# Alphanumeric Pager

Catalyst will operate with any pager terminal having:

- Service provider offering a dial-up access number supporting TAP protocol.
- Display area of at least 120 characters

Note: RACO recommends that you configure other non-pager phone numbers at the appropriate place in the dialing list. This is to insure that if for some reason the pager system cannot be activated, you will still get a timely warning from your RTU.

Notification and Status Reports may be delivered to alpha numeric paging destinations. The destination is considered contacted when the first transaction is confirmed by TAP protocol. A given channel is considered reported when the block containing its status message is confirmed.

Report length is an important consideration. Features are specified that control the length of reports, their fragmentation, and truncation:

Report Formatting -- alphanumeric pager reports are formatted as flat text, with no graphics, and no terminal-specific format control characters. The only non-printing ASCII control characters used within the report are "carriage-return" and "line feed." No attempt is made to control or optimize line wrapping or layout based upon terminal display dimensions.

Report Contents -- alphanumeric pager reports consist of a header followed by individual status messages describing the RTU state. The order and content of these messages is identical with that used in other voice and text reports. Exception: the preliminary report items, consisting of PFAIL, TFAIL, etc. are contained only in the report header.

Status Messages -- alphanumeric pager status messages use text identical to those messages used by the printer, log file, and fax reports.

Report Blocks -- an alphanumeric pager report is split up into blocks, The size of each block is limited by the "message length limit" that applies to the particular destination terminal. The parameter is referred to as the "pager terminal message block size" or "block size" for short. A “block” is a single TAP transaction and same as “message” in most pager documentation.

Report Structure -- The diagram below gives an example of the structure of the alphanumeric pager report blocks:

Block 1 – Report Begins

Block Header: | 01: ALARM RPT : 1 of 2
Report Header: | 18006792778 alarms: 003
First status message: | Feeder Breaker #467 is TRIPPED ALARM || Security Panel is OPEN ALARM

Block 2 -- Continuation Block

Block Header: | 02 : ALARM RPT : 2 of 2
Status Messages: | Backup Generator is RUNNING ALARM

Block Header -- Each block begins with a single line of text describing the report type, sequence number of the current block and total number of blocks within the report. The report type is one of the following words: AUTO-TEST, CALLBACK, STATUS, ALARM, and ACKNOWLEDGMENT. The size of the block header is always less than 20 bytes.

Note: The actual report length can change due to new alarms that trip or other state changes after the report begins. If that happens, then "+" is appended to the block header.

Example:

Block Header | Description
ALARM RPT:1 0f 5 | This is an Alarm report, Block 1 of 5
AUTOTEST RPT: 1 of 3+ | This is an Autotest report, Block 1 of 3, state change alert.

Report Header -- The first block of every report contains the report header. This header is presented after the "block header" but before any status messages. Minimum length is 8 bytes, maximum length is 70 bytes and typical length is ~45 bytes. It contains the fields below, in the listed order, arranged on 2 lines:

Field |  | Description
Call Back String |  | Configured callback string for this destination. §Can be null §May contain text §30 characters maximum §Default is the RTU Phone Number
Alarms:### |  | The Number of unacknowledged alarms in destination group.
PFAIL |  | Included only if AC power is OFF at the time of the report.
LOBAT |  | Included only if battery is charging at the time of the report.
TFAIL |  | Included only if phone failure is unacknowledged at report time.

Text Messages -- All status messages use text identical with that employed by the printer, log file, and fax reports, In other words, this specification avoids the need for operators to configure channel, tag, destination, or device messages specifically for use only by alpha paging destinations.

Alarmware prevents the insertion of any non-printing ASCII character within any text message string.

Message Truncation and Report Fragmentation -- Some applications may have long text messages configured. In these cases, truncation is inevitable when delivered to alphanumeric pager terminals. To reduce the possibility of truncation, the block size and block limit is configurable for each destination.. The block size allows the Catalyst to partition the report into truncation-free blocks. The block limit allows a report to fit within the pager memory and therefore avoid overflow.

As the report is being generated, the software will check to determine that an entire channel status message will fit within the current block. If it will not, then the block will end and a new block begins with that status message. If the status message started at the beginning of a block but still won't fit, it is truncated. The next block begins with the next status message.

When a report must be ended prematurely because the blocks size limit has been reached, an ellipsis (…) will be displayed as the last 3 characters of text.

When truncation occurs, you can choose to:

- Reduce the length of the offending text message for all destination types
- Accept the truncation
- Purchase a pager terminal with a larger block size
- Configure duplicate channels that use abbreviated messages, then link only those duplicates to the pager terminal destinations

Pager Sessions -- A pager session consists of the Catalyst dialing the pager service provider access number and delivering as many blocks as required or limited using TAP protocol transactions. It is assumed that any transaction confirmed by the TAP provider will get delivered to the terminal destination. The session result and any error diagnostics provided by the service provider will be logged.

Alphanumeric pagers work exactly the same as any other destination regarding the notification sequence and the configuration options that apply. Alphanumeric pagers are considered contacted whenever TAP accepts a transaction. A particular channel is considered reported when TAP confirms the transaction containing that status message.

If the session only succeeds in delivering a portion of the report, the block headers will provide the evidence that the report was incomplete. Based on the options configured, the next session may generate a new report whose contents may either include or exclude channels already reported.

See Also

Alphanumeric Pager Advanced Settings