System and method for cellular connection selection

1. A method of transferring security event data over one of a plurality of cellular networks of different cellular carriers, comprising:

setting, at a control panel of a security system, a minimum acceptable signal quality connection criteria for a connection between a fixed cellular radio transceiver and a cellular network receiver for a cellular carrier, wherein the minimum acceptable signal quality connection criteria is determined by a software application executed by a processor of the control panel;

determining a signal quality for a connection between the fixed cellular radio transceiver and each of a plurality of cellular network receivers for the different cellular carriers;

connecting the fixed cellular radio transceiver to a cellular network receiver for a first cellular carrier exhibiting an acceptable signal quality;

connecting the fixed cellular radio transceiver to a cellular network receiver for an alternate cellular carrier exhibiting an acceptable signal quality when a connection to the first cellular carrier cannot be established; and

transmitting security event data from the fixed cellular radio transceiver to a remote central monitoring facility over a cellular network for the cellular carrier to which the fixed cellular radio transceiver is connected.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

connecting the fixed cellular radio transceiver to a cellular network receiver for an alternate cellular carrier exhibiting an acceptable signal quality when an acknowledgement of the transmitted security event data is not received by the fixed cellular radio transceiver; and

transmitting the security event data from the fixed cellular radio transceiver to the remote central monitoring facility over the cellular network for the alternate cellular carrier.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the fixed cellular radio transceiver is coupled with a security system panel.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

repeatedly attempting to connect the fixed cellular radio transceiver to a cellular network receiver for a cellular carrier exhibiting an acceptable signal quality until a connection is established; and

transmitting the security event data from the fixed cellular radio transceiver to the remote central monitoring facility over the cellular network for the cellular carrier to which the fixed cellular radio transceiver is connected.

5. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:

repeatedly attempting to connect the fixed cellular radio transceiver to a cellular network receiver for a cellular carrier exhibiting an acceptable signal quality when an acknowledgement of the transmitted security event data is not received by the fixed cellular radio transceiver until a connection is established; and

transmitting the security event data from the fixed cellular radio transceiver to the remote central monitoring facility over the cellular network for the cellular carrier to which the fixed cellular radio transceiver is connected.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

losing the connection between the fixed cellular radio transceiver and the cellular network receiver for the cellular carrier to which the fixed cellular radio transceiver is connected;

connecting the fixed cellular radio transceiver to a cellular network receiver for an alternate cellular carrier exhibiting an acceptable signal quality; and

transmitting security event data from the fixed cellular radio transceiver to a remote central monitoring facility over a cellular network for the alternate cellular carrier to which the fixed cellular radio transceiver is connected.

7. The method of claim 6 , further comprising:

connecting the fixed cellular radio transceiver to a cellular network receiver for another alternate cellular carrier exhibiting an acceptable signal quality when an acknowledgement of the transmitted security event data is not received by the radio transceiver; and

transmitting the security event data from the fixed cellular radio transceiver to the remote central monitoring facility over the cellular network for the another alternate cellular carrier.

8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising:

repeatedly attempting to connect the fixed cellular radio transceiver to a cellular network receiver for another cellular carrier exhibiting an acceptable signal quality when the connection between the fixed cellular radio transceiver and the cellular network receiver for the cellular carrier to which the fixed cellular radio transceiver is connected is lost; and

transmitting the security event data from the fixed cellular radio transceiver to the remote central monitoring facility over the cellular network for the cellular carrier to which the fixed cellular radio transceiver is connected.

9. The method of claim 1 , the signal quality being a signal strength measurement.

10. The method of claim 1 , the signal quality being a bit error rate (BER) measurement.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of different cellular carriers are in a prioritized order where the first cellular carrier occupies the highest priority and connections to the alternate cellular carriers are attempted according to their priority rank.

