New-Tech Europe Magazine | September 2018

How Cellular Technology is Transforming Home Security and Alarm Panels

By Diego Grassi, u-blox

Home security is a burgeoning marketplace – particularly in terms of smart systems. But just what is it that differentiates a smart system from the traditional burglar alarm, and why are users adopting and installing these types of system? The answer lies in greatly increased control for the end user. Internet connection means that your home’s security can always be available to be viewed or monitored in near real time. It also means that security functionality can be extended considerably through integration with other aspects of control in the home. Numerous market research companies are predicting high growth in the smart home security sector. US-based ABI Research predicts that there will be more than 4 billion smart home sensors installed by 2022, which will “lay the foundation for the automated smart home experience" according to the company’s research director, Jonathan Collins. For its part, Ovum

predicts that sales of security devices, such as cameras, door locks and sensors will help drive the market for smart home devices annually to an installed base of more than 1.4 billion units by 2021, up from 224 million in 2016. The report’s authors predict that, worldwide, “15.5% of households will have adopted smart home security technology by 2021”, while commenting that “only 6.2% will be paying for a professional smart home security service”. Cellular support Increasingly, home security systems are being supported by cellular networks. While take up is obviously dependent on the country in which the system is installed, depending on cellular infrastructure availability – the US and China have particularly buoyant marketplaces – cellular technology offers greater protection from network failure or tampering than does the

standard phone network (public switched telephone network or PSTN). In common with most modern communications-based systems, data represents an increasingly important constituent part of home security systems. Cellular technology is able to support video transmission from devices in the home. It also supports text-based alerts, more commonly known as short message service (SMS) alerts and other instant messaging applications that can be easily installed in common smartphones. The Mobile Intelligence report issued by Dynmark in 2015 said that research shows that “90% of text messages are read within 3 seconds of being received” and have “a final read rate of 98%”. The majority of current security systems already rely on 2G and 3G cellular technology, both of which are widely available and offer reliable coverage. Increasingly, new systems are adopting Long Term Evolution-

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