I believe one of the vital superb issues about Cisco IoT is that on daily basis we get to see how our clients are utilizing our options to rework their industries, enhance their enterprise resiliency, and enhance security for his or her belongings, employees, and residents.
At this time we’ll look with that lens on the general public security and transportation sector. I’ve invited members of the Cisco IoT group to share their insights and experience:
I additionally invite you to maintain the dialog going by commenting on this weblog, connecting with me on LinkedIn, or sharing your ideas at AskIoT@Cisco.com.
Let’s set the stage right here for our viewers. Arik – Are you able to give us somewhat perception into the motivations to make intersections and roadways smarter?
Once we take a look at tendencies within the public sector, we’re seeing numerous progress in linked intersections, corridors and communities. Primarily, that progress will be traced again to 4 main tendencies:
- Cities proceed to develop, with 1B+ automobiles on the highway growing visitors congestion by 25% over the previous 5 years
- By 2030, 20% of automobiles may have V2X (Automobile to All the pieces) applied sciences to supply the advantages of real-time car knowledge and communications
- Environmental and sustainability issues are driving the necessity to enhance public and multi-modal transportation providers utilizing linked applied sciences
- We at the moment are additionally seeing bigger scale implementations at state and nation ranges, in addition to metropolis and county ranges, pushed by these new use circumstances in addition to infrastructure modernization and safety wants
However, on the coronary heart of it, there’s actually one overriding cause why everybody needs roadways to get smarter – to save lots of lives. The World Well being Group estimates that each 23 seconds, a highway person on the planet dies from a visitors incident – whether or not a automotive person, pedestrian, or bike owner. Plus, you’ve got acquired employee security zones the place there is a excessive incident of harm and demise.
Social and demographic tendencies demand we discover methods to have extra automobiles and transportation capability – whereas additionally making it safer for vacationers, employees, and residents to finally get to our purpose of zero visitors associated deaths.
Persevering with with that thought Arik. What are the challenges and alternatives for know-how to assist with that purpose?
To start out with, there may be numerous previous know-how on the market, like visitors cupboards and sign controllers, and numerous floor to cowl – actually. Within the US alone, we’ve over 300Okay intersections and an estimated 220Okay crucial miles with important know-how and connectivity challenges.
Compound that with rising applied sciences like V2X that we spoke of earlier. Given the latest FCC determination and the clarification on requirements for V2X spectrum use, we count on that the US will now speed up in its the adoption and deployment of V2X know-how. However that acceleration additionally requires consideration on one crucial difficulty – safety.
As intersections and roadways are digitized, we’re considerably increasing the risk panorama throughout interconnected methods and people V2X autos. Consequently, we’re seeing heightened curiosity and investments in safety as crucial components of those smarter roadways and intersections tasks.
The truth is, some of these outside connectivity are significantly susceptible to cyber-attacks because of their restricted bodily safety. That threat must be balanced by additional robust cyber-security. Sadly, even right this moment with restricted connectivity there have been too many examples of ransomware and denial-of-service assaults on metropolis and transportation infrastructures, demonstrating that higher and stronger cyber-security measures are urgently wanted!
With all these challenges comes immense alternatives. By digitizing – we are able to actually begin to make the highway smarter and safer. With know-how woven into intersections and roadways, you possibly can:
- Get knowledge insights to handle visitors and enhance security
- Join distant security zones
- Deal with the big volumes of knowledge from linked autos and sensors
- Detect precisely the place and when issues happen in order that issues get fastened sooner
All of this and extra places us on an aggressive path to that purpose of zero-traffic associated deaths.
I do know you spend most of your days serving to our purchasers roll-out options Sripriya. Are you able to inform us extra about what you might be seeing?
We’re seeing a lot exercise throughout the board – however significantly associated to Arik’s feedback in regards to the significance of getting knowledge insights to extend security.
Our division of transportation and municipal clients are quickly connecting their visitors controllers and including new real-time sensors. They need to have extra dynamic management of how they management the visitors by being knowledgeable of particulars like the place and when pedestrians are crossing, the place are the cyclists, what are the sorts of visitors – truck vs automotive, what are the climate circumstances, and extra.
Actual-time correct knowledge and connectivity on roadways and intersections from cameras, counters, climate methods and different sensors, allows our clients to supply dynamic message indicators, handle visitors flows dynamically, automate tolling methods, and enhance visitors congestion and highway security.
The important thing for all of that is that dependable, safe connectivity for highway sensors, visitors controllers, cameras, linked to the visitors administration heart so operators can adapt to the dynamic circumstances, inform the drivers and enhance security on the roads.
Talking of visitors administration, I keep in mind a dialog I had with you about unconnected visitors lights. I believe it is common to marvel why visitors lights do not higher alter to visitors?
