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Application Cases of IoT Intelligent Transportation

Traffic congestion is a serious problem faced by almost every big city. It has gradually developed from local peak-time congestion in a city to full-time congestion. First- and second-tier cities are also under the pressure of traffic congestion, and even some third-tier cities have begun to experience traffic congestion. Traffic congestion not only increases the cost of people's travel, but also increases the incidence of traffic accidents. Especially during the peak hours of residents' commuting, the time and money spent are seriously wasted due to traffic jams, affecting the quality of life of residents, and the large-scale and long-term congestion in the city has also seriously affected the healthy development of the social economy.

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Transportation is an important aspect of everyone's daily life, and it is also one of the strategic foundations of the entire country, related to politics, economy, military, environment and other aspects. Well-connected transportation is an important infrastructure of the national economy. The development of intelligent transportation depends on the development of a series of new technologies. The rise of the Internet of Things has led to a leapfrog development of intelligent transportation. The development goals of the Internet of Things and traditional intelligent transportation systems are consistent to some extent, and the development of intelligent transportation has laid a good foundation for the application of technology and the popularization of technology in the entire industry. The application of the Internet of Things in the field of transportation, especially in the field of logistics and transportation, has good adaptability.

The concept of the Internet of Things was first proposed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1999. Its concept is to rely on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology and equipment, and combine it with the Internet according to the agreed communication protocol to realize intelligent identification and management of object information and realize the network formed by the interconnection of object information.

With the development of wireless communication technology, the connotation of the Internet of Things has been continuously enriched. The Telecommunication Research Institute of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of my country defined the Internet of Things in 2011 as follows: The Internet of Things is an extended application and network extension of the communication network and the Internet. It uses perception technology and intelligent equipment to perceive and identify the physical world, and through network transmission and interconnection, it performs calculations, processing and knowledge mining to realize information interaction and seamless connection between people and objects, and between objects, so as to achieve real-time control, precise management and scientific decision-making of the physical world.

The Internet of Things involves technical fields such as perception, control, network communication, microelectronics, computers, software, embedded systems, etc., covering a lot of key technologies.

According to the analysis of the Telecommunication Research Institute of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the network architecture of the Internet of Things consists of the perception layer, the network layer and the application layer. The perception layer realizes intelligent perception and recognition of the physical world, information collection and processing, and automatic control, and connects physical entities to the network layer and application layer through communication modules. The network layer mainly realizes the transmission, routing and control of information. The application layer provides general basic service facilities, capabilities and resource call interfaces such as information processing and computing to realize various applications of the Internet of Things in many fields.

At present, the application of the Internet of Things in the world is still in its infancy, and the technical basis of the application is mainly projects based on radio frequency identification and sensors, and most of them are experimental small-scale projects. Since developed countries have advanced information industry technology and applications, the rise and application of the Internet of Things are also relatively advanced in developed countries. The United States is the country with the most extensive application of the Internet of Things, and its applications involve multiple industries. The European Union's Internet of Things has been applied in logistics, transportation, electricity and other fields and has formed a certain scale.

Although the intelligent transportation system and the transportation Internet of Things are similar in development goals, and the technical elements and application scope are also similar to a certain extent, the application background of the Internet of Things is broader, and its network breadth, information volume and network construction ideas are incomparable to traditional intelligent transportation systems. The intelligent transportation system is a top-down information development and utilization method, focusing on collecting and developing information from the perspective of managers, while the application of the Internet of Things in the field of transportation focuses on the bottom-up information collection and utilization model. The two have different accuracy and coverage of information resource collection, different development and utilization intensity of information resources, different business models, and different social benefits.

It can be considered that the intelligent transportation system is a relatively early stage in the development of intelligent transportation, and the transportation Internet of Things is the technology and concept upgrade stage in the development of intelligent transportation. The Internet of Things will provide a qualitative leap and huge development space for the development of intelligent transportation.

The Internet of Things is a typical case of intelligent transportation application in the era

With the rapid development of new information technology in simulation, communication networks, real-time control and other fields, intelligent transportation systems have begun to enter people's field of vision. The original intention of developing intelligent transportation systems is to cope with the increasingly serious traffic congestion problem, but intelligent transportation in the era of the Internet of Things is not just about solving traffic jams. The following selects several typical applications to introduce intelligent transportation in the era of the Internet of Things.

