Networking & Communication Systems

A two-year pilot project has begun in London with taxi firm Addison Lee and electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer Renault, which uses the principle of magnetic induction to jump electricity from a base station direct to the vehicle’s battery to deliver wireless charging. The charging technology being used is called Halo and has been developed by mobile innovations company Qualcomm, the organisation responsible for processors powering the latest generation of smartphones and tablets. ‘EV drivers will opt for th

Communication Networks (ComNet) is introducing a four-port self-managed Ethernet switch. It has four TX Ethernet ports that allow the Ethernet data from three of the TX ports to be combined and inserted onto the network through the fourth TX port. The self-management feature requires no user intervention and is pre-programmed to avoid flooding the network. ComNet says the CNFE4SMS offers management without the cost or user knowledge required for a managed switch. The device is pre-programmed and meets the I

An extensive hybrid communications network in the County of Los Angeles is proving the capability and benefits of modern wireless technology for traffic management across wide areas. Wireless communications technology has found a welcoming test bed for use in traffic management systems, in the County of Los Angeles. The county has long running programmes synchronizing and monitoring traffic signals over large areas. In the process, combined with installation of advanced traffic management systems (ATMS), th

In an initiative to enable the quieter, cleaner future of public transport in Milton Keynes, UK, eight organisations led by a subsidiary of Mitsui Europe ("Mitsui") have agreed a five-year collaboration committing to the replacement of diesel buses with their all-electric counterparts on one of the main bus routes in the city by summer 2013. The trial, which could reduce bus running costs by between US$19,500 and US$23,000 per year, is a partnership between Mitsui subsidiary eFleet Integrated Service, Milto

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed SignalGuru, an app that uses dashboard-mounted smartphones to help drivers avoid red lights and reduce fuel consumption. Researchers say that SignalGuru predicts when a traffic signal is about to change, and the speed that should be driven when approaching an intersection in order to cruise through without stopping.

TagMaster, Swedish producer of advanced RFID solutions for railway applications, has received additional orders for the XT-3HD long-range RFID reader from Trafikverket (the Swedish Rail Administration), following successful field testing. The RFID readers are to be installed as part of Trafikverket’s nationwide system for tracking railway goods wagons on the main Swedish rail network. The XT-3HD long-range RFID reader is the heavy-duty model of TagMaster’s XT-series of UHF readers and is fully EPC Gen 2 (IS

Moxa’s AWK-1121 Series is an IEEE 802.11 a/b/g WLAN client that the company claims offers the most rugged wireless client available in the industrial networking world. Optimised for applications requiring a dedicated wireless client, the AWK-1121 is specially designed to cater for space-constrained, mission-critical demands. With Turbo Roaming to give under-100 ms handoffs, redundant power inputs, and models that operate in temperatures ranging from -40 to 75°C, the device is packaged in an extra slim IP30

Tata Communications has been chosen by Cargotec, supplier of cargo handling solutions worldwide, to provide Wide Area Network (WAN) connectivity to over 150 Cargotec sites globally through Tata Communications’ round-the-world fibre optic cable network, claimed to be the world’s only wholly-owned subsea cable ring. Cargotec’s operations in over 50 countries across Europe, Asia, Middle East, Americas and Africa will benefit from increased capacity, speed, resilience and enhanced communications capabilities wh

Zenith Hygiene Group is saving almost 600 tonnes of CO2 a year with TomTom fleet management technology, enabled by Vodafone, according to independent research. Zenith’s estimated 597-tonne saving was achieved with TomTom’s tracking, navigation and ecoPlus devices installed across its vehicle fleet. The vehicles use Vodafone’s global machine-to-machine services which enable businesses to connect, monitor and manage devices across the world.

Large scale, real-life, high profile V2V and V2I trials in both the United States and Germany are are catching the headlines, putting ITS in the limelight after more than a decade of procrastination, according to ABI research. The US DoT Safety Pilot program involves 3,000 vehicles in Ann Arbor, Michigan. In Germany, 120 vehicles in the simTD project (Safe Intelligent Mobility, test- field Germany) will roam the Rhine-Main region until the end of the year and will be focused on traffic, road safety, and ef