12. A component for transferring security event data over one of a plurality of cellular networks of different cellular carriers, the component for use with a security system comprising a plurality of alarms and an alarm panel associated with a monitored building, a receiver associated with a remote central monitoring facility, the component comprising:

a fixed cellular radio transceiver;

an application operative on a processor component of the alarm panel and communicatively coupled with the fixed cellular radio transceiver; and

a memory operative to store information pertaining to a plurality of cellular carriers that operate cellular networks;

the application operative to:

set a minimum acceptable signal quality for a connection between a fixed cellular radio transceiver and a cellular network receiver for a cellular carrier;

determine a signal quality for a connection between the fixed cellular radio transceiver and each of a plurality of cellular network receivers for different cellular carriers;

establish a connection between the fixed cellular radio transceiver and a cellular network receiver for a first cellular carrier exhibiting an acceptable signal quality; and

establish a connection between the fixed cellular radio transceiver and the cellular network receiver for an alternate cellular carrier exhibiting an acceptable signal quality when a connection to the first cellular carrier cannot be established; and

the fixed cellular radio transceiver operative to transmit security event data from the fixed cellular radio transceiver to the remote central monitoring facility over a cellular network for the cellular carrier to which the fixed cellular radio transceiver is connected.

13. The component of claim 12 , wherein

the application is further operative to establish a connection between the fixed cellular radio transceiver and a cellular network receiver for an alternate cellular carrier exhibiting an acceptable signal quality when an acknowledgement of the transmitted security event data is not received by the fixed cellular radio transceiver; and

the fixed cellular radio transceiver is further operative to transmit the security event data to the remote central monitoring facility over the cellular network for the alternate cellular carrier.

14. The component of claim 12 , wherein

the application is further operative to repeatedly attempt to establish a connection between the fixed cellular radio transceiver and a cellular network receiver for a cellular carrier exhibiting an acceptable signal quality until a connection is established; and

the fixed cellular radio transceiver is further operative to transmit the security event data from the fixed cellular radio transceiver to the remote central monitoring facility over the cellular network for the cellular carrier to which the fixed cellular radio transceiver is connected.

15. The component of claim 13 , wherein

the application is further operative to repeatedly attempt to establish a connection between the fixed cellular radio transceiver and a cellular network receiver for a cellular carrier exhibiting an acceptable signal quality when an acknowledgement of the transmitted security event data is not received by the fixed cellular radio transceiver until a connection is established; and

the fixed cellular radio transceiver is further operative to transmit the security event data from the fixed cellular radio transceiver to the remote central monitoring facility over the cellular network for the cellular carrier to which the fixed cellular radio transceiver is connected.

16. The component of claim 12 , wherein when the connection between the fixed cellular radio transceiver and the cellular network receiver for the cellular carrier is lost,

the application is further operative to connect the fixed cellular radio transceiver to a cellular network receiver for an alternate cellular carrier exhibiting an acceptable signal quality; and

the fixed cellular radio transceiver is further operative to transmit security event data from the fixed cellular radio transceiver to a remote central monitoring facility over a cellular network for the alternate cellular carrier to which the fixed cellular radio transceiver is connected.

17. The component of claim 16 , wherein

the application is further operative to repeatedly attempt to establish a connection between the fixed cellular radio transceiver and another alternate cellular carrier exhibiting an acceptable signal quality when an acknowledgement of the transmitted security event data is not received by the radio transceiver; and

the fixed cellular radio transceiver is further operative to transmit the security event data from the fixed cellular radio transceiver to the remote central monitoring facility over the cellular network for the another alternate cellular carrier.

18. The component of claim 17 , wherein

the application is further operative to repeatedly attempt to connect the fixed cellular radio transceiver to a cellular network receiver for another cellular carrier exhibiting an acceptable signal quality when the connection between the fixed cellular radio transceiver and the cellular network receiver for the cellular carrier to which the fixed cellular radio transceiver is connected is lost; and

the fixed cellular radio transceiver is further operative to transmit the security event data from the fixed cellular radio transceiver to the remote central monitoring facility over the cellular network for the cellular carrier to which the fixed cellular radio transceiver is connected.

19. The component of claim 12 , wherein the signal quality is a signal quality measurement.

20. The component of claim 12 , wherein the signal quality is a bit error rate (BER) measurement.

21. The component of claim 12 , wherein the different cellular carriers are in a prioritized order where the first cellular carrier occupies the highest priority and connections to the alternate cellular carriers are attempted according to their priority rank.

22. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium comprising instructions that when executed enable a system to:

set a minimum acceptable signal quality for a connection between a fixed cellular radio transceiver and a cellular network receiver for a cellular carrier;

determine a signal quality for a connection between the fixed cellular radio transceiver and each of a plurality of cellular network receivers for different cellular carriers;

connect the fixed cellular radio transceiver to a cellular network receiver for a first cellular carrier exhibiting an acceptable signal quality; and

connect the fixed cellular radio transceiver to a cellular network receiver for an alternate cellular carrier exhibiting an acceptable signal quality when a connection to the first cellular carrier cannot be established; and

transmit security event data from the fixed cellular radio transceiver to a remote central monitoring facility over a cellular network for the cellular carrier to which the fixed cellular radio transceiver is connected;

wherein the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium is a component of an alarm panel of a security system.

23. The non-transitory storage medium of claim 22 , further comprising instructions that when executed enable the mobile computing system to:

connect the fixed cellular radio transceiver to a cellular network receiver for an alternate cellular carrier exhibiting an acceptable signal quality when an acknowledgement of the transmitted security event data is not received by the fixed cellular radio transceiver; and

transmit the security event data from the fixed cellular radio transceiver to the remote central monitoring facility over the cellular network for the alternate cellular carrier.

24. The non-transitory storage medium of claim 22 , wherein the fixed cellular radio transceiver is coupled with a security system panel.

25. The non-transitory storage medium of claim 22 , further comprising instructions that when executed enable the mobile computing system to:

repeatedly attempt to connect the fixed cellular radio transceiver to a cellular network receiver for a cellular carrier exhibiting an acceptable signal quality until a connection is established; and

transmit the security event data from the fixed cellular radio transceiver to the remote central monitoring facility over the cellular network for the cellular carrier to which the fixed cellular radio transceiver is connected.

26. The non-transitory storage medium of claim 23 , further comprising instructions that when executed enable the mobile computing system to:

repeatedly attempt to connect the fixed cellular radio transceiver to a cellular network receiver for a cellular carrier exhibiting an acceptable signal quality when an acknowledgement of the transmitted security event data is not received by the fixed cellular radio transceiver until a connection is established; and

transmit the security event data from the fixed cellular radio transceiver to the remote central monitoring facility over the cellular network for the cellular carrier to which the fixed cellular radio transceiver is connected.

27. The non-transitory storage medium of claim 22 , further comprising instructions that when executed enable the mobile computing system to:

connect the fixed cellular radio transceiver to a cellular network receiver for an alternate cellular carrier exhibiting an acceptable signal quality when the connection between the fixed cellular radio transceiver and the cellular network receiver for the cellular carrier to which the fixed cellular radio transceiver is connected is lost; and

transmit security event data from the fixed cellular radio transceiver to a remote central monitoring facility over a cellular network for the alternate cellular carrier to which the fixed cellular radio transceiver is connected.

28. The non-transitory storage medium of claim 27 , further comprising instructions that when executed enable the mobile computing system to:

connect the fixed cellular radio transceiver to a cellular network receiver for another alternate cellular carrier exhibiting an acceptable signal quality when an acknowledgement of the transmitted security event data is not received by the radio transceiver; and

transmit the security event data from the fixed cellular radio transceiver to the remote central monitoring facility over the cellular network for the another alternate cellular carrier.

29. The non-transitory storage medium of claim 28 , further comprising instructions that when executed enable the mobile computing system to:

repeatedly attempt to connect the fixed cellular radio transceiver to a cellular network receiver for another cellular carrier exhibiting an acceptable signal quality when the connection between the fixed cellular radio transceiver and the cellular network receiver for the cellular carrier to which the fixed cellular radio transceiver is connected is lost; and

transmit the security event data from the fixed cellular radio transceiver to the remote central monitoring facility over the cellular network for the cellular carrier to which the fixed cellular radio transceiver is connected.

30. The non-transitory storage medium of claim 22 , wherein the signal quality is a signal quality measurement.

31. The non-transitory storage medium of claim 22 , wherein the signal quality is a bit error rate (BER) measurement.

32. The non-transitory storage medium of claim 22 , wherein the different cellular carriers are in a prioritized order where the first cellular carrier occupies the highest priority and connections to the alternate cellular carriers are attempted according to their priority rank.