As a result of the rapid growth, sophistication and effectiveness of VicRoads' Intelligent Transport Sytems (ITS) network, an upgrade of the supporting Local Area Network (LAN) was required to ensure optimum performance of the ITS to manage road infrastructure throughout Melbourne.
VicRoads selected Ventia to design, plan and implement major changes to the core components of the organisation's LAN network to:
- Improve scalability
- Increase capacity
- Ensure redundancy
- Provide the latest networking technologies to the core ITS infrastructure
- Deliver reliability and longevity for the entire LAN.
To meet VicRoads' expected future requirements, Ventia designed an upgrade that enhanced the core network with full redundancy of all equipment and links.
The upgrade allows for future expansion with the inclusion of the latest networking technology allowing network growth and further integration as additional freeways and road sections are included in the FMS network.
The ITS LAN Upgrade works included:
- Firewall and security appliance upgrade to new hardware
- Provision of new core virtual switching system (VSS)
- Backbone fibre speed upgrade from 1Gbs to 4Gbs
- Relocation and upgrade of the Camberwell DR site to Cook St to provide full redundancy as well as a link upgrade to 10Gbs
- Multicast implementation for all CCTV cameras
- Full design, Method of Procedure (MOP) creation and implementation of works to minimize impact to existing operations.
VicRoads also needed to improve network traffic use and reduce the load on low bandwidth links within their own wider network. After close consultation with users, Ventia designed and implemented a solution that multicasts streaming traffic data across all CCTV traffic on VicRoads' ITS network.
Multicast minimises the need for multiple traffic streams for multiple end users from one source - especially where that source is connected via a low-bandwidth link back into the VicRoads network. There will always be only one stream of traffic from the source to the Omnicast server, irrespective of the number of viewers of the source camera and ensuring data availability with efficient use of bandwidth. This stream can then be multicast to multiple end users using efficient Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS).
The innovative Ventia solution is one of the few networks using the proven MPLS to multicast. This required a number of redesigns to incorporate network sections managed by VicRoads IT partners to provide the solution across their entire CCTV traffic network.