A rapidly growing population presents governments with the headache of heavy traffic. Many have turned to Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) in order to ease the burden of stifling traffic volumes. ITS applications involve the coordination of traffic light control, vehicle detection, traffic display panels, and more. For example, ITS can synchronize traffic lights, with optimized timing for rush hours and heavy traffic conditions.

Implementing ITS requires that every traffic monitoring and control device be connected to a central control system. The communication system is the central piece that integrates all ITS components.

In urban areas, dense placement of traffic equipment makes it cost-efficient to use landlines for communication with central control. However, the opposite is true for remote areas, where fixed connections may not be readily available and modifying the infrastructure would take considerable effort. Instead, it becomes more cost-effective to connect vehicle detectors and traffic light timers over existing GPRS networks.

With the GPRS solution, traffic control equipment can transmit data to central control over GPRS and ADSL. The UDP protocol can be used to report light control status or to receive commands from central control. In addition to GPRS services, Virtual Private Network (VPN) access can be provided by GSM/GPRS Carrier, running through communications servers to central control. Traffic control boxes in remote areas can be easily integrated into an ITS solution, regardless of landline access.

Benefits:

• No infrastructure costs
• Connects remote traffic equipment to central control system