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The rapid expansion of urban areas and fast growth of motor vehicle ownership is placing parking difficulties at the forefront of society's attention. Against the background of everything going smart, an intelligent transformation of parking lots has proven an effective way of addressing this issue.
To turn parking into an intelligent process, ZTE introduced an NB-IoT-based intelligent parking system by drawing on its years of experience in data mining and by integrating technological advances in related fields.
ZTE's intelligent parking system boasts extensive service process management features. Parking monitoring, parking guidance and management of defaulting vehicles allow customers to get real-time updates on the situation of parking lots in the city. Flexible charging standards management, numerous report analysis and statistical tools and powerful data exchange capabilities make parking management more flexible. Convenient third-party payment drastically broadens payment options.
The ZTE intelligent parking solution mainly covers two scenarios: intelligent roadside parking and intelligent campus parking.
NB-IoT-Based Intelligent Roadside Parking Solution
Figure 1 ZTE's Intelligent Roadside Parking Solution Based on NB-IoT Technology
The system consists of four parts: the sensing layer, network layer, EMS layer, and operation layer.
The sensing layer includes IoT Detection Units (IDUs), PDAs and smartphones.
IDU: It is installed in each parking space to detect whether a vehicle has parked in or departed from the space. The IDU also uploads parking space occupation information to the EMS through the IoT.
PDA: It is used by on-site fee collection and regulation personnel as an inspection terminal. Its functions include collecting fees manually and taking photos as defaulting evidence.
Smartphone: The user starts the app or enters the WeChat official account, inputs the parking space number and expected duration, and then performs prepayment.
The network layer comprises various types of networks including communications networks and the Internet. The communications network enables two-way information exchanges between the PDAs and smartphones on one end and the operation & management platform on the other. The Internet provides interfaces between the operation & management platform on one side and the communications network gateways and external systems on the other side. The IoT implements two-way information exchanges between the IDUs and base stations.
The EMS layer employs various cloud solutions such as computing and storage to establish a cloud-based operation support platform.
The IoT operation & management platform in the operation layer consists of the parking system and the operation & management system. The operation & management platform performs three functions. The first function is to support processes of the intelligent roadside parking system, such as parking and fee collection. The second function is to use its statistical and analysis tools to help the operation & management departments get a full picture of the roadside parking situation and plan parking spaces. The third function is to conduct network management. For example, through the operation & management platform, related personnel can configure devices, obtain real-time device information such as the battery status and operating status of the IDU, manage patrol personnel, check the actually collected fees against the billing information in the system, query parking space status in real time and produce statistics or conduct analysis of the turnover and utilization of parking spaces.
External systems are the systems to which the intelligent roadside parking system can provide support or from which it obtains help. The roadside parking system primarily has the following interfaces for external systems: The interface with the traffic police system helps perform functions such as generating and processing tickets. The interface with the vehicle administration system helps perform functions such as annual inspection of users with records of parking violations. The interface with payment systems (such as China UnionPay, WeChat and Alipay) helps perform transaction clearing. The interface with the credit investigation system helps record intentional violations.
NB-IoT-Based Intelligent Campus Parking Solution
Figure 2 ZTE's Intelligent Campus Parking Solution Based on NB-IoT Technology