Cisco’s low-cost fibre optic solution for traffic monitoring

Cisco’s display focuses on a novel way of detecting traffic speeds, congestion and incidents without the use of loops. The company is using a fibre optic cable positioned alongside the road and down which it shines a light. Vibration created by passing vehicles create vibration which disrupts the passage of the light. Cisco has developed algorithms that can translate these disruptions to determine what type of vehicle is passing, in which direction, the lane it is using and the speed it is travelling. The
March 21, 2018 Read time: 2 mins
Niels van den Berg

1028 Cisco’s display focuses on a novel way of detecting traffic speeds, congestion and incidents without the use of loops. The company is using a fibre optic cable positioned alongside the road and down which it shines a light.

Vibration created by passing vehicles create vibration which disrupts the passage of the light. Cisco has developed algorithms that can translate these disruptions to determine what type of vehicle is passing, in which direction, the lane it is using and the speed it is travelling.

The fibre optic cables run in lengths of up to 80km and are divided (virtually) into five to 15 metre sections for detection purposes and it is said to be far cheaper and less disruptive to install and maintain than its traditional counterpart.

According to the company’s Niels van den Berg, the Dutch authorities have proved the new system’s accuracy by comparing it with the current loop-based results.

Stand: 11.209

%$Linker: 2 External <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary /> 0 0 0 link-external www.cisco.com Cisco website link false https://www.cisco.com/ false false%>

Related Content

  • November 25, 2014
    ATRI seeks input on truck platooning
    Working in collaboration with two FHWA-sponsored project teams, the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) is conducting research to explore trucking industry perspectives on the use of automated truck platooning, also known as Driver Assistive Truck Platooning. This concept is based on a system that controls inter-vehicle spacing based on information from forward-looking radars and direct vehicle-to-vehicle communications. Braking and other operational data is constantly exchanged between th
    Read More
  • March 21, 2018
    Kistler looks for speed camera synergies
    Weigh-in-Motion (WIM) specialist Kistler says its move into speed camera enforcement will help complement its core activities. The firm acquired German company eso, which manufactures portable speed measurement devices, last year, and Tomas Pospisek, Kistler’s global market development manager for road & traffic, says: “We’re hoping this will bring us synergies. We’re monitoring the weight and they’re monitoring the speed. It’s an important step, for sure.” When it comes to WIM, Kistler still maintains ther
    Read More
  • March 9, 2018
    US parking tools refreshed
    The US Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) and National Parking Association have agreed to work together on updating their respective Parking Generation Manual and Shared Parking tools, last revised in 2010 and 2009. Fresh analyses in the former will differentiate levels of demand in rural, general urban/suburban, dense multi-use urban and core city centre locations, said ITE CEO Jeffrey F Paniati
    Read More
  • October 17, 2019
    Waymo may operate AVs in Phoenix ‘without safety driver’
    Ride-hailing company Waymo may be about to start operating fully-autonomous vehicles (AVs) to pick people up - without a safety driver. An email sent to users, which appeared on Reddit, said people in Phoenix, Arizona, who were matched with an AV will see a notification in the app that confirms the car will not have a trained driver. Users can tap a ‘What to Expect’ button within the app to learn more about the AVs. They can also communicate with a rider support agent at any part of the trip via the app o
    Read More

Highlighted Content