Since the early 80’ies, Wiegand has been the most common communication protocol between access control units. Wiegand is known as a reliable and user-friendly protocol, however, Wiegand does have a number of weaknesses. With today’s increased security needs, these are becoming more and more critical.

One of the more severe problems with the Wiegand protocol is unencrypted communication. The protocol’s limited bandwidth and inability to offer bi-directional communication are also issues that encourage access control professionals to seek out other options.

Proprietary Protocols

Many professionals within the security industry have worked around these weaknesses by developing their own proprietary protocols. However, this approach has its own set of limitations. The amount of testing and maintenance is a major issue for many companies. Add to that the difficulties these companies encounter, when they need to connect their device to that of another producer, and it becomes evident that a better solution should be sought.

These are some of the reasons why SIA have developed the OSDP (Open Supervised Device Protocol).

OSDP – Reliable Protocol

The OSDP protocol eliminates the need to develop, test and maintain your own proprietary protocol. The OSDP is thoroughly tested and maintained by SIA, who are also making the necessary test tools available to users. Additionally, SIA offers an encrypted version of the OSDP, thereby ensuring that the protocol meets the highest security standards.

Exiting Possibilities with OSDP

The OSDP is able to transmit large amounts of data which in itself opens up a wide range of possibilities. Since the protocol also enables easy integration between systems from different producers, new and exciting solutions are now within reach. Smart buildings and industry management systems are just a few of the areas in which we may see the OSDP used to integrate systems from various suppliers.

Perhaps even more interesting is the fact that the OSDP enables bi-directional communication and read/write capabilities.

OSDP Access Control

We are certain that OSDP is the future of access control, and we have developed a number of access control readers (PIN, proximity, Bluetooth, mifare, fingerprint) and a display using the OSDP protocol. If you would like to know more, you are more than welcome to contact us at 0045 72 40 60 03.

Read more about Conlan OSDP access control.