It's a remarkably interesting time for anyone involved in operating roadways. In the US,the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act(IIJA), stimulus support, andother fundingsources are available for State, Local, andTribal governments to modernize roadways with goals to increase public safety, reduce traffic congestion, rise operational efficiency, and lower carbon emissions. 

No doubt theITS America Conference & Exponext week will feature great technologies and surprising innovations to better manage traffic signals at intersections, monitor weather and road conditions, provide information and guidance to the public in real time, automate video surveillance analytics, pave the way to autonomous driving, and more. 

Modern roadways need modern networks

All of these solutions can drive great outcomes, provided they can be simply deployed and secured at scale, as well as easily monitored and managed remotely. The distributed nature of roadway infrastructure calls for simple, secure, and scalable networking solutions. Some of the most advanced use cases also require innovative ways to collect data generated by roadside equipment.  

In the greater Atlanta area for instance, theGwinnett County DOTjust announced they are standardizing connectivity to all traffic signals with Cisco. This will help improve network uptime and put the groundwork in place for an intelligent transportation system (ITS) in the not-so-distant future. 

The Cisco building blocks for ITS 

Make sure you stop by theCisco booth (#1317) at ITS America to see our demos and discover how Cisco is driving simplicity, scale, security, and innovation for road infrastructures: 

• Enabling connectivity at scale.
  Cisco's wide range of ruggedizedrouters, switches, and wireless backhaulproducts let you connect all your devices using the best technology for your specific needs, whether fiber, copper, cellular 4G/5G, or ultra-reliable wireless backhaul. 
• Simplifying provisioning and management.
  Cisco's cloud operating modelis ideally suited to help you easily manage distributed routers remotely, and securely gain remote access to connected devices for configuration and maintenance. 
• Protecting against cyber threats.
  Cisco's networking equipment gives you comprehensive visibility intoyour security postureand helps you enforcesecurity policieswithout the need for extra hardware appliances in street cabinets.  
• Empowering innovations.
  Cisco's networking equipment lets youcollect datafrom connected assets orLoRaWANsensors to fuel your applications with environmental insights so you can enable innovative outcomes.  

Please do not miss our joint demo withOuster's Geminilidar. We will show how CiscoEdge Intelligencerunning on Cisco Industrial Routers can convert the lidar's point cloud into meaningful metadata your applications can leverage to influence an intersection's traffic signal phase when detecting pedestrians in the crosswalk for instance. 

Make sure you attend ourbreakout sessionon Tuesday, April 25th. We will discuss how Cisco is helping build technologies to create the world's fastest autonomous vehicles by contributing to the Indy Autonomous Challenge. This type of innovation will greatly improve collision detection and avoidance systems to make our roads safer as we move towards a more autonomous future. 

Learn more

• Cisco solutions for Connected Roadways 
• Gwinnett County DOT Case Study 
• The Indy Autonomous Challenge 
• Cisco at ITS America, April 24-27, 2023 in Grapevine, TX  
• Cisco Portfolio Explorer for Transportation