Fast and Neat, Secure and Manageable

Area: China

Project Introduction:
China’s prospering economy has driven major population increases in big cities like Beijing and Shanghai, and the attendant increases in vehicular traffic has caused traffic nightmares. Authorities are taking action to deploy traffic monitoring systems to help enforce trafficlaws and maintain public safety. Thesetraffic monitoring systems detect traffic violations, retrieve images, recognize vehicle plate numbers, and send the data to traffic authorities’ central server for further action. Such outdoor applications require extremely rugged and reliable industrial computers with high-computing power and rich networking connectivity; they are deployed on many main thoroughfares–especially around intersections.

ARK-2150, featuring an Intel® 3rd generation core i7/i3 processor with a fanless design, has joined the team carrying out Beijing’s traffic control mission. With its -20 ~ 60° C wide temperature support, up to 4 Gigabit Ethernet ports, rich I/O interfaces and remote management, Advantech is proud to send the ARK-2150 to do battle in challenging environments.

System Requirements:

High performance platform supports image recognition -20 ~ 60° C wide-temperature support Multiple Gigabit Ethernet ports for IP cameras Rugged, fanless system provides high reliability in harsh environments Easy maintenance and intelligent remote management

 

 

System Description:
ARK-2150provides rich I/O interfaces including 4 Gigabit Ethernet ports and 4 serial COM ports (RS-232/422/485). Three of the GbE ports are used to connect up to 3 IP cameras, and the remained GbE port is for communication with the control center. The COM ports are for traffic light connections. For more complex intersections, multiple ARK-2150 units are installed. In all deployments, theARK-2150 helps to capture images of vehicles running red lights, speeding, or committing other infractions. Images of vehicle plates are scanned, recognized, and the data sent to the control center. The control center can also control and schedule traffic lights via the ARK-2150. 8-channel isolated DIO is also provided to support camera flash when needed.

Remote device management is extremely important for such traffic surveillance applications. ARK-2150 carries embedded Intel® AMT 8.0, Advantech SUSIAccess, and iManager, which provide secure remote management facilities to system administrators . The hardware-based iAMT technology allows for remote system diagnosis and security featuresincluding system defense filters and network isolation; SUSIAccess, a software-based remote management software utility developed by Advantech, provides functionalities including remote monitoring and remote KVM, and iManager provides a multi-level watchdog.

Remote KVM is a method of controlling multiple computers from a single console. With remote KVM, traffic monitoring system managers can respond to traffic situations in real time, adjusting the software settings of systems from the centralized traffic control room, or from anywhere with a network connection. The multi-level watchdog enables the system to restart an application when the app crashes, or reboot a whole system if an error occurs at the OS level.

For outdoor applications, wide temperature support and fanless design areimportant in ensuring longevity and reliability. The fanless ARK-2150 supports high-end CPU performance along with temperature support ranging from -20o ~ 60o C; this is rare among small-form-factor systems. It is also seldom that such a small IPC provides such rich I/O interfaces.

Conclusions:
ARK-2150, featuring a high computing core, rich, high-speed interfaces, wide temperature support, operational reliability and the latest remote management technologies,is suitable for deployment in traffic surveillance systems. This product exemplifies Advantech’s outstanding ability to compact many features into a small fanless system. It is powerful, quick and neat. Advantech’s excellence shows not only in outstanding hardware designs but also in software and firmware support. Its proprietary SUSIAccess and iManager intelligent management software utilities are distributed for free in order to facilitate easy management and maximum benefits.