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Anomaly Detection Is the Next Big Thing in Smart Hotels

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Written by John Wojnicki

In a hospitality environment, anomaly detection can support optimal operation in many ways—from reservation systems to potential cybersecurity threats. Learn more about why it’s the next big thing in smart buildings.

 

A smart building is a self-sufficient, data-driven building—all about connecting the physical world to the digital world. It generates its own performance data using sensors, devices, systems and detectors. That information can be used to continuously improve efficiency, comfort and safety.

 

In gaming and leisure environments specifically, data gives owners the insights they need to empower staff, wow travelers and add value to the right guest touchpoints—all while driving down costs and optimizing maintenance.

 

When anomalies are detected within the data—inconsistencies that don’t align with normal data patterns or that deviate from established baselines—they can be signs of a potential problem.

 

Anomaly detection is a way to monitor network and system performance, pinpoint data variability and alert the right person when something falls outside normal operating parameters.

 

In hospitality facilities, creating a fabulous guest experience is no longer only about excellent service, impressive amenities or state-of-the-art technology. It’s about preventing situations that may negatively impact guests.

 

Because data anomaly detection uncovers inconsistencies in network and system performance, your team can work behind the scenes to address issues and make sure they don’t turn into larger, more costly problems.

 

The value of anomaly detection in hospitality

When real-time data from smart building devices and sensors is consistently evaluated, anomaly detection can perceive something as simple as a malfunctioning wireless access point or as complex as an entire system malfunctioning.

 

If a wireless access point that supports maintenance activity uses the same channel as your hotel’s videoconferencing platform, for example, this could introduce additional network traffic that causes buffering and jitter.

 

Before users notice these network issues, anomaly detection can identify when network traffic begins to change—by pinpointing an increase in channel utilization on an access point by a certain percentage, for example—and notifies the right people so corrective actions can be taken, if needed.

 

Machine learning can take anomaly detection to the next level by removing manual work from the equation completely. Performance thresholds can be adjusted based on network activity over a period of time. Based on what’s happening, the network can learn to self-heal without anyone stepping in.

 

The real world: anomaly detection in action

In a hospitality environment, anomaly detection can support optimal operation in many ways.

  • Reservation Systems: Anomaly detection algorithms can analyze reservation data to identify irregular booking patterns, such as a sudden influx of bookings from unusual sources or an abnormal number of cancellations. This helps prevent fraudulent activities and protects against reservation system abuse.
  • Employee Activities: Anomaly detection can be used to monitor the flow of employee data. For instance, if an employee accesses sensitive guest information outside their regular work hours or attempts to extract large amounts of data from the system, then this could indicate unauthorized access or data theft.
  • Potential Cybersecurity Threats: Monitoring network traffic within the hospitality space is essential to identify any abnormal activities that may indicate cyberattacks or data breaches. Anomaly detection algorithms can analyze network traffic patterns, detect unusual data transfers or communication patterns and raise alerts for potential security threats.

 

Improve the guest experience in new ways

By identifying and addressing anomalies promptly, gaming and leisure organizations can safeguard operations, protect customer data and maintain a high level of trust and satisfaction. This allows you to prevent problems and improve the guest experience in ways never possible before.

 

Belden can help you create high-quality data acquisition, transmission, orchestration and management solutions that support your innovative hospitality technology initiatives—including anomaly detection.

 

Learn more about how we can help you integrate technology and anomaly detection into the guest experience.

 

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To Dress or Not to Dress: Cable Combing for Category 6A Cabling

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Written by Henry Franc

Cable combing or dressing creates neat, organized cables with parallel runs, while also reducing installation time. But find out how it impacts the performance of Category 6A cables.

When your cable installation is exposed and visible, such as in open, overhead cable trays or racks and cabinets, you want it to look professional and pristine. Tangled and misaligned cables are not only unsightly, but also can lead to performance issues if they’re kinked or bent.

That’s where cable combing or dressing comes in. It helps create neat, organized cables with parallel runs. It also reduces labor costs and installation time when multiple cables must be untangled and bundled during a project.

When it comes to lower grades of copper cabling, such as Category 5e and Category 6, combing has always been a regular and recommended practice during installation. But the introduction of Category 6A changed that.

 

How did Category 6A cables change combing practices?

While Category 6A cabling was being developed prior to approval in 2008, it brought with it higher levels of frequency and noise to support 500 MHz of data transmission bandwidth.

