Patent ID: 8525664

Claim:
A method for limiting the amount of data transmitted between a security system and a monitoring station within a heartbeat time interval comprising: transmitting a first heartbeat signal from a controller within a security system to the monitoring station; waiting a given time period for an acknowledgement signal to be sent from the monitoring station to the controller; determining whether or not an acknowledgement signal was received by the controller in response to the first heartbeat signal within the given time period; if an acknowledgement signal is received by the controller in response to the first heartbeat signal within the given time period, then resetting the heartbeat time interval to transmit a subsequent heartbeat signal from the controller to the monitoring station; and transmitting a second heartbeat signal from the controller to the monitoring station within the heartbeat time interval if an acknowledgement signal is not received by the controller within the given time period from when the first heartbeat signal was transmitted to the monitoring station; wherein the first heartbeat signal is transmitted from the controller to the monitoring station over a first communication network and the second heartbeat signal is transmitted from the controller to the monitoring station over a second communication network that is different from the first communication network.