A rural home, occasional travel, and three exotic parrots spurred Bob Scarbrough, an IT program manager for Cisco, to build a custom home security and surveillance network (PDF - 1.81 MB). "I wanted the comfort of knowing that I could view the interior or exterior of our home at any time, from anywhere–my own den or a hotel room halfway around the world," Scarbrough says. In addition, during vacations, the family wanted to be able to check in on its birds and caretaker.

Today Scarbrough can use the Internet from anywhere in the world to view real-time video from inside and outside his home, thanks to a home security and surveillance solution that he securely connected to the Cisco corporate network using Cisco Catalyst switches and a Cisco 871 hardware-based VPN router.

Who Goes There?
For outdoor monitoring, Scarbrough installed nine commercial video surveillance cameras, including low LUX LED, spy cams, 3.5-8mm closed-circuit TV (CCTV) cameras, and a pan-zoom-tilt camera. Using coaxial cable, he connected the cameras to a CCTV home surveillance system with a built-in digital video recorder. Whenever the cameras detect significant motion, such as a car or person passing by, the cameras automatically capture a high frame rate video clip of 30 frames per second for the duration of motion. The recording intervals of the internal cameras are set for five seconds, which is just long enough to capture movement of a bird or person.

Scarbrough wanted to be able to use a Web browser to watch real-time video and operate the pan, tilt, and zoom controls from any location, not just home, so he connected the surveillance system to his in-home network. A Cisco Catalyst 3524 Switch and Cisco 871 Router enabled connectivity to the public Internet, as well as the Cisco corporate network, over a secure VPN. "Initially, I connected the system to the public Internet but then decided to take advantage of the extra security in the Cisco corporate network to prevent outsiders from potentially viewing video of my home," he says. Now, not only do people need the username and password to view the video, they also need access to the Cisco network.

Recently, Scarbrough also connected the surveillance system to his high-definition television so that he or his wife can view live video from all outdoor surveillance cameras on one screen. "This gives us peace of mind," he says. "We can see who is at the front door or find out the source of an unusual noise."

Filtering Out What Is Important
The system captures approximately 250 videos a day. Watching all of them would be too time-consuming, so Scarbrough quickly identifies the handful of noteworthy videos in the day's directory by sorting them according to size. A car passing by uses about 1MB of storage, a person walking by the home uses about 3MB, and someone lingering uses more than 5MB. "Any file over 5MB is interesting, so I always look at those files," he says. "I keep the other files for a couple of weeks just in case something happens at a neighbor's house, for example." Recently, a neighbor had some expensive bricks taken from his yard at night and Scarbrough was able to retrieve videos of all cars that passed by the road that night and share them with the police.

Automatic Alerts
Indoors, Scarbrough installed Linksys video surveillance cameras near the bird cages. When the cameras detect motion lasting longer than a specified number of seconds, it begins recording and sends an e-mail to Scarbrough, attaching a 5-second video clip. "Initially, I was inundated with e-mails generated whenever the birds flapped their wings," he says. "But I have since adjusted the sensitivity so that the movement has to be of specific duration before recording begins."

The indoor video helped solve the mystery of how one of the birds, nicknamed Houdini, was able to get out of its cage, which had a screw-lock mechanism. The family pretended to leave the house and then snuck back in to watch the escape on the Web. In awe, they witnessed the crafty Umbrella Cockatoo steady the lock with his beak and then use his claws to unscrew it.

Straightforward Installation, Low Maintenance
Building the internal and external home surveillance system took about 80 hours: half to install the power system and coaxial cables, and half to purchase the equipment, install the cameras, configure the software, and adjust the thresholds for the cameras' motion detectors. Scarbrough, a former electrical contractor, decided to build the power system for the outdoor cameras himself, but thinks that many people might prefer to hire an electrician for this aspect of the deployment.

Most of the system setup did not require extensive networking knowledge, Scarbrough says. The Linksys cameras, for example, are plug and play. He took a little extra time to configure the Linksys Webcam server with a static IP address rather than use the default option, which is for the server to obtain a temporary IP address whenever it boots up from a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server. The static IP address enables Scarbrough to view real-time video from the Web whenever he wants rather than simply viewing the 5-second video clips generated when the cameras detect motion.

