ON THE RIGHT WAVELENGTH
R F Coulombe · Traffic Technology International · 2002
This article reviews the technology available for video networking used in intelligent transport systems. Ethernet connections now provide the bandwidth required and most other communications devices are upgraded or designed with Ethernet ports. Alternative means are fibre optics, digital subscriber line, and wireless. Video compression must be employed for the signal to be accommodated by the network: the standard adopted for this is MPEG-2. Internet protocol (IP) video can be transmitted through a series of network components capable of recognizing and processing the packets of data. Packets are either Transmission Control protocol (TCP) or User Datagram protocol. IP multicasts are datagrams sourced from a single host to a group of hosts. Remote configuration of networks can be applied through TCP/IP or serial communications. Management software is important to simplify the operation and maximize the usefulness of the network. Web access from the general public can be provided. Implementation needs to take into account long-term needs and local administration issues.