BioStar 2 adopted a distributed access control system, which gives a device the intelligence to make a logical decision with user credential data that is stored in the device. With this system topology, devices are communicated through TCP/IP to their local server, and RS485 serial communication is used in the lower-level communication between a master and a slave device.

The benefit of this system topology is that it allows Suprema biometric devices (intelligent reader/controller called edge devices) to communicate with a server rapidly without delay, which is often found with the RS485 serial interface in biometric data transmission. This is because a bio-metric data size is much larger than a simple card serial number, and it’s necessary to send more than thousands of byte data size when many number of users are transferred to devices at the same time. So, it’s more efficient and effective to use a TCP/IP-based distributed access control system for biometric data management and system operation.

A centralized system is based on access control units (ACU). Suprema’s centralized system not only provides the benefits of biometrics, but it also provides enhanced security and excellent system scalability. In addition, the centralized system also enables you to upgrade your existing systems at a lower installation cost. Integrated with BioStar 2, this system safely stores all information about each user, including the user’s name, ID, PIN, access rights, and fingerprint data, by storing it on a single device.

The distributed access control system has the pros and cons below compared to its counterpart, centralized system. However, as IP related system technologies have been improved radically, distributed access control system also overcame its limitation and was established as a main stream, especially in the small-to-medium business market. Also, the distributed system provides alternative solutions to make up pointed weaknesses.