A "smart" city is becoming less imaginable without smart parking solutions. The city's transport system has a fundamental influence on the quality of life of the people living there and the competitiveness of the businesses there. Mainly in city centers a significant part of traffic is of cars looking for a parking space, so a parking optimization solution can significantly improve the efficiency of the entire transport system.

For the optimization of parking, the most important information is the real-time monitoring of the occupancy of each parking space. This is the main information on which navigation solutions, street information systems and statistical analytic systems can be built.

Intelliport Parking Sensor solves this task at the highest technological level available today with perfect precision.

The most important features of the solution

• Long life: with the sophisticated energy management capability of the device and the NB-IoT technology used for communication, the life of the sensors is 5 to 8 years, depending on the network signal quality and the parking frequency. The lifetime of the sensors is increased by the construction, the battery is 5-10 cm below the surface of the road, which means balanced temperature conditions, protecting the battery from extreme cold.
  
  

• Small size: it is one of the smallest one among parking sensors on the market with similar capabilities and lifetime . With just 5 cm in diameter, it weakens the road structure significantly less than other devices.
  
  

• Extremely accurate: the device uses radar technology to determine whether a parking space is occupied or free with perfect accuracy.
  
  

• Durable: the device is extremely robust, waterproof and has a high strength. Thanks to the drilled construction under the surface of the road, it is fully protected against both the weather (cold, warm, ice, rain) and the hazards caused by the vehicles (eg snow plough). The device consists of two parts. There is an external cylinder that must be drilled and glued into the road. The other part os an internal sealed cylinder that contains the electronics, the antenna and the battery. This internal part is removable without time consuming drilling or gluing when necessary.

The outstanding capabilities of the solution are due primarily to the application of the following innovative technologies:

• Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT): special 4G/5G mobile communication technology with considerably lower energy consumption than conventional mobile communications. The network can be cost-effectively built and operated because it is based on existing mobile networks, no local gateway is required to install and operate. The security of communication is provided by the chip-SIM-based closed APN. 
  
  

• Radar AND Magnetic technology: can determine whether a parking space is occupied or free much more accurately than other vehicle detection technologies.
  
  

• Long life battery: long-life battery that can provide a near constant voltage level over a long period of time.
  
  

• Energy Management: Intelliport's innovative hardware and software energy management solutions ensure long-term reliability of the devices without maintenance.
  
  

How the system works

• Inactive state: before installation, sensors are in a so-called inactive state, where they occasionally send a "heartbeat" signal, but the radar is switched off. In this state the consumption of the sensors is minimal, so the loss of battery life between manufacture and installation is negligible.
  
  

• Active status: sensors can be set to active status remotely after installation. From then on, they detect changes in parking space occupancy with radar switched on and report them to the server.
  
  

• Heartbeat: in addition to parking events, the sensors regularly send a so called heartbeat signal to the central system administrator, so potential problems can quickly evolve, proactively managed to minimize service loss.
  
  

• Parking events detection: sensors determine changes in occupancy from the reflection of radar signals with complete accuracy and fast response times. 
  
  

• Intelliport Sensor Management Platform: a cloud based server side management application that
  • receives the login and heartbeat signal data from the sensors
    
  • receive and process raw data from sensors
  • determines which parking event happened
  • remotely fine-tune sensors
  • transfer data automatically to integrated systems
  • monitors the status of the battery, predicts discharges
  • mobile network coverage monitoring and field statistics indicates potential network problems
  • indicating possible operational problems of sensors, predicting their failure

• Easy integration: sensors can be used not only with the Intelliport Sensor Management Platform, but also with any central data collection and management system. A simple and well-documented communication protocol is available with technical support, so integration takes a few days at most.