A Versatile Network
The surveillance application is just the latest addition to Scarbrough's home network. He also uses the Cisco 871 Integrated Services Router and Enterprise Class Teleworker solution (a hardware-based VPN solution) and Cisco Unified IP Phone 7960G to work securely from home. "Working remotely is a great alternative on days when I don't have any face-to-face meetings," he says. "It also enables me to participate in the green effort to reduce carbon emissions, reduces my gas expenses, and provides more time to work by eliminating driving time."

Cisco Aironet Wireless Access Points and a Cisco Aironet Workgroup Bridge enable Scarbrough and his family to connect to the network from any room on either floor of his house. During good weather, Scarbrough is likely to be found working wirelessly on his patio, using Cisco Unified Personal Communicator on his laptop for voice calls. The Cisco network connection has the quality of service (QoS) to assign priority to voice calls, which means that Scarbrough enjoys enterprise-quality voice calls even when his children are playing high-bandwidth Internet games.

The Scarbrough clan has had a bit of fun with the network. "When I was traveling in London, I happened to be checking the system just as my family drove up to the house," Scarbrough says. "I caught my son in the act of tossing his chewing gum in the bushes. I called my wife to say hi, and then asked to talk to my son and reminded him to not litter. We all got a good chuckle about his getting caught in the act when I was 6000 miles away." The children have puzzled their friends with their prowess in the game of hide-and-seek. Unbeknownst to their friends, his children had a little help from the surveillance system and web-controlled pan-zoom-tilt camera.

If I Did It Again
If Scarbrough built the system today, he would change only a few details. First, he would use IP-based video cameras instead of analog video cameras, because the quality of IP video cameras has improved and costs have decreased. He would also wirelessly connect some of the cameras, sparing himself the chore of installing coaxial cable or Cat-6 cabling. Finally, he would purchase a bigger hard drive so that he could delete old video files less frequently.

"A turnkey video surveillance system of this caliber would have cost US$12,000 to US$15,000, while providing several cameras that weren't of interest to me," says Scarbrough. "By building the system myself and taking advantage of Cisco network features like QoS and security, I got a system that precisely fits my needs."

Rich Verjinski credits the inspiration for his home network (PDF - 31 KB) to his desire for an automated home, and integrating security features was a natural extension of this goal. "My neighborhood was built on land that was the last remaining farmland in the middle of a city. When the neighborhood was first built, people still had the habit of walking through my yard, which was once an open field," says Verjinski, a Cisco software operations manager based in Herndon, Virginia. "Having a home security system is reassuring to me and my family."

Communicating over the Electrical Wiring System
Verjinski's home-security network is based on a combination of an alarm system, a home wireless network of PCs with Internet access, and X10 devices. X10 is a communications protocol that allows devices such as a PC, lights, motion detectors, home-alarm system, and other compatible products to talk to each other over a home's existing electrical wiring. "My home-security network started as a hobby about three years ago when I purchased an X10 kit that had three light switches and a touchpad," he says. His next step was to replace remaining light switches in the home with X10 switches, add motion detectors, and integrate his home's alarm system. The light switches, motion detectors, and alarm system are centrally monitored and controlled by HomeSeer automation software on Verjinski's PC. His network is not only used for security, but also for the convenience of home control. He adds more devices to the network as he gets new ideas: At one point, he even had his electric blanket controlled so that on chilly winter nights the bed would be preheated automatically.

Did You Turn Out the Lights?
When Verjinski leaves the house, he can turn off all the X10-enabled lights in the house by pressing a single button on the alarm panel near the door. "My children sometimes forget to turn off the lights, and this helps with the green effort to conserve energy," he says. Other lights in the home are turned on and off based on motion sensors. Flood lights in the rear of the home are automatically turned on at dusk, and off at midnight, and are motion activated otherwise.

Checking on Home Security from Anywhere in the World
Using HomeSeer automation software, "I can view the status and control many devices on my network from anywhere in the world with an Internet connection," Verjinski says. He designed a Web page that displays the status of all devices monitored by his network–motion detectors, lights, and doors–and automatically renders an easy-to-read table showing device status. To prevent outsiders from knowing the status of devices in the home (such as if the alarm is set or not), the Web page is password protected.

