San Jose’s new ITS network to use Actelis’s Ethernet-over-copper system

Actelis Networks has announced that the City of San José in Northern California is deploying its ML600 series of intelligent Ethernet Access Devices (EADs) and its point-to-multipoint Ethernet aggregation systems for ITS applications, in order to improve traffic flow and road safety, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The move is part of a major migration from a legacy communication system to a new all-IP-based Ethernet-over-copper network capable of supporting a variety of intelligent traffic monitoring and control applications. These include IP-based Ethernet traffic signal controllers being replaced at each of the city’s intersections, as well as backhaul of IP video from cameras monitoring traffic flow. The system also operates the dynamic message signs that include directing traffic for downtown events, as well as providing information on the availability of downtown parking spaces from the City’s Parking Guiding Systems (PGS) signs.

Left: The city of San José is hoping to improve traffic flow and road safety while reducing greenhouse gas emissions

San José – the USA’s 10th largest city – evaluated a number of vendors and selected Actelis as its infrastructure partner as a result of the company’s ability to provide the required bandwidth, reliability and reach across the city’s vast traffic signal copper interconnect network, which serves more than a million people. The Actelis’ systems enable an IP-based Ethernet network over the city’s existing copper interconnect to be turned up in minutes, rather than the prohibitively expensive and time-consuming alternative of installing fiber-optic cables to every intersection. The migration to a new IP-based network helps the city achieve its vision of Green Mobility – decrease its carbon footprint by helping to reduce traffic congestion on roadways

Right: EADs from Actelis Networks enable delivery of high-speed Carrier Ethernet services over the existing copper and fiber infrastructure

“When evaluating our options for upgrading to an all-IP network, we found that utilizing the city’s existing copper interconnect in combination with fiber-optic cable backbones was the most beneficial and cost-effective solution,” explains Ho Nguyen, associate engineer for San José’s Transportation Operations System Management group. “With the Actelis solutions, we were able to leverage our existing copper without sacrificing our need to implement a wide breadth of emerging applications over our new IP network. In addition to Actelis’ superior rate, reach and reliability, its ML platforms’ ease of deployment, scalability and manageability were also key strengths, and reinforced our decision to select them for the project. The company’s bandwidth availability matched our field requirements, while its MetaASSIST EMS allowed our field engineers and electricians to deploy and provision the systems easily.”

15 October 2009