But noise sensitivity increases at higher frequencies. As bandwidth increased, so did the importance of controlling cable noise to ensure proper data transmission. First-generation 10GBASE-T systems were so sensitive to noise, in fact, that engineers had to take cell phones out of their pockets before entering lab spaces.

It was also discovered that running Category 6A cables and connectors in parallel was a main contributor to noise—a type of interference we now call “alien crosstalk.”

With lower grades of Category cable and connectors like Category 5e and Category 6, alien crosstalk wasn’t a problem—because it didn’t exist.

Alien crosstalk occurs when a signal on one cable (the “aggressor”) induces noise to the signal of an adjacent cable (the “victim”). Victim and aggressor signals impact each other the most when in parallel. This is why a cable’s copper wires are twisted into pairs: to balance the conductors of a pair and ensure that the differential signal remains equal and opposite. Alien crosstalk must be managed so it doesn’t cause performance issues.

It’s also different from near-end crosstalk (NEXT) and far-end crosstalk (FEXT), which occur within a single cable. Because NEXT and FEXT can be measured and predicted, they can be remediated through digital signal processing. But alien crosstalk is unpredictable interference that comes from outside the cable.

To address this noise-sensitivity issue, manufacturers tried all types of solutions and designs. They did everything from creating cables with very large ODs to using spacers that coiled around the four pairs in an attempt to separate and randomize interfering signals.

Still, due to this level of interference, many manufacturers advised against cable combing for Category 6A—and they still do today.

 

Cable Combing for Category 6A: yes or no?

Today, we often receive questions about cable combing. It was such a common practice with Category 5e and Category 6, but should it be done with Category 6A, given what we learned above? What do best practices dictate?

Here’s our answer: If you use Category 6A solutions from Belden, then cable combing is still fine.

These cables feature our EquiBlock™ design, which provides an equal potential barrier to minimize alien crosstalk to adjacent cables.

We also test our cables to worst-case conditions, using a combed, six-around-one configuration. Six outer cables are laid around a center cable, and cables are tied every 6 to 8 inches along the full length of the channel, bringing connectors closer together as well. Many manufacturers can’t pass six-around-one configuration with four connectors in a shortened (24 m) channel.

Belden passes this testing because its cables and connectors are designed with the best possible balance to exceed all performance characteristics and parameters specified in the Category 6A standard, including alien crosstalk, insertion loss and return loss. And our REVConnect® Connectors provide the best controlled electrical performance possible.

So go ahead—be proud of your installation work and comb your Category 6A cables from Belden if you want. In fact, we encourage it!

It’s important to note, however, that it may be problematic to comb Category 6A cables from other vendors. If another cable manufacturer advises against combing or dressing, then it’s probably wise to listen. Their Category 6A cables likely require randomization (a less tidy installation) to eliminate the potential for alien crosstalk and degraded performance.

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LEMO – Connecting The Alfa Romeo F1 Team Orlen

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Written by LEMO

Developing and operating Formula One cars is a mission under very high pressure. For sure, Sauber Motorsport knows something about this: it designs and manufactures the C42 of the Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN. Every component is well thought, analyzed and tested. But also the electric and electronic parts, including connectors.

 

“The space available on a Formula One car is reduced to a minimum, every square centimeter counts” explains Davide Spagnol, Head of Systems Engineering at Sauber Motorsport. “So does every gramme, since performance depends greatly on the weight of the car. Like all the rest, connectors need to be as small and as lightweight as possible.” They must also be very robust. “In order to withstand extreme conditions during races and the handling by mechanics who connect and disconnect them often under stressful conditions!”

 

Formula One is one of the extreme environments that LEMO perfectly masters. LEMO has even developed dedicated solutions, the F Series launched in 1995 and the M Series in 2006. They have been rather successful since both series have been adopted by the FIA and are on board all Formula One cars. The M Series equip even a crucial part, the ECU (electronic control unit), which controls, among other systems, the engine, the throttle pedal, the gear box or even the energy recovery system – in addition to the transmission of masses of data to the team.

 

Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN uses no fewer than twenty different types of LEMO connectors. “Those on the systems which are common to all cars, as well as the ECU and the HIU (hub interface unit), but also on some sensors” explains Davide Spagnol. Others connect the teams communication equipment – “you can find them under the control screens and portable radios.” The drivers even wear them: “The interface to the drivers’ earplug and microphone is also equipped with LEMO connectors.”

