The basic pattern of the intelligent alarm system can be seen even in the simple fire alarm. There is a fault detecting agent, an alarm agent, and the user. In all effective alarm systems, these three agents will be present, and they will fulfill the same core roles (although their functionality may be extended).

In complex alarm systems, we may wish to separate the fault detecting agent and the sensors that obtain data. In that case, we will have a system resembling the figure.


Regardless of the fault detection method used, the system will have this pattern.

Also note that the number of sensors and users may vary, so some systems may have a lot of data distilled into an alarm for a single user, while others may have only one sensor yet alert everyone.

There is also no requirement to send all alarms to all users. Alarms need not be sirens, but could be emails, text messages, voicemail messages, or a message sent directly to a terminal.