Experiences in Design and Development of a Highly Dependable and Scaleable Distributed Security, Alarm and Control System

Abstract

The PHILIPS CSS-System (Compilable Security, Alarm and Control System) is developed and maintained by the Department of Information Technology of the Austrian Research Centre Seibersdorf, which is active in the field of designing and developing software for systems with high safety, reliability or availability requirements, as well as in the process of IT-standardization.Many dependability issues had to be tackled with in designing the system. The primary goals of the distributed security system are high availability, reliability and maintainability (especially scalability, ie. open to many types of system architectures within any topology (network, redundancy, diversity), and functional extendability). Maintenance problems arise especially with modifications in a distributed and redundant/diverse envi ronment.Additionally, safety and security issues have to be considered carefully, depending on the type of application. The system combines multiprocessing with functional distribution, configurability with a high degree of software ergonomy ("safe" human interface, reducing human mistakes in operating, maintaining and configuring an application by the customer/user). Standards have to be applied on all system levels where such are available - and applicable in practice !