The Challenge

Sheffield is the third largest city in England with over 3,000Km of roads.  By 2008, investment decisions in previous years had meant that there were limited opportunities to increase capacity on the highway network much of which passes through heavily populated districts.  A comprehensive urban traffic control (UTC) system was implemented to control all major junctions.  Over 400 signal installations (as well as 150 signalled pedestrian crossings) are connected to either the UTC system or the remote monitoring system (RMS).  The communications network linking these sites was extensive having evolved in an organic fashion over meany years as demand changed.  However, not only were these analogue circuits expensive to operate and maintain, they did not support other services, such as UTMC, which increasingly form part of Sheffield's traffic management system.  Following careful consideration, Sheffield City Council developed a plan to replace the legacy analogue circuits with an IP-based communications network with mesh wireless forming a key part.

 

The Solution

Sheffield City Council launched a Europe-wide competitive tender for solution providers which IDT won in July 2008.  A very tight timescasle was imposed and it was clear that close co-operation between all the various parties in the project would be critical if the programme was to be met.  Working alongside the Client IDT set about designing a mesh network and surveying every link in that network.  The Client's existing maintenance contractor was to do the installation and so we provided them with the necessary training to undertake this.  The survey results included a 'profile' for each site detailing the specific installation method on a site-by-site basis and we followed up installation with commissioning by IDT's technical team.

 

The Outcome

The first 120 mesh nodes were surveyed, installed and commissioned within 4 months - exactly according to programme.  We have since commissioned a further 50 mesh nodes with more planned.  The survey results have been proved 100% accurate with no additional repeaters being required post commissioning.