Fast and Efficient Upgrade to 10G in a Large Urban Transportation Network
Background
An urban center in the U.S. Pacific Northwest was an early adopter of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) for the collection, transmission, and application of real-time traffic data and information. Originally set up in early in the first decade of this century, the ITS grew to monitor and manage nearly 100 road intersections. However, the growth of the system occurred over a period of years, and over time came to incorporate equipment from four different vendors.
That made the system more difficult to maintain, as there were four unique configuration / maintenance styles involved. Additionally, as system bandwidth increased, traffic engineers in the Traffic Management Center (TMC) began to notice “screen tearing” in the video feed from the system’s IP cameras, in which monitors in the TMC would display video information from multiple frames in a single screen draw. The network, with maximum transmission speed of 1 gigabit (1G), needed an upgrade to 10 gigabits (10G).
The Challenge
- Size: Due space considerations, the deployment required a compact 10G DIN rail solution.
- Speed: The city planners demanded a solution that could be quickly implemented – fast delivery and response times were of utmost importance.
- Power: Support for the latest PoE (Power over Ethernet) standard was required, so that all existing and future devices that need to draw power from the network would function flawlessly.
EtherWAN solution
The old 1G switches in the city’s ITS were replaced with EtherWAN’s EX78900X hardened managed 12-port gigabit PoE and 4-Port 10G SFP+ Ethernet switches. In addition to 10G and 90 Watt PoE, the EX78900X provides additional features that offer more flexibility and control. These include PoE auto-recovery, built-in digital inputs, and a host of security features to prevent digital intrusions.
The upgrade proceeded quickly and painlessly, with no changes to the existing network topology, and the benefits of the improved 10G speed were immediately apparent. The ability to deliver 90 Watts of PoE, combined with a robust 360 Watt power budget, allows the EX78900X to power all existing IP cameras, as well as all upcoming PoE end devices that have even higher power requirements.
EtherWAN provided comprehensive sales and technical support, as well as extensive product training for the many special hardware and software features of the EX78900X. The ability to respond quickly to queries from ITS and procurement managers facilitated the speed and efficiency of this large-scale upgrade project.
Conclusion
As 90 Watt PoE and 10G become mainstream, hardened devices that support both technologies will see broader ITS adoption in cities around the world. For both new installations and upgrades, communication and teamwork between sales managers, traffic partners, and field sales engineers are crucial to fast and economical implementation of these next-generation technologies.
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