Intrusion alarms can consist of exterior and or interior intrusion sensors, video alarm assessment, entry control and alarm communication systems all working together.  Therefore, a properly designed intrusion alarm system requires a thorough understanding of the operational, physical and environmental characteristics of the facility.  
Intrusion alarms are designed to DETECT an attempted intrusion.  While in some cases, intrusion alarms act as deterrents, they are not specifically designed to prevent intrusion.  Rather, the primary goal is to provide the earliest notice of an attempted intrusion, giving the response force as much notice as possible. 
Since intrusion alarms operate under a “reactive” mode, they have limited effectiveness.  Intrusion detection is most effective when used in combination with other elements of a complete security system.  They should be viewed as a single piece of the larger security system design.

Main characteristics

Intrusion detection is typically installed to provide perimeter protection for facilities. Sensors such as door contacts, glass break detectors, motion sensors, seismic sensors, etc., are installed and wired to the alarm panel using a serial communication bus. The number of devices is limited by the model of the panel selected. Capacity varies from eight zones to 256 zones.
The intrusion detection system is installed, programmed and commissioned as an independent system due to certain building code requirements.

Some of the functionalities available via the integration are as follows:

An alarm from the intrusion detection system can be correlated with the card access reader to activate a lockdown command.

1. An alarm can trigger video cameras and emergency communication systems to provide audio/visual verification.
   
2.  Video analytics can also be deployed to provide a secondary verification when an intrusion alarm is detected.
   
3.  A card reader can be used instead of the numeric keypad to arm or disarm the area. The access privileges are granted in the same manner as they are for door access.
   
4.  Alarms can display on the graphics map.
   
5.  Alarm reporting and trending are available.

Architecture  This architecture is based on the security management system and intrusion detection system.