 

According to the Davide Spagnol, Sauber has been using LEMO solutions for 25 years. The two Swiss technological groups – sharing the same quest for excellence and a true passion for motorsport – have further strengthened their cooporation this year. They have signed a partnership contract on exchanging products and engineering in view of developing new solutions.

 

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Data Visualisation – 5 Ways to Easily Improve Your Operations

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Written by Brainboxes

Wherever you are on your digital transformation journey, data visualisation makes it easy to optimise operations.

Big Data – shorthand for the billions of transactions datasets generated daily – is key in industry, but simply collecting reams and reams of counts and figures isn’t enough. The data must of course be accurate and relevant. Moreover, it’s vital that it can be analysed in the right way to enable businesses to make the best data-driven decisions.

The actionable insights are already there, contained in the data. Data visualisation – viewing information in clear graphical forms – takes the guesswork out of analysing big data by cutting out the noise and making it easier to spot trends, patterns and unusual values (outliers.) Often complex statistical analysis isn’t required; simple data visualisation allows humans to understand the big picture unclouded by individual data points.

 

Data visualisation can gather data from different sources and show it graphically in one place, making it easier to identify organisational opportunities, shine a spotlight on inefficiencies, and help solve other common challenges on the factory floor.

1. Reduce costly errors

To err is human; the ability to spot inevitable mistakes in real-time and respond quickly can make a huge difference.

Using data visualisation to show data from varied sources on a centralised visual dashboard allows supervisors to see everything at a glance (shift productivity, machine downtime, outputs, etc.), making it easier to keep track of every part of the manufacturing process and action fast responses.

 

2. Streamline the supply chain

Data visualisation means you can take data at any given time, and compare it against historical performance data. With historic data visualisation, it’s easier to track ROI and delivery rates, identify where resources are allocated, and manage Overall Equipment Effectiveness to optimise supply chain efficiency.

 

3. Balance quality control with cost-cutting

A visual data model makes it easy to see where resources are spent and proactively identify potential flaws; ensuring that all processes are designed to meet quality assurance standards in the most cost-effective way. Quality doesn’t always have to come at a price; some of the largest quality gains can be made by simple changes highlighted by data visualisation.

 

4.  Identify & eliminate inefficiencies

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is the measurement and management of critical processes, often in real time. Data visualisation lets you discover datasets related to resources, materials, productivity, and shift performance in a comprehensive database. This will enhance ERP, allowing decisions to be made more rapidly and with fewer errors.

 

5.  Data visualisation with free open-source software

Even without the facilities to capture data, it’s possible to prove concepts without wiring sensors, by using free-to-start, open-source software (InfluxDB and Grafana) and Brainboxes BB-400 Industrial Edge Controller.

In industry, it’s common to count how often something changes, store the information, and then review and analyse the information in a graph. For example temperature, parts counts, or machine errors. Node-RED can be used to send data to InfluxDB which can then be visualised in Grafana.

Watch the video above for an easy-to-follow tutorial, that will walk you through sending data from an edge controller to a database in InfluxDB and how to produce graphical visualisations of the data.

 

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Attacks on Mission-Critical Power Infrastructure: Why Cybersecurity Is Necessary

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Written by Zane Blomgren

Cyberattacks on utilities are on the rise. To protect mission-critical power infrastructure from threats and vulnerabilities, don’t forget about the cybersecurity basics.

When mission-critical power infrastructure goes down, there’s always an impact: disruption to business, communications, transportation and even vital medical care.

As long as countries have had energy grids and power infrastructure, they’ve been vulnerable to incidents that cause downtime. Decades ago, these events may have involved a tripped transmission line, an incorrect setting on a protective relay, an act of vandalism or nasty weather.

Today, utilities continue to grapple with these threats while juggling new pressures, including cyberattacks. These malicious and deliberate attempts at disrupting or destroying data and/or information systems may be spearheaded by other countries, hacktivists, lone hackers or even organized criminals.

According to research conducted at the end of last year, 2022 set an all-time high for the number of cyberattacks on utilities that took place in a single year.

When it comes to the threat actors that utilities will face tomorrow … who knows? But, no matter the cause, losing power will always be bad news.

As utilities continue their digital journeys, connecting systems to networks to make equipment and data more accessible, their attack surfaces swell while cyberattacks grow. The opportunity for remote assaults also increases. Bad actors from halfway across the world can use remote connectivity with high levels of intelligence and craftiness to bring down mission-critical power infrastructure.