Sure Vikas! Many people have been annoyed at an empty intersection at midnight, questioning why the lights don’t alter? Lots of these 300Okay intersections are unconnected visitors lights which might be on loops the place they’ve the identical timings on daily basis – no matter time, visitors circumstances, or climate. It usually takes years earlier than any configuration updates are made as a result of they depend on handbook surveys to trace visitors patterns. When these loop methods fail and the lights go down, there isn’t any computerized fault notification. Authorities should wait for somebody to inform them that lights are down.
It isn’t that cities don’t need smarter visitors indicators. However they’re burdened with outdated know-how. Most of those intersections are utilizing legacy applied sciences. If they’re utilizing visitors cameras and CCTV, they’re normally on completely different networks which is pricey and sometimes lacks enough cyber-security. Historically, it has been tough, pricey, and dangerous to digitize.
- Deploying Layer 2 unmanaged switches is simple, however leaves the door open for a cyber-security catastrophe.
- Deploying conventional managed switches and sustaining per swap ACLs is an unmanageable nightmare.
So, it is usually a Catch-22 state of affairs. That is the place Cisco steps in with our fashionable community and safety administration options to make networks BOTH straightforward to deploy and extremely safe.
Clearly connectivity is on the coronary heart of all these options. Arik – assist us perceive what choices these organizations have?
Prospects basically have three fundamental choices for the connectivity – fiber, mobile, and wi-fi backhaul. Let’s begin with fiber. Fiber presents nice throughput and efficiency, and if a buyer has fiber already in place, it is a very cost-effective answer. With Cisco’s ruggedized Industrial Ethernet switches, you possibly can mild up that fiber community and prolong ethernet connectivity, together with POE, out from the roadside cupboard, all with automation and safety.
And we’re seeing one in every of our clients just do that just like the Metropolis of Schenectady, New York. Schenectady sought to leverage and prolong their fiber community and produce zero-trust safe, connectivity to their greater than 200 roadside cupboard ethernet switches that have to securely join their visitors controllers, cameras and WiFi APs.
By making their visitors controllers smarter, they may scale back the variety of hours responding to points and ship a greater, safer driver expertise for his or her residents.
I do know that along with fiber, there’s numerous previous copper on the market – significantly for our European clients. Tarannum – are you able to inform us choices for our clients to leverage that infrastructure?
Once we speak about alternative for our clients, now we are able to provide them another alternative for his or her wired cupboards – Copper + DSL. With legacy PSTN traces being discontinued by service suppliers in Europe, UK, and Australia, clients can leverage current copper by plugging in DSL traces straight into industrial routers utilizing the xDSL module.
We’re making it straightforward for purchasers to leverage this functionality. With a single world module for all DSL applied sciences, our clients need not fear in regards to the particular DSL functionality in any location. This dramatically simplifies their operations. Plus, the modular IR1101 router design permits them so as to add new capabilities on the identical base networking infrastructure – maximizing their ROI and futureproofing their funding.
For instance, our DSL module is being deployed by a big Division of Transportation within the UK. They’re mounting the Cisco IR1101 industrial router in roadside cupboards and use DSL as the first connectivity to handle visitors lights at roadside intersections. With dependable and safe connectivity, they’ll be capable of simplify visitors circulate remotely.
Sripriya – what about clients that do not have fiber or copper which is usually the fact? Laying down new fiber is pricey and digging trenches just isn’t a fast course of. Can they use mobile?
When there is not any current connectivity into these cupboards, mobile is an excellent possibility. Our line of cellular-capable industrial routers ship safe connectivity anyplace it is wanted plus simplified administration instruments. Plus, clients can add twin LTE connections for elevated resiliency.
Let me let you know how we’re seeing clients like Statewide Departments of Transportation utilizing these applied sciences. As Arik talked about above, roadways will be very harmful locations – however additionally they current superb alternatives to gather info to make them safer. With roadside sensors and connectivity, we are able to acquire real-time info on climate circumstances like floods, moist roads, and fog to alert drivers prematurely. Anytime you might be driving on a freeway and also you see these massive driver info indicators – they’re powered by IoT.
One other nice use case is emergency car visitors prioritization. By including real-time, safe connectivity to visitors sign controllers, you possibly can create favorable visitors patterns for emergency response autos. Right here we additionally leverage AT&T FirstNet LTE connectivity to make use of the placement info from the autos and talk with the visitors controllers to create a quick, precedence route for the response car.
What’s actually vital to those clients is to make these connectivity options easy, safe, and scalable. They probably have 1000’s of roadside cupboards with visitors controllers. They want to have the ability to securely join them in harsh outside environments whereas remotely working and managing them.
