Foundations

Networking, power, identity, events and system architecture are common to most integrations. These pages explain the basics and link to the relevant protocol references.

Overview#

These pages supply the stable concepts used throughout the protocol, system, development, security, and operations sections. Read them as a connected model: layers describe where behaviour occurs; actors and trust boundaries describe who controls it; data and state models describe what it means; failure semantics describe what happens when certainty is lost.

Architecture and meaning#

• Architecture and layering
• Physical security system architecture
• Interoperability, conformance, and profiles
• Data models and semantics
• Events, state, commands, and time
• Encoding and serialisation

Networks, trust, and identity#

• Networking fundamentals
• IP addressing, routing, and ports
• Multicast, discovery, and NAT
• Trust boundaries and segmentation
• TLS, PKI, and certificates
• Identity, authentication, and authorisation
• Time synchronisation

Media, field, power, and credentials#

• Media streaming fundamentals
• Serial and field interfaces
• Dry contacts and supervised circuits
• Ethernet, PoE, and power budgets
• Wireless and radio fundamentals
• Credentials and identity media

Building dependable integrations#

• Reliability and failure semantics
• Observability and evidence
• Secure integration lifecycle

The rule to keep in mind#

Never infer an end to end property from one layer. TLS can protect a connection while the endpoint is over privileged; a valid credential can be presented by the wrong person; a delivered event can carry an incorrect source time; and a successful command acknowledgement can precede a failed physical action.

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