SIA open protocol approved as international standard

SILVER SPRING, Md.—Developed and maintained by the Security Industry Association (SIA) OSDP Working Group since 2011, the SIA Open Supervised Device Protocol (OSDP), an access control communications standard to improve interoperability among access control and security products, has been approved by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) technical committee on alarm and electronic security systems as an international standard. 

“This is really exciting for the industry,” Anthony Diodato, co-chair of SIA’s OSDP Working Group and founder, CTO at Cypress Integration Systems, said in the announcement. “While the process may have been long, the industry can finally point to an international standard that brings higher security and greater functionality to new and legacy access control solutions.” 

This standard was submitted to the IEC as a candidate standard in 2016, with the latest version to be listed as IEC 60839-11-5 and be available in the IEC webstore. In the coming weeks, SIA will release a mirror standalone document to the IEC standard — OSDP 2.2, replacing SIA OSDP 2.1.7 and be available in the SIA store. 

“SIA OSDP is an excellent example of how various industry stakeholders can come together to contribute and collaborate on a pivotal, international technology standard that provides real business and operational value to the industry,” Steve Rogers, SIA OSDP working group co-chair and president at IQ Devices, said. 

Other tools and services to promote interoperability and education around the OSDP standard have also been announced by SIA, including OSDP Verified, a comprehensive testing program that validates device conformance to the SIA OSDP standard and the related performance profiles along with the OSDP Boot Camp series that offers OSDP training for system integrators and practitioner teams. 

OSDP advancements have been a team effort within the SIA OSDP Working Group, and SIA particularly acknowledges Rodney Thayer, convergence engineer at Smithee Solutions, for critical engineering and technical support as the project progressed through the IEC submission and approval process.

“The availability of an internationally recognized standard will further create opportunities in the access control marketplace to meet customer requirements,” Thayer noted.