What to look for in an alarm master

1. Which protocols are supported by the T/Mon NOC alarm master?
The T/Mon NOC alarm master supports over 25 protocols: ASCII, DCP, DCPF, DCPX, DNP3, E2A, SNMP, TABS, TBOS, TL1, and more
2. Does an alarm master have ping alarm support?
The T/Mon NOC network alarm master is capable of pinging up to 960 different IP addresses. T/Mon has a variety of notification options to quickly alert you when several consecutive pings fail.
3. How important is it to have one alarm master that can support all the monitoring protocols that my equipment uses?
You probably have several different types of transport equipment to monitor, and you may have several generations of legacy alarm monitoring equipment as well. All these different types of equipment report alarms using different incompatible protocols. You definitely want to have one alarm master that can support all the monitoring protocols your equipment uses and display all your alarms on one screen. Trying to monitor by watching two or more screens is hard work that confuses even the best system operators, and sooner or later someone will miss a major alarm.
4. What options for accessing alarm data does the T/Mon NOC alarm master offer me?
The T/Mon NOC gives you multiple options for accessing alarm data, including automatic e-mail and pager alerts. Automatic escalation alerts inform supervisors if technicians don't acknowledge alarms. Nuisance alarm filtering silences unimportant alarms, and text messages give precise instructions for resolving alarms.
5. What kind of capability expansion should I be looking at when choosing an alarm master?
An alarm system is a long-term investment that will last for as long as 10 to 15 years. You need an alarm master system that will support your future growth for up to 15 years. In that time your network is going to grow in size, you're going to add new kinds of equipment, and you're going to need new alarm monitoring capabilities. Make sure your alarm master can grow and change with your network.
6. What if I already have legacy equipment, but want to upgrade?
With the T/Mon NOC, you can gradually migrate your master and RTUs from legacy to modern over several budget cycles, with no forklift swap outs.
7. Does the T/Mon NOC offer detailed alarm descriptions?
Some alarm masters display alarms as cryptic numeric codes. You want a system that displays alarms in plain English, with a complete description of what the problem is and what action you should take to correct it.
8. How extensive should the alarm history be?
The T/Mon NOC records up to 999,999 system events, which can be viewed in a variety of report formats. Alarm information can also be exported as ASCII text, which can be sent to an after-hours recording device or imported into a database or spreadsheet program for graphing and analysis.
9. What kind of user security does the T/Mon NOC alarm master offer?
The T/Mon NOC has built-in features for managing user permissions. Individual user security profiles limit what alarms may be viewed, which alarms may be acknowledged, which controls and system commands may be issued, and what modifications may be made to the system configuration.
10. What kind of alarm lists should my alarm master support?
A Standing Alarm list displays all alarms that are currently uncorrected. A Change of State (COS) Alarm list displays all new events that happen in your network, including alarm points that go into an alarm state and alarm points that are cleared. If your alarm master supports both kinds of view, you have the quickest and most accurate picture of your network's current status.

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