As cities add or expand their deployments of Opticom™ priority control, GTT is helping some find creative ways to leverage existing infrastructure to centralize the architecture of their priority control system.
GTT can integrate with Advanced Traffic Management Systems – commonly known as an ATMS – as a way of communicating with the intersection controller.
GTT sets the vehicle up to talk to GTT’s cloud-based Smart City Platform, which then communicates priority control requests to the ATMS. The ATMS then communicates the request to the controller in the traffic cabinet.
The method of communication between the ATMS and the controller is either fiber optics (or cell connectivity), whether present or installed at the time of implementation of the priority control system.
On the vehicle side, GTT can take advantage of existing cell connectivity, or provide it as part of the solution.
Regardless, the information GTT needs to process the request is sent to GTT’s cloud, where the Opticom algorithm determines how to construct an appropriate request, based on the rules GTT and the city set up ahead of deployment.
For example, cities may want large fire trucks to have relative priority compared with smaller ambulances. Or for law enforcement, it may be determined that only certain types of time-sensitive calls should trigger the use of the priority control system. Or, if a light rail train is approaching the intersection at the same time as a bus, it may be determined that the light rail train should be granted priority over the bus.
Traditional, distributed architecture requires vehicle to intersection communication, either light-based (specifically infrared, otherwise known as IR) or radio-based. These deployments, while reliable and effective, require hardware to be deployed on both the vehicle and at the intersection.
On the intersection side, the IR detector or radio is typically placed on the mast-arm of the traffic light, which requires a bucket truck to install and service. Centralized deployments reduce the hardware footprint required and enable device management communications for real-time and historical reporting.
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