A brief analysis of the software middleware technology of the Blue Star monitoring platform

In recent years, security, as an emerging industry, has developed rapidly in China. With the flourishing and popularization of various types of monitoring equipment, monitoring platform software, which is the concentrated embodiment of the functions of security products, has gradually been valued by equipment manufacturers and users. As a well-known domestic security manufacturer, Blue Star has been committed to providing system solutions for many years, especially focusing on the development and investment of BstarCenter network video monitoring platform software. After years of industry experience accumulation, a set of practical technical solutions based on advanced software development ideas have been proposed. The author has personally experienced the traditional coding method of the BstarCenter network video monitoring platform in its early stage, and experienced the pain of low development efficiency and inability to adapt to changes in customer needs; he also enjoyed the experience of reforming difficulties, changing ideas, optimizing development models, and integrating development resources. While looking back and summarizing, this article is written to summarize the experience of Blue Star BstarCenter network video monitoring platform software in the development process, and at the same time analyze the characteristics of the video monitoring platform from the perspective of security monitoring platform middleware development.

The technical implementation of middleware + distributed architecture is the mainstream direction of today's software technology. The middleware layer between the underlying hardware of the operating system and the application program can greatly simplify the development process and improve development efficiency. It is the inevitable result of the segmentation and division of labor in the software market. The rise of middleware technology makes it possible to quickly build a software application platform with a business orientation.

From a technical perspective, the strategic focus of the development of security monitoring platforms is to separate the technology platform from the product platform, thereby reducing the risk of loss of software developers and development costs, and optimizing resource allocation. In a popular sense, the technology platform is the basic component of the security monitoring platform, and the product platform is the industry application built on the technology platform. The rapid response to user needs, the quick positioning of application solutions, and other issues involved in the product platform level, in addition to testing the security vendors' understanding of the industry and the operation mode between the various departments within the company, largely depend on the height and flexibility of the technology department in building the technology platform. At the same time, security is a very three-dimensional industry, which involves many aspects of technology such as video, voice, network, storage, etc. Each technical link may be deeply excavated or amplified in any industry application. These are the biggest tests for the technology platform level of security vendors. In view of the above problems, considering the comprehensive development cost and the large-scale software engineering development model, the introduction of the middleware technology of the security monitoring platform is imminent. During the development process of the BstarCenter network video monitoring platform, we fully realized the above problems that may be encountered. For the application of the security monitoring platform, the following analysis of the system is made while ensuring its implementation in the existing system.

Distributed object-oriented system structure characteristics

In view of the development characteristics of security monitoring software, the two major features of distributed and object-oriented can greatly improve the flexibility and scalability of the solution; reduce the time and difficulty of the development process; at the same time, reduce unnecessary complexity, make the platform easier to learn and use, and reduce development costs.

Distribute the calls between objects using RPC

Since the middleware needs to shield the asynchronous operating system and network protocol in the distributed environment, it must be able to provide a communication service in the distributed environment. RPC (Remote Procedure Call Protocol) is a widely used distributed application processing method. When implementing personnel communicate between objects to complete certain functions, they call the interface of the target module through RPC, just like calling the locally implemented method. The target interface feedbacks the execution result by returning a value or throwing an exception. The RPC calling method used by BstarCenter supports TCP and UDP protocols at the bottom layer to ensure the flexibility of implementation. In addition to supporting ordinary synchronous calling methods, it also supports asynchronous calling (AMI), asynchronous distribution (AMD) and broadcast service functions, so that the platform's command control, alarm forwarding, new function release, etc. have flexible application space.

Abstract the file reading module, database access module, video forwarding module, authentication module, resource access module, device control module, etc.

Regarding the application of security monitoring platform, the architecture design has been discussed many times, and many peers have analyzed it and formed a relatively mature solution. Although there are slight differences among the mainstream manufacturers, they basically have the above modules, so I will not elaborate on them here (see Figure 1 for details).

