A Safer and More Efficient City of Lancaster, Today and Tomorrow
Forward-thinking cities like the City of Lancaster recognize the importance of using advanced networking technology to enhance interconnectivity between residents, as well as between personnel who provide the ongoing services that keep the community operating and progressing. Lancaster is a charter city in northern Los Angeles County with a growing population of over 172,660. The city has been taking significant steps to leverage smart technologies to improve the lives of their citizens.
In accordance with the city’s vision of Strategic Technology, Innovation, and Resilience (STIR), the City of Lancaster launched a number of projects and initiatives towards becoming a smart city, and continues to implement changes that advance accessibility, engagement, infrastructure, safety, and sustainability.
These smart city implementations range from data-driven energy conservation and management to citizen engagement platforms. One of these is the Inform Lancaster app, which allows residents to use their mobile device to easily access information and report issues. Another is the use of video cameras on LED street lights to help law enforcement improve public safety. These implementation projects also involve building a new Advanced Traffic Management System (ATMS) solution that uses smart devices to help cities work smarter to detect and report traffic conditions back to the remote Traffic Management Center (TMC).
This provides the city with real-time data and predictive intelligence to improve operations, such as management of signalized intersections and allowing traffic operators to adapt to traffic incidents and congestion. In order to achieve all of this, upgrading to high-speed fiber optic communications was required to serve as the foundation for these smart city implementations.
What is a SMART CITY?
The City of Lancaster is using advanced techology data and predictive intelligence to improve operations
APPLICANT:
City of Lancaster, California
Country: United States State: California
County: Los Angeles Area: 94.56 sq. mi
Population: 172,660 Website: www.cityoflancasterca.org
Aging Infrastructure Was Limiting Operational Efficiency
| A major component of the fiber upgrade was to migrate the existing copper traffic network to fiber in order to transform the traffic signal communication infrastructure from analog to digital, enhancing connectivity and transparency. With aging 30-year-old analog copper wiring and sparsely deployed fiber, over half of the city's 140+ traffic signals were either offline or had no active communication with the traffic management system. Mitch Megas, Traffic Engineering Technician, noted that “With the legacy infrastructure, the communications would go down 10-15 times per week. And when exposed to harsh weather such as high temperatures or heavy rain, | communication would go down completely.” This meant that city administration frequently needed to dispatch technicians to check on equipment, sometimes in the middle of the night, taking up a lot of time and resources. Furthermore, the aging infrastructure did not allow for remote monitoring of traffic conditions, making it impossible to promptly react to traffic incidents or large traffic jams as they occurred. |
Smart Network Infrastructure Paves the Road to Centralized Traffic Management
The City of Lancaster consulted with engineering design firm ADVANTEC Consulting Engineers Inc. to provide ITS services that included the design of a citywide traffic network and implementation of a modern ATMS. A total of 146 traffic cabinets needed to be connected to the fiber network and ATMS, so all traffic cabinets and remote assets could be managed from one central location. Since the entire system was designed from the ground up, a company with reliable, sustainable products and ample experience were top concerns when ADVANTEC Consulting Engineers Inc. chose their partner.
Moxa’s product performance, long-term value, and local support made them stand out during the evaluation process. With a Moxa hardware and software solution, the city could now take full advantage of many modern Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) technologies, such as high-definition (HD) CCTV surveillance cameras and Advanced Transportation Controller (ATC) units. By creating a centralized operations center, staff can monitor and make changes to the system in real time.
The Moxa hardware solution brought full Gigabit speed all the way out to the edge—reaching every cabinet connected to the fiber infrastructure—future-proofing the network and providing the bandwidth necessary to support the data and video needs of today and tomorrow. Moxa high-performance EDS- Series, IKS- Series, and ICS- Series switches connect the fiber network, capable of quickly and reliably transferring large amounts of video, voice, and data across the network.
The core switch’s two 10G uplink capabilities also provide future expansion possibilities for the city. As the City of Lancaster implements more CCTV applications alongside the expected increase of connected and automated vehicles (CAV), more devices will need to be connected to the network, adding to the total amount of data that is processed over the network. Having a high-speed fiber optic communications network ensures they are ready to handle any increase of device connections in the future.
“We were happy to select Moxa hardware and monitoring software based on their extensive offering of fullGigabit hardened edge switches, 24-port aggregation switches, and full Layer 3 core switch technologies. These hardened-grade products are perfect for ITS deployments and bring value to the City of Lancaster’s advanced traffic management network.” John Cox, Systems Engineer of ADVANTEC Consulting Engineers
Furthermore, product reliability was an essential factor, especially for traffic cabinets placed in harsh outdoor environments. “Since installing the Moxa switches, the only thing that would take them offline would be the cabinet being hit in a traffic accident and causing the fiber to become disconnected. One of our cabinets was energized with high voltage from an Edison line, and the only component in the cabinet that was still functioning was the Moxa switch.” Mitch Megas, Traffic Engineering Technician for the City of Lancaster.
Key Considerations
When Choosing an Edge Computer for AIoT The Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT) is bringing AI to new frontiers in industrial applications. To reduce latency, lower data communication and storage costs, and increase network availability, businesses are moving AI capabilities from the cloud to the edge. To ensure your edge hardware platform meets your AIoT computing requirements, consider the following factors.
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