Access zones

An access zone is a secured physical area used to control and monitor the entry and exit of personnel to and from the zone. Entry and exit doors, their associated readers, and configuration properties define each access zone. When an access zone is enabled or disabled, a log entry is written and, optionally, an alarm is generated (for disabling the access zone).

The system monitors zone occupancy by counting the number of people who enter and exit, by identifying occupant type (supervisor or other), and by maintaining an occupant threshold (the maximum or minimum number of people allowed in the zone). Access zone-related alarms are configurable in terms of high, medium, low, or off, as defined by their associated alarm classes.

Supervisor requirement

You may designate any person-type as supervisor. When supervisor enforcement is in effect for an access zone, at least one occupant of the access zone must have the supervisor designation.

Occupancy counts and thresholds

Occupancy identifies who is in an access zone at any given time. Occupancy monitoring must be enabled. When enabled and an entry reader grants access, the system increments the occupancy count. When a reader grants an exit, the system decrements the occupancy count. A user with proper authorization may reset occupancy count to zero manually at any time or automatically according to a designated time-schedule.

Occupancy thresholds configure the minimum and maximum number of occupants that are allowed in an access zone. Thresholds may be enforced by denial of access at the entry door or by the generation of an alarm—or a combination of both, using hard or soft enforcement, as described, below.

Anti-passback feature

The return of an occupant to an access zone after leaving the zone is called a passback. The system’s anti-passback feature configures when an occupant is allowed to pass back. In addition to tracking who enters and exists (occupancy), the system monitors the time between badge swipes. An occupant must exit through a controlled exit reader door, and the Passback Timeout must expire for the occupant to be eligible for re-entry into the access zone. A re-entry attempt by an occupant or a second badge swipe that occurs prior to the Passback Timeout value is an anti-passback violation, which may generate an alarm.

System users whose access zone permission is configured for write enabled may change the Reset Occupancy Time and Passback Timeout properties for an access zone.

Access enforcement

Several options exist for enforcing the supervisor requirement, count thresholds, and the anti-passback feature.

Enforcement may be disabled.
Hard enforcement may be configured. This type of enforcement results in access denied at a card reader and the generation of an alarm.
Soft enforcement results in access granted but with the generation of an alarm.

In an environment where enforcement depends on a network connection, hard enforcement results if network communication is lost.

Multiple controller zones

When an access zone spans multiple controllers, one controller serves as the zone master. All other dependent controllers rely on the master to maintain occupancy and configuration data. Dependent controllers query the master to determine the authentication criteria at any given time.

The system maintains configuration data in all remote controllers so that in case there is a loss of communication, a designated form of fall-back enforcement takes effect. When an access zone is configured with supervisor monitoring, threshold monitoring, or anti-passback, fall-back enforcement occurs as follows:

Hard enforcement denies access, and post an entry to the access report indicating that the denial of access was due to communication failure.
Soft enforcement grants access, but posts an entry to the access report indicating that the current occupancy criteria are unavailable due to communication failure.