By Robert Wamsley, Technical Research Analyst, ASSA ABLOY Identification Technology Group (ITG)

Traditional access control systems use a dedicated network to communicate between a door lock and a computer used to manage access rights.  Alternatively, communication can be conducted on the company IT department’s TCP/IP network or the wire network can be replaced with a wireless network. Often, these online access control solutions are used in parallel with mechanical key doors – especially for interior doors like office doors or service rooms.

This creates a need to manage different types of credentials such as access cards and mechanical keys. To avoid this dual-system setup it would be necessary to extend the access control solution to these doors as well.

But what if your application doesn’t fit the mold?  Maybe you want to add office doors to your existing system, maybe you change your door configuration often, maybe you have a hard-to-network door, maybe your system includes doors on different continents, or maybe you don’t want to install a network in the first place due to e.g. budgetary limitations.  Whatever the reason, you need options!

ASSA ABLOY Future Lab’s recently published concept investigates two alternative options for integrating these offline doors to an existing access control system. The two systems are similar but use different technologies and are based on different ideas.

The basic idea is to install electronic cylinders in the offline door that enable the credential used for the online doors to authenticate the user access, eliminating the need for other credentials, such as mechanical keys. The difference between the two alternative solutions is how the permission rights are transmitted from the online system to the offline doors.

In the first alternative, a portable device (PD) is used to update the lock in the door. This means that the security personnel will need to physically visit the door to update the lock with the PD every time a change is necessary. Each door is updated separately and the log from each individual lock must be retrieved with the PD when required. Information about the successful update and the downloaded log files are stored in the PD and transferred back to the online system by initiating synchronization once the security personnel comes back to an online station.

In short, the transfer of information to and from the offline system is controlled by the security personnel. That can be perceived as a higher level of security but the downside is that the company needs to have dedicated personnel that manages the updates.

In the second alternative, the security badge itself is used to carry the rights information to the door.  After all, it’s going there anyway.  Information is transferred to the card at an online station – most probably at the entrance doors in the office perimeters – and again to the individual door when the card is used for authentication. Information about the successful update and the log file are saved on the card and transferred back to the online system when the card passes an online station the next time.

The person carrying the badge is also carrying the message that says whether they can get in the door so you may ask if a card updated solution can be secure.  The answer is yes!  Messages between the door and administrator are encrypted and are not readable or changeable by the person carrying the badge, even if they have the equipment to see the communication, it would be unintelligible.

While the card updated solution can be as secure as an independent network, it cannot be as instantaneous because the message is physically being carried from point to point.  The storage space on a badge is not the primary limitation to the amount of information that can be transferred between a security badge and the door lock.  Rather, the limit will be the time it takes for the door to read information from the badge.  Typical communication rates are plenty fast for most door applications.  But if you try to pass along too much information the time spend by an employee holding his badge up to the reader could stretch to over a second, which is just long enough to start getting annoying.

In this ASSA ABLOY Future Lab concept test we would like to hear your opinion on these alternative solutions. The questions we’re asking are, for example: Which alternative, if any, would you prefer and why? What importance do you place on the latency it takes to update an offline door? How much would you be willing to invest compared to an online solution?

The survey is Web based, takes 10-15 minutes to complete and includes more details about the two alternative solutions in addition to the survey questions.

Share your views at the ASSA ABLOY Future Lab Concept Test! Invitations with instructions have been sent out to our ASSA ABLOY Future Lab members. If you would like to participate but have not received an invitation, please send an email to info@assaabloyfuturelab.com.