(Schenectady County, New York)
Applied GIS, Inc. (AGIS)
expands its expertise to include Automated Vehicle
Location (AVL) solutions using Cloudberry, by Air-Trak.Com,
Inc. In 2002, AGIS was contracted by the Schenectady
County DPW to research options for AVL. After a
long evaluation period and testing of various solutions,
AGIS found the Cloudberry technology to be the best
fit.
The County began using
AVL in March 2003. According to Austin Fisher, AGIS
Project Manager, there were several challenges to
AVL implementation for the County. An AVL is the
marriage of technologies between a GPS hardware/software
unit and an established communications network (radio
or cellular).
The first major hurtle
in this marriage was to find a local cellular communication
system that could carry digital data transmissions.
Schenectady County's location in upstate New York
created a limitation in that only three major cellular
carriers provided service in the area. All three
were known to give the same level of voice signal
coverage. However, it was imperative to the client
that AGIS test the coverage of data transmissions
and not rely on existing (voice) coverage performance
provided by the cellular companies.
At the time when AGIS'
investigation began, only one provider had a communication
protocol to transmit data - Cingular Wireless (using
its Mobitex system). Although this was good news,
it was unclear what AVL equipment, if any would
work with the Mobitex system. The County was also
reluctant to build its AVL solution around the service
of only one firm. At the same time, it was discovered
that Verizon was in the process of rolling out a
3rd generation cellular network (1XRTT) in upstate
New York that could carry data and audio signals
simultaneously. However, the AGIS team had to wait
approximately six months before rollout was completed.
A problem tangent to
availability of a cellular data service was one
of pricing. The County intended to use AVL to track
the location of all vehicles during snow emergencies
as well as during daily maintenance activities.
During an emergency situation, it might be necessary
to poll the location of a vehicle every 30 seconds
to every 2 minutes. Based on the frequency of data
transmission, it was necessary to choose a cellular
solution that provided per megabyte pricing rather
than per call pricing. The latter would prove too
costly for the County to consider if polling was
needed on a per minute basis for an extended time.
Fortunately, both Cingular and Verizon had prepared
megabyte pricing plans for their digital systems
and both were comparable in price. Per megabyte
pricing meant that the County paid only for the
amount of data transmitted per unit, regardless
of the number of transmissions made.
The next hurtle was
to find a GPS transceiver that was equipped (or
could be equipped) with a cellular modem to work
with the Cingular or Verizon systems. AGIS tested
models from three different manufacturers. Only
two units produced favorable results on both communication
networks during field-testing.
The Cloudberry option
proved superior for several reasons. One
was its ability to cache GPS location coordinates
(including time, speed, and telemetry) when outside
of cellular coverage. The rural and hilly topography
of Schenectady County creates several "dead pockets"
for cellular coverage. Cloudberry's cache function
proved dependable in these situations. The second
reason was the ability to easily view, record, and
manage AVL data using Cloudberry's client software.
The software integrates ESRI ArcView technology
to provide mapping, data storage, and tracking functions
thereby allowing the user to add their own (local)
GIS data sets. The client software receives AVL
signals via an Internet connection.
All Cloudberry mobile
units transmit data using the Cingular network to
a Cloudberry web server that relays the data instantaneously
to the desktop client. The benefit of this turnkey
system is that the user is not responsible for procuring
cellular services and integration. Applied GIS has
trained DPW staff and will continue to provide technical
support for the AVL system. After a several month
trial period with 10 vehicles, the County plans
to expand the system to include its entire fleet
of 25 vehicles for year-round operation.
For more information,
please contact:
Mark Wheeler
at 518.346.0942
mwheeler@appliedgis.com