Now that they’ve seen the advantages and ease-of-deployment for this real-time connectivity, they need to prolong it broadly to create secure, dependable and built-in transportation methods. Suppose past intersections and roadways into each transportation modality – linked mass transit, metro, rail, maritime, aviation, freight and logistics.
What about once they need to stream excessive bandwidth? Does not that get costly with mobile? What are you seeing Stan?
Completely it does. The urge for food to stream video from each intersection is powerful and rising. So most of the purposes our clients look to deploy require predictable efficiency – excessive bandwidth, low latency, usually each – and predictable price. Mobile networks will be capability constrained, typically do not help excessive bandwidth streaming up from the sting and include important recurring prices in the event that they do.
With Cisco Fluidmesh, we offer an answer to deploy non-public wi-fi options with the efficiency of wired connections and the flexibleness of nothing buried within the streets.
For one more nice instance, take a look at the Virginia Division of Transportation (VA DOT). They’ve 1000’s of intersections with visitors indicators; some have been linked to a community. Most weren’t. Of those that have been, the bodily infrastructure wanted to be refreshed, however the price of trenching, the brand new fiber, and the related downtime was important. Utilizing Cisco Fluidmesh, they have been in a position to in a short time, in a matter of days and weeks, deploy point-to-point and point-to-multipoint wi-fi connectivity to take the place of the damaged fiber and copper connections, carry new intersections onto the community far more rapidly, and enabling over-the-top video streaming wherever they wanted it.
Now, VA DOT is making driving safer for residents – adjusting extra rapidly to momentary highway closures and realizing lots of of 1000’s of {dollars} in capital and operational financial savings.
Inform me extra about different issues our clients are doing with Cisco Fluidmesh. What enterprise issues are we fixing for?
Suppose easy, safe, and scalable connectivity. With Cisco Fluidmesh, you possibly can join your belongings and rapidly deploy networks the place wiring is difficult. Cisco Fluidmesh has a specialty in offering ultra-low latency, ultra-reliable, and excessive throughput connections to stationary issues like poles in a metropolis, nomadic issues like roadside message indicators, and fast-moving issues like fleet autos and trains.
One among our clients in France – the Lyon Metro System – wished to make sure the general public was secure anyplace on their journey. They invested in a Cisco community to help system-wide video surveillance in all their practice stations. However the passengers’ expectations do not cease on the yellow line on the platform; riders have to know that utilizing the system is secure, turnstile to turnstile. To present riders the identical confidence whereas on their driverless, autonomous trains, they prolonged that very same connectivity and surveillance functionality to the transferring trains. With Cisco Fluidmesh in place, they now have greater than 1000 high-definition public security and emergency cameras streaming from 100+ trains, offering real-time views from all trains as they flow into.
Any such wi-fi functionality solves the connectivity problem in lots of demanding settings – like on-the-go and distant use circumstances. One other of these key use circumstances is quickly bringing prime quality web entry to deprived areas to assist shut the Digital Divide, and I look ahead to sharing extra about that in our subsequent IoT Roundtable.
Thanks Stan for the plug for our subsequent IoT Roundtable! However first … Arik – These safe connectivity choices to begin making roadways, intersections, and transit smarter all sounds nice. However, how will we assist clients pace to an answer?
We have so many assets for purchasers to discover as they get began on their path. On this weblog, we have positioned hyperlinks to case research and merchandise to discover. I encourage readers to achieve out to any of us with questions the place we are able to share what we have seen and realized by rolling out these options during the last decade.
To assist speed up our buyer’s journey, we even have a really concerted and important effort to provide trade blueprints. These Cisco Validated Designs (CVDs) scale back implementation and operational dangers by validating and documenting the Cisco best-practice designs and blueprints for particular options. Complete CVD Design and Implementation Guides doc the main points of the answer, greatest practices, and beneficial implementations, together with applicable third social gathering vendor parts.
I might encourage readers to discover the next CVDs as they embark on their journey to safe, linked roadways and intersections:
- Linked Communities Infrastructure : The Linked Communities Infrastructure CVD gives simplified and safe connectivity choices (together with V2X) to attach Site visitors Administration Programs (TMS) and Clever Transportation Programs (ITS), improve them with edge compute capabilities, and ship security with safety and video surveillance.
- Distant and Cellular Belongings: Cisco’s Distant and Cellular Belongings CVDs gives highly effective methods to attach your belongings, leveraging the advantage of simplified zero-touch gateway deployments utilizing LTE, Ethernet, or Wi-Fi connections. This answer allows you to join roadways and intersections, in addition to cellular belongings resembling mass transit and fleet autos and different area belongings with an easy-to-use administration platform that area technicians can function.
Because of our readers and our panel for collaborating in our IoT Roundtable for Linked Intersections and Roadways!
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