▲Figure 1 Module division structure diagram

1. Provide efficient implementation and application in terms of network bandwidth, memory usage and CPU overhead

BstarCenter conducts in-depth optimization in network bottom layer, memory usage and CPU overhead, because with the improvement of system performance and the increase of load, the above three links will be the main factors limiting the performance of the security monitoring platform. At the same time, in terms of bandwidth occupancy, memory and CPU usage, an interface is provided to track and output in real time to facilitate debugging and problem location.

2. Provide flexible firewall solutions for distributed characteristics

The communication protocol used by BstarCenter supports the establishment of two-way connections. With the support of front-end devices, it can ensure the penetration of firewalls between clients and servers or between devices and servers. At the same time, BstarCenter can support three methods of dynamic, static, and interval range allocation for the use of ports, so as to flexibly cooperate with the firewall settings of the customer's network environment.

3. Provide an implementation with built-in security to adapt to insecure network environments

With the increasing requirements of industry customers, the key confidentiality industries have increased their requirements for security and monitoring using the public network, and data security has become an important part of the next stage of the security monitoring platform. BstarCenter provides support for the SSL protocol.

4. System implementation is platform-independent

Due to the diversity of customer requirements and the differences in technical capabilities of third-party equipment manufacturers, cross-platform systems provide effective guarantees. Multi-platform support can bring higher benefits in the following aspects: convenient SDK access, rapid release of WEB application software, guarantee of implementation of solutions for different industries, platform integration for special customer requirements, etc.

5. Provide upgrade service module

In view of the fast-changing user needs and rapid equipment updates in the security industry, an upgrade module function is provided to ensure the detection and automatic execution of the upgrade package.

In order to ensure the advancement of BstarCenter network video surveillance platform technology, timely update and use the latest underlying technology (such as the transition from select model to epoll/IOCP model), we also selectively use third-party underlying architecture middleware, and customize and delete it according to the characteristics of the surveillance industry. On the upper layer, we perfected the basic module of BstarCenter surveillance platform middleware.

The Bstar-Center monitoring platform middleware module encapsulated by the above technology can be used to conveniently and quickly develop upper-level applications. Next, the author will take the access control middleware module as an example to briefly describe the process of secondary development based on the Blue Star BstarCenter monitoring platform middleware.

The access control middleware module consists of three parts, namely the device control module, the authority control module, and the information callback module. From the perspective of the access control workflow, the primary task of secondary development is to encapsulate the access control device, access control user, IC card, and fingerprint information to form a set of user-customized add, delete, modify, and query processes, and complete the work of issuing cards or fingerprint granting (that is, binding users with IC cards and fingerprints). Among the above data, only the card number and access control address are used as interface parameters for the device control module and the authority control module. Next, through the interface function provided by the authority control module, the authorization process and working mode configuration process of the entire access control are completed. Through the interface of the device control module and the authority control module, the application developer has completed the basic workflow of the access control. Finally, according to the user's requirements, combined with the video characteristics of their own platform, through the information callback module, the door opening event, card swiping event, alarm event, etc. are captured, and combined with other platform functions to achieve the purpose of secondary development. During the entire development process, application function developers do not need to pay attention to the specific model and access method of the access control device. The only thing that needs to be paid attention to is the application requirements put forward by customers on the security monitoring platform for the traditional security product form of access control. The entire development process has greatly reduced the dependence of the technical platform on technical personnel. Modularizing and streamlining the development process is the future development direction of the entire security monitoring platform software (as shown in Figure 2).

▲Figure 2 Access control middleware module composition diagram

The monitoring platform software standing in the big environment of China's software industry must follow the laws of the software industry development. Only by deeply exploring user needs, accurately finding the industry positioning, and timely launching specific solutions to solve problems to meet the personalized needs of users can it be favored. The introduction of middleware technology for security monitoring platform software is the main means to improve the core competitiveness of platform manufacturers. At the same time, monitoring platform middleware technology also contains huge economic potential and profit space. As a member of the security field, Blue Star will continue to be committed to the development and development of security monitoring platform middleware technology.