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Reserve Your Seat TodayInterbel Telephone, a rural telecom provider in northwestern Montana, needed to replace embedded alarm monitoring after upgrading from a Lucent 5ESS switch to a Metaswitch. Interbel deployed DPS Telecom NetGuardian RTUs and a T/Mon NOC master station to centralize network and facility alarms, with plans to expand into IP-based electronic door control.
| Industry | Telecommunications |
|---|---|
| Company | Interbel Telephone |
| Geography / Coverage | Northwestern Montana |
| Network Snapshot | About 3500 access lines, 3 fiber rings, 1 central office, and about 30 remote sites |
| Primary Challenge | Replace embedded monitoring lost when a 5ESS switch was decommissioned and unify alarms from multiple network and facility systems |
| Solution Deployed | NetGuardian RTUs for discrete/analog alarming plus T/Mon NOC to collect local alarms and SNMP traps from IP equipment |
| Key Result | One alarm window for contact closures, analog values, and SNMP alarms, with a clear path to add electronic door control over IP |
| Products Used | NetGuardian RTUs; T/Mon NOC; planned evaluation of T/Mon LNX and DPS Building Access System |
Interbel Telephone operates a network built around three fiber rings that connect back through the central office (CO). The CO functions as the aggregation point for network access and core systems.
This success story includes input from Scott Miller, Manager of Network Operations, and Jared Sherwood, Central Office Technician, building on an earlier Interbel monitoring discussion that followed the 5ESS to Metaswitch upgrade.
When Interbel upgraded switching infrastructure from a Lucent 5ESS switch to a Metaswitch, the embedded monitoring that had been tied to the legacy switch also went away. Interbel needed a practical replacement that could:
Interbel also wanted the monitoring foundation to support future operational goals, including electronic building access control.
After researching options, Interbel deployed multiple DPS Telecom NetGuardian RTUs and a T/Mon Alarm Monitoring System master station (T/Mon NOC) at the central office.
In Interbel's architecture, NetGuardian RTUs serve as site-friendly alarm collection points. They typically gather:
T/Mon NOC functions as the master alarm display and notification engine, consolidating alarms from NetGuardian remotes as well as SNMP-native network equipment.
Overview of Interbel Telephone's network structure
"Our network has rings that interlock in the middle at the CO," Miller said. "Each building on the rings is separated by about 10 miles."
"It would be a good idea to put a NetGuardian at the warehouse. It could look at the generator when the generator runs. We'd know when the power fails and when the doors open and close."
"Both NetGuardians are in the central office," he continued. "It just happens to be that the customers we serve out of the CO are on this piece of equipment on this ring. This is the off-ramp for all 3 rings, and it connects to the Metaswitch & our Cisco equipment for network access."
The T/Mon master and NetGuardian RTUs monitor and report alarms
"Our 2 NetGuardians are installed at the CO," Miller said. "It would be a good idea to put a NetGuardian at the warehouse to look at other stuff, too," Miller says. "It could look at the generator when the generator runs. We'd know when the power fails and when the doors open and close."
"We're definitely going to be using the SNMP on T/Mon, because that's how we're going to be bringing back the Zhone alarms, the Metaswitch alarms, and the Cisco alarms."
Other common alarms monitored at Interbel's sites include environmental alarms, smoke alarms, and fuse alarms.
Interbel purchased their T/Mon NOC master to collect alarms from NetGuardian remotes, as well as SNMP-native equipment.
"We're definitely going to be using the SNMP on T/Mon, because that's how we're going to be bringing back the Zhone alarms, the Metaswitch alarms, and the Cisco alarms," Sherwood said. "That will all come back to the T/Mon in one alarm window."
Miller and Sherwood also discussed their vision for deployment of the DPS Building Access System. Their goal was to leverage the same IP connectivity and monitoring foundation already used for alarming to support electronic door control.
"We're looking to keep the T/Mon at the CO to control doors via IP," Miller explained. "We have Ethernet at every site. We can put the Building Access System on any vLAN we want to. There's a little switch at each site. You just plug it in and there you go."
"We have 29 sites with 1 door each, 10 doors at the warehouse, 2 at main office, and 4 at CO," Miller said. "That gives us a total of 45 doors to electronically control."
Sherwood described a workflow they would like to implement using Stay Open Mode at sites that are open for business at specific times. In this concept, a special key would unlock the door at the beginning of the day and lock it again at the end of the day. If the door remains unlocked beyond a specified time, an automatic alarm can be created. After hours, individual users could enter using their own keys if they have permission in the Building Access System database.
"We'd like to set up a certain time, say 8:00am to 5:00pm, where the door is just unlocked," Sherwood said. "It would be good to have that at the main office."
Sherwood and Miller also considered electronic access control and monitoring for a storage yard.
"We have a large storage yard," Miller said. "We store spools of coax and conduit, copper, fiber, other equipment, and other vehicles."
Maintaining security at the storage yard with traditional locks and keys is proving to be a chore. Every visit involves repetitive locking and unlocking actions.
"Getting something out of there means driving up to the gate, getting out, unlocking the gate, doing what you need to do, driving out, stopping, locking the gate, and driving away," Miller explains.
Electronic building access at the storage yard gate would reduce the hassle of entering and leaving, while improving accountability and reducing the risk of a gate being left unsecured.
Interbel also discussed potential future upgrades to their master station platform, including a move to T/Mon LNX.
"I'm going to discuss the upgrade to the T/Mon LNX within Interbel. I like the Web 2.0 interface and the forward-looking, moving-forward feel of that platform."
"I'm going to discuss the upgrade to the T/Mon LNX within Interbel," Miller said. "I like the Web 2.0 interface and the forward-looking, moving-forward feel of that platform."
For telecom operators modernizing their alarm workflows, T/Mon LNX is designed to help consolidate alarm visibility across SNMP, discrete, and analog sources, while supporting day-to-day operational use by network and facilities teams.
With NetGuardian RTUs and a T/Mon NOC master at the CO, Interbel established a centralized alarm approach intended to bring multiple alarm sources together, including:
This design also created a clear foundation for Interbel to expand into IP-based door monitoring and electronic access control using DPS Telecom solutions.
Many critical site conditions are still best represented as discrete points (door open, generator running, fuse fail) or analog readings (battery voltage, temperature). NetGuardian RTUs are purpose-built to bring those signals into an alarm monitoring system.
When SNMP traps from routers, switches, softswitch platforms, or access gear are centralized in T/Mon alongside facility alarms, technicians can triage network and site issues from one place instead of switching tools.
Interbel referenced environmental alarms, smoke alarms, fuse alarms, and SNMP alarms from Cisco, Metaswitch, and Zhone equipment.
Door state, forced entry, and unlock status are all alarmable conditions. By leveraging site Ethernet and centralized monitoring at the CO, organizations can plan electronic access control that is operationally visible and auditable.
If you are replacing embedded monitoring after a network upgrade, or you want one system to unify SNMP and site alarms while creating a path to electronic door control, DPS Telecom can help you design the right approach.
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