IoT: Smart mobility’s enabler

IoT: the enabler for smart mobility

The Internet of Things is rapidly changing the market of smart city concepts – an evolution that will have a huge and lasting impact. Is this the enabler that will lead to a large-scale rollout of wireless parking sensors?

Words | Milou Post, Nedap, Netherlands

Over the years, Nedap has contributed to the optimization of traffic flows in hundreds of cities and other environments, such as university campuses, large airports and retail shopping centers. The company has developed a smart parking sensor that detects in real time whether or not a specific parking bay is occupied. This can help to reduce time spent by motorists searching for available parking spaces in cities, as well as enabling full utilization of existing parking capacities. Less ‘search traffic’ and optimized navigation can also lessen pollution and contribute to a sustainable and cleaner city environment, which is important because more than half of the world’s population already lives in urban areas. Many people living in these areas are already familiar with the enormous levels of congestion – some of which is caused by drivers looking for available parking spaces – in large cities and public spaces.

One urban district that has identified and is acting upon this problem is the Turkish city of Izmir. As part of a city-wide implementation of a smart traffic management system, 2,000 parking spaces in Izmir are equipped with Nedap’s smart parking sensor system, Sensit. Thanks to this system, the vehicle occupancy of individual parking spaces in the streets of this Turkish city can be closely monitored. Motorists are guided to available spaces based on real-time information. In addition, all paid, time-restricted and disabled parking zones are monitored to ensure that they are not violated.

New trend: Internet of Things

The development of wireless sensors to enable smart parking solutions is still limited. The main reason that this technology has not yet been fully embraced by the majority of cities is unfamiliarity with the benefits that the technology can offer and the great return on investment that can be achieved. Most municipalities are looking for solutions that are cost effective as well as future proof, but reviewing all available technology and advantages and disadvantages of products and services on the market is challenging. Nedap also follows technological advancements in the industry and continuously seeks options and opportunities for product improvements.

One of the current trends is the emergence of several dedicated networks for battery-operated sensors and devices that are part of the Internet of Things (IoT). Equipping these networks with smart sensors potentially turns a city with a traditional infrastructure into a smart city, without a great deal of effort. Common city issues such as traffic jams, the time-consuming search for parking facilities, damaged streetlighting, overflowing waste bins, and other challenges, are typical complaints mentioned by authorities who are contemplating the potential benefits that IoT can bring to their cities.

Connected data

Cities have to become smarter and more connected in order to keep up-to-date with the technologies that their residents and visitors use in their daily lives. The IoT may very well be the enabler for this. With the IoT, wireless communication and data can be exchanged between devices without human interaction. Data can then be collected and converted to relevant information for city representatives.

Nedap strongly believes that this enriched information will be vital for managing cities in the near future. If all

relevant devices in an entire urban environment are connected to an omnipresent and standardized network, everything – including public parking spaces, public bins, traffic signals and home fire alarms – can be monitored in real time. Data collected from these devices could be made available to city planners, individual citizens, emergency response teams, and other authorities.

Embracing the future

Nedap understands the importance of interoperability between systems and the potential that standardized IoT networks bring to market. Nedap Sensit has always been suitable for integrating with other systems.

To understand how to use new IoT networks, Nedap works closely with telecoms companies that are investing in long-range IoT networks. Technologies such as Narrowband IoT and LoRaWAN are thoroughly tested to weigh them against the network requirements that are needed to deploy successful on-street parking solutions.

With more than 10 years of experience developing parking sensors, Nedap has learned that the behavior of the network depends on numerous factors. Firstly, the requirements for on-street parking sensors cannot be compared to sensors for public bins, streetlighting or other sensors. Secondly, the impact on the sensors’ battery life, network performance, uplink and downlink costs are just some of the critical aspects to further evaluate.

Currently, Nedap is evaluating both IoT and LoRaWAN technologies with business partners and city authorities. Various proofs of concept conducted by Nedap for on-street parking will reveal if these technologies are fit for purpose. These proofs of concept have provided expert technological advice to cities, telecoms companies and end users on how to face current and future mobility challenges. n

Far left: A Nedap Sensit

parking sensor

Above: Nedap parking

solutions are used in Izmir, Turkey

DUBAI, IZMIR, HAMBURG, TORINO, SINGAPORE, BELGRADE...

VEHICLE DETECTION WHAT DO THESE SMART CITIES HAVE IN COMMON?

These cities (and many more world-wide) are using Nedap’s smart parking sensors to improve the mobility within the often congested city areas. Nedap’s wireless SENSIT sensors detect the occupancy of individual parking spaces in real-time. The obtained parking data enables smart parking in any Smart City, ITS or retail environment.

Are you wondering how? Join us at Intertraffic or visit www.nedapidentification.com.