ALARM QUEUES

TM 5-6350-275-10

state which caused the alarm to be generated, the time, and the identity and location of the equipment concerned.

1-17. ALARM QUEUES. An Alarm Queue is a place in which groups of logically or geographically related alarms are

maintained. There are 16 alarm queues available. Those used are assigned both a title, which indicates the type of

alarms the queue contains, and a reference number in the range 1 - 16. For example, an alarm queue entitled Security

could be used to store all alarms relating to security equipment while another, entitled Interior, could be used to maintain

alarms associated with interior devices.

a. When an alarm is generated, it is placed in up to four of the available alarm queues and is also tagged with the

current time and a priority level. The priority level is a number in the range 1 - 16 and determines the order in which

alarms are stored within each queue. Level 1 is the highest priority and is assigned to alarms which are of greatest

importance to operators, such as those indicating intrusion into high-security areas. Level 16 is the lowest level and is

assigned to the least significant alarms.

b. The highest priority alarm within each of up to four queues is presented to operators by a specially reserved area

of the display called the alarm frame. Typically, each message appearing in this frame contains only one line of text,

part or all of which may flash in order to visually alert the operator.

c. There are three processes which can be undertaken on an alarm; it can be acknowledged, cleared, or deferred.

Acknowledgment is normally the first course of action and means that the alarm has been accepted and the required

operational procedures have been undertaken. When an alarm is acknowledged, it is tagged as such by the system and

the next alarm of highest priority replaces it at the top of the queue.

Following acknowledgment, and the satisfactory conclusion of the incident, alarms can be cleared. Clearing an alarm

results in its being removed from the appropriate queue. Alarm clearing may be undertaken automatically when the

condition which caused the alarm ceases.

The deferral process enables alarms to be set aside for processing at a later time and is used on alarms which

cannot be acknowledged or cleared immediately. Deferred alarms are held in a separate section, and only appear in the

alarm frame when there are no undefined alarms held within a queue. Operators can display deferred alarms by

specifically requesting a list of the deferred section.

1-18. PRIORITY ORDERING OF ALARM QUEUES . The order in which alarms are maintained within each queue is

determined by: first, whether or not they have been deferred; second, whether they have been acknowledged; third, their

assigned priority levels; and, finally, their age. Undeferred alarms are given precedence over deferred alarms.

Unacknowledged alarms have a higher priority than acknowledged alarms. Alarms with the highest priority levels are

given precedence over those with lower levels. If two alarms share the same priority, precedence is given to either the

oldest or most recent alarm, as defined during the creation of the database.

1-19. AUDIO ASSESSMENT. When a sensor detects an intruder, the system will automatically open a channel to the

nearest microphone, turn on a Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) camera and display it on a monitor, and generate an

alarm. In addition, the incident will be automatically recorded on the Video Cassette Recorder (VCR). No operator

intervention is required.

If someone at a remote location wants to speak to the operator, he or she can pick up a handset (if available) and an

alarm is generated at the operator workstation, informing the operator of a communications request.

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