The search for a free parking space in big cities – for many drivers a painful issue. The search process is often very time-consuming and exhausting. Not only are drivers’ nerves strained, but the constant circling and searching also has negative effects for cities and municipalities. Crusing around increases general traffic density and exhaust emissions. Smart parking can offer solutions for improving urban mobility. For example, the digitization of parking space opens up new possibilities for easing the traffic situation in cities.
Smart Parking describes the digital management of parking spaces with the help of information and radio technologies. Sensors in the surrounding area record the current utilization of parking spaces. The information is sent to the cloud via narrowband technologies, for example. Parking utilization can be monitored and controlled there in real time.
In addition to smart lighting and waste management, smart parking is another application area from the smart city sector and shows how cities can be digitalized and modernized. Cities and municipalities, as well as operators of public and private parking facilities, are thus given options for managing their parking areas more easily and efficiently.
The digitization of parking areas also makes it possible to correlate the utilization of parking areas with other data. For example, parking lot occupancy can be linked to weather data or event information and viewed overall. The data can be used to better predict demand for parking spaces in the future based on various parameters.
The automatic parking system works by installing sensors in parking spaces. On the one hand, these can be glued to the asphalt as ground sensors. On the other hand, there are also ceiling sensors that record the occupancy of the parking space from above. The sensor then transmits information in real time about the current occupancy status. The data is sent via the mobile network and usually transmitted to a cloud solution. From there, the data sets can be further used for analysis, for example, to control parking space and monitor special areas such as emergency lanes. Alternatively, the data from the cloud can also be made available in an app for the end customer. Drivers can then display free parking spaces in the desired area and be navigated there.
In the smart city sector, the use of Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) mobile radio technology is particularly suitable. This radio standard is specially designed for machine communication and is particularly suitable for stationary applications. Narrowband technology is characterized by energy-saving characteristics combined with a long signal range (LPWA). The sensors can be battery-powered and operated maintenance-free for several years.
Integrated ceiling sensors identify whether the parking space below is currently occupied or free. With the help of digital LED displays, cars can thus be guided through the parking garage in a targeted manner and navigated directly to the next free parking space. In this way, the flow of traffic can be controlled and unnecessary circling can be avoided.
Intelligent streetlights can not only adapt the light intensity based on the environmental factors, but can also detect free parking spaces in the surrounding area. By installing smart streetlights, several smart city applications can thus be implemented in parallel.
Smart Parking can be used to identify parking areas with an electric charging station and determine their occupancy status. The data is visualized in an app so that drivers can find out in advance about parking and charging options at their destination.
In addition to hardware and software, you need a connectivity component to connect your smart parking solution so that the data collected by your hardware can be reliably transmitted to your software. We offer the optimal solution for this with the 1NCE IoT Flat Rate.
Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) is the mobile radio standard that is particularly suitable for smart parking and other smart city applications. 1NCE offers you documents to download for this purpose. The guides explain the technology of NB-IoT and its advantages for your solutions and products in detail:
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