While the industry continues to advance, and cyberattacks become more frequent, securing power infrastructure ecosystems and boosting cyber resilience are the only ways to prevent widespread and potentially disastrous outcomes.

 

A tale: How I realized the value of cybersecurity for utilities

In a previous role several years ago, I remember visiting one power facility in particular. Before I could set foot onsite, I went through an extensive background check. Upon arrival, I walked through a gate secured by armed guards. Before touring the facility, I went through training. As I explored the facility, the staff pointed out a light near the doors: When illuminated, it indicates the possible presence of a physical breach to the facility—my guide used an active shooter as his example. It was clear to me that the plant placed lots of value on its critical infrastructure and was taking steps to protect it. Everyone seemed to have a heightened level of awareness regarding potential threats.

That evening, when I returned to my hotel room, curiosity got the best of me. After doing some simple research, I discovered that some critical infrastructure equipment was openly exposed, using insecure protocols and lacking authentication or security measures to protect them. It was eye-opening—and a good reminder that security at every level is critical to mitigate the potential for negative outcomes.

Rewind to the early 2000s and cybersecurity in the form of Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) standards developed by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) began to form, bringing cybersecurity up as well as physical security.

The lesson? Don’t forget about the basics. With innovations like artificial intelligence, robotics and virtual reality on the horizon, now is the time to make sure you have the right foundation in place. Otherwise, your advanced technology and processes will fail. Here are some pointers.

 

1. Use NERC CIP as your compass

The Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) standards ensure that electric utilities have the right physical and cybersecurity measures in place to protect their critical infrastructure from threats.

While these are compulsory with some real consequences for non-compliance, understand the intent behind the requirements, give thought to what protection is intended and work hard to deliver that protection. They have helped the industry make dramatic improvements to protect critical infrastructure by providing prescriptive guidance in categories like:

  • Control center communications
  • Incident response
  • Network security
  • Personnel and training
  • Physical security of cyber assets
  • Recovery plans
  • System security controls
  • Vulnerability management

These standards provide the framework to secure your critical infrastructure.

 

2. Build and rely on your professional network

While you don’t have to give away trade secrets, having a trusted network of like-minded peers in the power transmission and distribution industry can be valuable to your cybersecurity practices.

It provides a chance to talk about what’s working and what isn’t, share the threats you see in the new digital landscape, explore what other utilities are trying and learn and discuss best practices.

If you don’t have a group of colleagues that you currently network with, consider establishing one to support:

  • Information sharing and collaboration on identifying and mitigating cyber threats
  • Sharing access to resources, tools, training and expertise that can help advance the industry
  • Acquiring advice on tough challenges or new situations

 

3. Explore and prepare your power infrastructure

Good power infrastructure is the foundation for everything: reliability, operational efficiency, customer satisfaction, safety and even sustainability.

The future of utilities is all about connectedness. Your mission-critical infrastructure needs to be ready to support innovations like:

  • Cross-enterprise device integration and data flow for real-time transparency, monitoring and performance alerts
  • Remote monitoring, operation and inspection
  • Seamless communication and collaboration across the utility, from the corporate office to the field
  • Predictive maintenance to optimize equipment repair and replacement
  • Smart scheduling for equipment and labor to improve resource allocation
  • Gain more intelligence and insight from substations to improve decision-making

As technologies and applications like these continue to roll out, they will need to be supported by robust, high-performance telecommunications systems that can manage heavy increases in network traffic and bandwidth consumption.

For example, most utilities have relied on TDM (time-division multiplexing) as their backbone technology to transmit data across networks. As smart grids and smart substations become prolific, however, TDM is becoming obsolete. It can’t support modern communications protocols or keep up with bandwidth requirements.

MPLS-TP (multiprotocol label switching – transport profile) is the best option to replace TDM. It can support legacy systems and next-gen smart grid applications and transport most forms of traffic, including traditional serial-based technologies and IEC 61850 packet-based intelligent electronic devices.

 

Belden: your partner in protecting mission-critical power infrastructure

Belden’s in-house industry experts have decades of experience in helping utilities prepare for the future while maximizing current investments in legacy technology. Our digital automation consultants, solution consultants and solution architects understand the intricacies of the utility market, have worked in the field and have experienced your challenges first-hand.

After understanding your situation and environment, our Customer Innovation Center works closely with you to assess network strengths, deficiencies and workflows; define your goals; outline your best opportunities to increase value and meet KPIs; and present a holistic view of implementation costs and a blueprint that acts as your digital transformation guide.

 

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