Background
Like every other technological arena the electronic toll collection systems have undergone drastic changes to meet to the customer demands and satisfaction. Earlier, the electronic collection system was predominantly manual. Later, the technological developments facilitated the toll collection with software for issuing the receipts or cards for parking. Now the researchers want it to become fully automatic with the least of human interference.
Key Issues
Some of the key issues taken into consideration for developing any electronic toll collection system are as follows.
o The ratio of the cost to performance should be such that the project is feasible for practical applicability.
o The system should comply with the rules and regulations of that particular state and country.
o The system should comply with the interoperability standards specified by that state and/ or country.
o The operation of the system should be simple and reliable
o The system should be able to provide highest security to the exchange of the data.
o The maintenance of the system should be easy.
o The system should be able to prevent fraud by both toll evaders and toll collection operators.
o The system should be able to cater to the requirements of the environment protection and the working conditions of the toll operators.
Concept and Features
One of the latest developments in Electronic Toll Collection Systems is the no-stop electronic toll collection system installed by the Mihalo Pupin Institute in Serbia. The concept of this system is very unique because this system is designed for both open and closed systems. The structure of this system is hierarchical. This sort of structure is not only highly reliable but also less vulnerable. If some of the components fail in this system, the redundancy concept assures near normal operations of the system. In this system one can pay in a variety of ways. One of the best features of this system is serviceability and high system modularity. This system is ergonomically designed.
Levels
The system operates at three levels namely toll lane level, toll plaza level, and central level.
o Toll Lane Level: The basic hierarchical system level is the toll lane level. There is an entrance subsystem and exit subsystem. There is a vehicle pre-classification subsystem at the entrance. The vehicle is classified on the basis of the height at the first wheel and the number of axels.
o Toll Plaza Level: At this level there is interconnection of all the pay toll systems with the help of LAN. Many work stations along with this level are connected to the toll plaza server. The work stations include maintenance service, toll plaza manager and internal/ audit control. Data about the transactions and vehicle number plates is also stored in this system. The data is stored in a form that is encrypted. This facilitates not only accessibility of data but also prevention of data modification.
o Central Level: The central level is the highest level of the entire system. This includes the central data processing server. The encrypted data is received by this server from all pay toll plazas. The mode can either be online or offline. The encrypted data is later decoded with the help of special software.
toll plaza management services
Author: Kerminder Singh
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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