To operate with an addressable fire alarm panel, smoke, heat and multi-sensor detectors require specially designed bases that give each detector an "address" for the fire alarm panel to recognise.

Addressable system detectors use analogue sensor technology to detect an increase in heat or smoke in a room. This analogue data is then converted into digital data before being sent to the main control panel. This is required because control panel processors understand binary code, not analogue signals.