like any IT system, must also have a powerful operating system and use it as the core to build the entire system.
The operating system has three attributes: one is the interaction with the underlying resources (resource management), the first is interaction with the user (human machine interface), and the other is interaction with the upper application software (application interface). In windows are the device management instruction set, desktop and application software interfaces presented to us. The operating system in the IT domain originates from PCs and servers, and then extends to professional areas such as networks and storage, and extends the concept and physical form of the operating system during this process. For example, a network operating system is a combination of the embedded OS of a single network device and the entire network system management software. Desktop operating systems, data center operating systems, and network operating systems are stacked together to form a broad operating system layer. This process will be replicated in the evolution of the "Internet of Things" in the field of security. In fact, in all subfields of security, whether it is video surveillance, access control, or alarms, the large and small "platform software" that has emerged in recent years is already practicing the "semi-operating system" process, but it is lacking. The theoretical basis and the lack of participation of large manufacturers are still quite non-standard and primitive.
Taking video surveillance as an example, the traditional approach is that a “platform management software†acts as a window on the command center side, and the various devices that are connected next are managed by various local man-machines separately, and the services presented at the bottom are from the bottom Operate by yourself, and the center side implements basic functions such as image calling, remote control, and video viewing. Users are deeply trapped in the platform management software and various docking problems with their own management equipment and docking issues of different levels of platform management software, unable to take into account more applications. In fact, if you can fully absorb and draw on the mature operating system model that the IT industry has developed, these problems can be solved.
To be analogy, a good video surveillance/security operating system should have the following characteristics:
Complete and rich function, efficient and practical man-machine interface
Normalization of platform operating systems and embedded operating systems
Standard and SOA-based application-side interfaces support high-level applications
Perfect grading, decentralized and sub-domain capabilities, easy deployment
Extremely high functionality and performance scalability
System stability and robustness
Excellent operating systems in the IT field perform well in all of the above six categories, as does security.
In addition, because of its “multimedia business†and “unstructured data†attributes, video surveillance is different from traditional structured data based on table structures in terms of data management, and faces many new issues and new data types. In the intersection of database technology and storage technology, there is a lack of a complete and comprehensive off-the-shelf database platform. Therefore, unlike IT, the video surveillance operating system may expand its capabilities at the data management level during the development process. Because of the management of multimedia data, it is the basis of all multimedia applications.
In terms of the current state of the industry, companies with strong R&D resources with system development experience must invest in the video surveillance industry with an emphasis on the operating system through a relatively long period of R&D investment. This will inevitably bring value chains. Reconstruction, industry structure re-established. This process should be accompanied by the gradual evolution of IP surveillance solutions that gradually occupy the mainstream of the market. From management software to the OS, from highly discrete single points to widely networked systems, this is the turning point for video surveillance to a new stage.
“If you don’t know what you really like, just because you are in this mountainâ€, video surveillance, and even the entire security industry, are undergoing unprecedented structural changes, and it is difficult to have a systematic understanding of the overall situation of change when tied to specific technical coordinates. . At this time, there are two points that are particularly important: First, return to the origin of business development, firmly grasp the changes in the business, it will seize the technological changes; the second is to raise a level, rise to the perspective of industrial integration to observe and understand . Only in this way can we grasp the true context and rhythm of the complex changes.
Undoubtedly, our application of security has been closer to a single point, and the color of the system is very light. Therefore, the design concept of security products must be more like home appliances than IT products. The design concept of security systems is more like decoration. Like IT systems. The great changes that are taking place will gradually subvert all of this, and the corresponding ideas that will bring products and systems will all shift toward the direction of IT. Standardization, networking, hierarchization, data centerization... These IT features will be deeply embedded in security systems and become basic genes.
In the process of development, the technical fulcrums of the security system itself (such as video resolution for video surveillance) will still evolve naturally; for example, video surveillance, and in the near future, high-definition will become mainstream and popularization, and IPC will replace analog cameras. Front-end acquisition body. However, the evolution of all this, the impact on the business, and the impact on the industry chain are far from the impact of the evolution of the architecture and systems. The evolution of the architecture and system is carried out in a subtle manner. It is not as easy to experience and capture as a specific product or a specific technology. However, it is precisely this quietly carried out that determines the future direction of the industry and determines the long-term investment in construction. TCO (Total Cost of Ownership). After all, to build a house, the most important thing is the steel bars, columns and foundations hidden under the wall. You can easily replace a faucet, a mirror, or an air conditioner, but you can hardly make it in a house. To replace the structure, replace the bar under the wall.
Conclusion
The world has been changing and it is also colorful due to changes. From the heat of the Internet to the heat of the Internet of Things, the time span spans a full fifteen years. In the next fifteen years, under the macro-environmental background of the development of the Internet of Things, various technologies will be developed and applied at an unprecedented speed. Maybe at any time, 3D imaging technology like “Avatar†has entered the field of video surveillance, and wireless may become the main way of security networking at any time... But under all these uncertain and possible changes, it is clear that At the same time, it is the integration, traction and refreshment of the IT industry's architecture and philosophy for the security industry. Security IT - only this sentence, truly determines the future of the security industry.