Networking & Communication Systems

Spanish specialist in wireless sensor networks Libelium has launched the Vehicle Traffic Monitoring Platform as part of its Smart Cities solution. The platform is capable of sensing the flow of Bluetooth devices in a given street, roadway or passageway while differentiating hands-free car kits from pedestrian phones. Sensor data is then transferred by a multi-hop ZigBee radio, via an Internet gateway, to a server. Traffic measurements can then be analysed to address congestion of either vehicle or pedestria

The County of Los Angeles is widely known for having among the worst traffic problems and the most road congestion in the US. To combat these problems, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works decided to deploy a wireless communications system to connect over 1,000 of the most congested intersections so they could dynamically monitor and manage the congestion and reduce commute times.

Travel information services are undergoing a step change as rapid increase in sales of smartphones brings ITS technology to consumers' fingertips. A virtuous circle of expanding capability is under way in traffic and travel information services, promising much for drivers and reduction of road congestion. A recent rapid rise in sales of smartphones has boosted numbers of vehicles carrying GPS enabled devices and so brought expansion of traffic data available for analysis and dissemination. Greater numbers o

ITS Japan's Chairman Hiroyuki Watanabe talks to ITS International about his country's progress with cooperative infrastructures and how the experience gained to date can benefit similar initiatives elsewhere. Japan gave the rest of the world a taste of the cooperative infrastructure future when, in 1996, it went live with the Vehicle Information and Communication System (VICS). Designed to provide real-time traffic information and alerts to in-vehicle navigation systems with the dual aims of increasing safe

ComNet Europe has expanded its Value Line by introducing a costeffective 26-port modular Gigabit Ethernet switch for commercial security applications. The CWGE2FE24MODMS features two 1000FX or TX uplink ports for connecting to the network core. The modules are available with either eight electrical ports that support 10/100TX transmission, or eight user-selectable SFP ports that support 100FX transmission.