Digital services to support both the department of transportation and ultimately travelers

Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) with Edge Computing

As part of their ActiveITS implementation—also known as SmartWay—the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) was looking to upgrade software for all traffic management Centers (TMC) in Nashville, Knoxville, Chattanooga, and Memphis.

Our team was engaged as the prime consultant on this project and is developing a Cisco Edge computing application to integrate automatic vehicle location (AVL) data from TDOT HELP trucks via cellular enabled routers connected directly into the communication system. The AVL application is configured to report the vehicle location among other information through an interface built on Cisco’s Kinetic Edge and Fog Processing Module (EFM). Data from the devices is recorded directly into the ActiveITS database and displayed in the SmartWay Map interface. Historic HELP truck location information is also recorded for incident management event response, and the system is configured to record location information when the device is offline due to loss of signal or error.

As TDOT HELP trucks assist travelers with issues including accidents, stalled engines, running out of gas, and many more incidents, this upgrade is a platform for expanded automation that will help with the efficiency of response times and enable the TDOT staff to stay connected with what’s happening on their roads using innovative software.