Automated Response to Security Events
When an event occurs, such as motion or an open door, an X10 signal is sent over the electrical wiring in the home. HomeSeer software recognizes those events and responds with an action. For example, when the alarm system tells HomeSeer that an outside door has been open for three minutes or more, HomeSeer uses text to speech capability to send an audio alert over the home intercom, indicating which door has been left open. And if an outside motion detector is activated at night, the system announces the location of the motion over the intercom and also turns on the perimeter lights. "We want to know if someone is walking around our home in the middle of the night," Verjinski says. Any lights that the network turns on are automatically turned off again after a few minutes. Occasionally he has been woken up by a fox or a dog.

When the alarm system is activated, the home network turns on all interior and exterior X10-enabled lights and sends a text message to Verjinski's cell phone. In addition, Verjinski wrote his own script to make the front porch light blink if the alarm has gone off. "If we return home to a blinking porch light, we know to be cautious," he says.

The most complex project was getting the garage door to close automatically if it has been open for a certain length of time. Verjinski found plans on the Internet that called for using sensors to track the position of the garage door so that the network can monitor the up and down status of the door. If the garage door has been open too long, HomeSeer sends an X10 signal to a device that electronically "pushes the button," causing the door to close. Additional precautions are taken to ensure that the button is only "pushed" if the garage door is open. This way, the door is not accidentally opened by a stray X10 signal.

Tailored to His Family's Needs
Verjinski wrote some of the HomeSeer scripts himself and found others in an online user community. Writing and modifying scripts enables him to customize the HomeSeer application for his family's needs. For example, rather than announcing, "There's motion in the kitchen," every time motion is detected–a bit of an annoyance when someone in his family is preparing Sunday brunch, for example–the system announces the first time motion is detected, and then not again until the timer resets itself after not detecting any motion. Some events are only reported during certain hours. Verjinski also customized the standard audio phrases in HomeSeer to reflect his family's sense of humor. When motion is detected in the kitchen, the audio message that comes over the intercom is, "Someone sneaking a snack?"

One Network, Many Uses
Verjinski, a telecommuter, takes advantage of his home network for work, as well. He can establish a secure VPN connection to the Cisco corporate network using a Cisco 800 Series Router, and can use all telephony features that would be available to him in a Cisco office using a Cisco Unified IP Phone 7960. A Linksys Wireless G Broadband Router lets him connect to the public Internet or establish a secure software VPN connection to the Cisco corporate network from any room in his home. "Working remotely eliminates my daily commute, which saves me time, improves my quality of life, and reduces my carbon emissions," he says. The family's school-age children use the network for schoolwork and play. They can use the network to check school assignments, grades, and schedules for school sports and activities. They might also begin taking online classes.

The Price of Peace of Mind
The system hardware, including the Linksys Wireless G Broadband Router and X10 electrical switches, cost approximately US$300 to US$500 at retail prices. Verjinski set up the network over several months of casual work on evenings and weekends. Configuring the Linksys router was straightforward, he says, and setting up the motion detectors and X10 light switches took around 15 minutes apiece. "The most time-consuming aspect of the deployment was modifying HomeSeer scripts to behave exactly as I wanted."

If I Did It Again
Verjinski says that if he were going to build his network today, he would install a whole-house electrical filter to prevent electrical noise from outside the home, such as transformers used for garden lights, because electrical noise occasionally interferes with his system. And if he were to build a new house, he would install in-ceiling microphones so that he could take advantage of home automation speech recognition capabilities.

"The Linksys and Cisco products are very reliable," says Verjinski. "However, X10 itself is an old technology and is not as reliable as newer technologies for home automation, such as Z-wave, Insteon, Universal Powerline Bus, or HomePlug. At some point I'll probably move to one of the newer powerline technologies."

Any advice? "Have fun with it! And when you select an alarm system, choose one that supports powerline communications technology," Verjinski suggests. "That will open the door to all sorts of home automation and security opportunities. The Internet in general, and my home network, has changed the way my family lives, works, plays, and learns, and my home-security network is a great example."

 

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