1. Parking fee collection system


The Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) system is the first intelligent transportation system in my country that has been widely used nationwide. It can automatically collect fees when vehicles pass through toll stations at normal speeds, reducing the probability of traffic congestion near toll stations.

In this toll collection system, vehicles need to be equipped with a device called an electronic tag that can be uniquely identified by the system, and a tag reader and writer that can read/write the electronic tag and a corresponding computer toll collection system are set up on the lanes or roads of the toll stations. When a vehicle passes through a toll station, the driver does not have to stop to pay the fee. He only needs to pass at a speed allowed by the system. The on-board electronic tag can automatically exchange information with the tag reader and writer installed on the roadside or gantry. The toll collection computer collects the information of the passing vehicle and uploads the collected information to the background server. The server identifies the road user based on this information and then automatically deducts the toll from the road user's account. Now major banks also support ETC business processing, which is convenient and fast. For example, Bank of China, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Huaxia Bank, etc. can all handle it.

Currently, ETC products are mainly used in highway and road and bridge toll collection systems. According to the Ministry of Transport's 12th Five-Year Development Plan, during the 12th Five-Year Plan, there will be 6,000 ETC lanes nationwide and 5 million electronic tag users. In March of this year, the Ministry of Transport issued a document to launch the construction of ETC nationwide networking, striving to basically achieve nationwide ETC networking by the end of 2015. In the future, ETC will have broad market prospects in the field of urban intelligent transportation.

2. Real-time traffic information service

Real-time traffic information service is one of the most important applications of intelligent transportation systems, which can provide travelers with real-time information such as traffic routes, traffic accidents, safety reminders, weather conditions, etc. Efficient information service systems can tell drivers their current exact location, inform them of the traffic and road conditions of the current section and nearby areas, and help drivers choose the best route. It can help drivers find nearby parking spaces and even reserve parking spaces. Intelligent transportation systems can also provide passengers with real-time bus arrival information and bus location information, which is convenient for planning user waiting time and travel time.

The implementation of traffic information service is a collaborative perception task. Sensors installed at various traffic intersections perceive road conditions in real time and upload them to the main control center in real time. After data mining and traffic planning analysis systems, massive amounts of information are integrated and analyzed and processed, and released to citizens through communication towers.

For example, the application "Ningbotong" launched by the Ningbo government and the "Tianfutong" launched by Chengdu provide 18 convenient services in three categories: before travel, during travel, and convenient services. What's more convenient is that it integrates traffic information from multiple departments and dozens of business systems such as traffic police, urban management, and meteorology, covering the city's traffic facilities, transportation tools, and all traffic events, providing travelers with comprehensive and real-time information.

3. Intelligent traffic management

Intelligent traffic management mainly includes traffic control equipment, such as traffic signals, ramp flow control, and dynamic traffic information signs on highways. At the same time, a city or a provincial traffic management center needs to obtain the traffic flow conditions of the entire region in order to detect accidents, dangerous weather events, or other factors that pose a potential threat to lanes in a timely manner.

Intelligent traffic management is a comprehensive intelligent product, which applies important Internet of Things technologies such as wireless communication, computing technology, perception technology, video vehicle monitoring, GPS global positioning system, detection vehicles and equipment. This includes many Internet of Things devices, such as: microcontrollers for connected cars, RFID devices, microchips, video cameras, GPS receivers, navigation systems, DSRC devices, etc. These devices are mostly offline government procurement due to the lack of civilian use, but due to the rise of the Internet of Things in recent years, there are gradually online supply platforms available, and the rise of these platforms has promoted the concept of intelligent transportation.

Intelligent ramp flow control is one of the applications of intelligent traffic management. The guide adjustment lights are set at the entrance of the highway to guide vehicles to divert into the highway, which can reduce the probability of highway traffic disconnection. At present, about 20 major cities in the United States have begun to apply this technology.

Intelligent transportation is an inevitable product of the forward development of the transportation industry in the information society. In the final analysis, the development of intelligent transportation is to improve people's quality of life and improve production efficiency. In view of my country's current reality, the development of intelligent transportation must follow the scientific development concept of "comprehensive, coordinated and sustainable". It requires the joint efforts of multiple sectors of society, the organic integration of resources from all aspects, and finding the right entry point to jointly promote and improve the level of intelligence in my country's transportation.