Physical Protection System Upgrades -- Optimizing for Performance and Cost

CPA--Cost and Performance Analysis--is an architecture that supports analysis of physical protection systems and upgrade options. ASSESS (Analytic System and Software for Evaluating Security Systems), a tool for evaluating performance of physical protection systems, currently forms the cornerstone for evaluating detection probabilities and delay times of the system. Cost and performance data are offered to the decision-maker at the system level and to technologists at the path-element level. A new optimization engine has been attached to the CPA methodology to automate analyses of many combinations (portfolios) of technologies. That engine controls a new analysis sequencer that automatically modifies ASSESS PPS files (facility descriptions), automatically invokes ASSESS Outsider analysis and then saves results for post-processing. Users can constrain the search to an upper bound on total cost, to a lower bound on level of performance, or to include specific technologies or technology types. This process has been applied to a set of technology development proposals to identify those portfolios that provide the most improvement in physical security for the lowest cost to install, operate and maintain at a baseline facility.