Background 

The increasing travel of people and goods between different areas has brought great opportunities to the transportation industry, which stimulates the adoption of the Electronic Toll Collection (ETC), a wireless system to automatically collect the usage fee or toll charged to vehicles using toll roads, HOV lanes, toll bridges, and toll tunnels. With advanced technologies such as automated identification and transaction processing, the ETC system has greatly reduced traffic delays and transaction costs as fewer staffed toll booths are needed.

However, distributed toll collection sites also pose a great challenge for management. As those sites are independent from each other and require dedicated maintenance, problems in identification and tolling can only be attended to separately and passively. Some problems cannot be tackled by onsite staff, while those in the center cannot respond timely, which can cause ETC passage congestion or shutdown, delaying transportation. Thus, it is necessary to centrally monitor, maintain and manage ETC equipment.

In regard of the problem, InHand Networks offers a remote monitoring solution of ETC equipment featuring its IR615-S industrial LTE router and the ISE2008D industrial Ethernet switch.

InHand’s Remote Monitoring Solution for ETC Equipment

The system consists of the field automation equipment (RSU, cameras, lane controller), InHand communication devices (ISE2008D industrial switch and IR615-S industrial LTE router), and the traffic dispatch center.

Lane control equipment such as the RSU, railing machine, and ground sensing coil is connected to the lane controller through the ISE2008D. Data collected by the lane controller and the snapshot camera are transmitted to the management center by the IR615-S industrial router through VPN over 4G cellular networks. The management staff can monitor the real-time road flow, keep a record of vehicles that do not pay, and guide traffic in case of congestions. They can remotely check the status of ETC equipment and respond timely to faults, and through preventive maintenance, reduce downtime and maximize equipment life.

Advantages

ISE2008D Unmanaged Industrial Ethernet Switch

● Industrial-grade design, redundant power, wide temperature and voltage ranges, ideal for the harsh environments on the expressway;

● Unmanaged industrial Ethernet switch, with 8 network ports, supports connection to multiple devices;

● No configuration required, plug and play, easy to install.

IR615-S Industrial LTE Router

● Available with LTE CAT4, LTE CAT1 and CAT-M networks;

● Supports private network VPDN, easy to connect to the traffic management platform, ensure the security of data transmission;

● Available with WLAN, five Ethernet ports;

● Redundant design, dual SIM failover, multiple link backup mechanisms, ensures uninterrupted network communication;

● Industrial design, wide temperature and voltage ranges, ideal for the harsh environments on the expressway;

● Certified by CE, FCC, PTCRB, IC, IMDA, RCM, Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, etc., applicable worldwide.