OSDP access control spec delivers interoperability
Next steps include IP-based communication, new profiles
06 April, 2015
category: Contactless, Corporate, Financial, Government, Library, Smart Cards
What’s next for OSDP?
The success of this event enabled the SIA OSDP Working Group to focus on delivering even more functionality to the industry. The security industry faces a new convergence as many companies, new and old, are embracing a wholesale shift toward IP technology, addressing the ever-increasing importance of cybersecurity and realizing that these access control systems are a part of technological phenomenon called the Internet of Things.
Many of these devices will provide data streams that can be used as part of security and risk management. In the aggregate, they will also produce enough information that Big Data analytics now become a relevant tool for the improvement of an organization’s overall security posture.
While the OSDP Working group has started looking at how the specification will remain relevant in the changing security landscape, the next tangible goal is to define application profiles. These profiles describe a set of capabilities and a set of OSDP messages that must be supported by devices that conform to a given profile.
For example, an OSDP profile can be used to achieve compliance with the requirements of Federal Identity Credential and Access Management (FICAM) for deployment of physical access control systems (PACS) within the federal government. The OSDP messages needed for FICAM may be very different than a simple PACS deployment in a commercial office building or a biometrics PACS deployment at a datacenter, where the peripheral is not even presented with a card.
Ultimately, this profile scheme will enable testing and verification of compliance of the devices, which ideally will lead to interoperability of devices within each profile.
The second tangible near-term goal of the OSDP Working Group is releasing SIA OSDP for use over Internet Protocol (IP). The current SIA OSDP specification (version 2.1.6) is specified for a multi-drop serial RS-485 communication channel, but the Working Group is committed to extending it over IP with minimal changes to its actual structure. The IP connection will solve the data throughput limitations of RS-485. Further, the use of IP sockets will permit the ability to run the TLS data security standard at the socket layer, which will gain OSDP-over-IP immediate acceptance by the IT community.
Get involved
Participation in the Working Group provides participants with a rare opportunity to both serve their companies’ direct interests and assist in establishing standards that move the entire industry forward.
The InteropFest at ISC West on Wednesday, April 15, will showcase the progress of the OSDP Working Group. The number of vendors able to demonstrate OSDP has doubled since last year, and the group plans to demonstrate working profiles and explain how the spec will extend toward IP and the inclusion in the Internet of Things.
For more information and to register for the SIA InteropFest, visit www.securityindustry.org/Pages/IndustryEvents/SIA-InteropFest.aspx.
Find the free SIA Open OSDP Test Tool and more information about OSDP online at www.securityindustry.org/Pages/Standards/OSDP.aspx.
Joseph Gittens is director of standards at the Security Industry Association. He can be reached at [email protected].
