Although Wiegand has historically been the industry standard, security systems are better served by a standard that brings consistency, as well as heightened security and interoperability between different manufacturers’ devices, which are criteria addressed by OSDP. While Wiegand was once an industry innovation, the multiple definitions associated with the Wiegand name has created confusion over the years.

A new standard undoubtedly means changes, but the transition is expected to be a smooth one for dealers and integrators familiar with conversion devices, since the converters eliminate the need to replace entire access control systems at once.

The emerging OSDP standard means more consistency, heightened security, and overall better interoperability among different manufacturers’ devices, which used to be proprietary. An updated industry standard ultimately makes life easier. Not only does it provide a concise set of commonly used commands and responses, it eliminates guesswork, since encryption and authentication is predefined.

OSDP specifically applies to peripheral devices (PDs) such as card readers and other devices at secured access doors/gates and their control panels (CPs).

With OSDP, all the functions which used to require 12 or more physical wires between the door location and the access control panel ­(including wires for the card reader, door strike, alarm contact, and Request to Exit functions) can be fully implemented using just 2 wires.

The OSDP specification is recommended when TCP/IP, USB, or other common protocols do not lend themselves to the application. A primary advantage of OSDP is the low cost of implementation in an embedded device.