The Monaco Public Parking Service (PPS), part of the Monaco Ministry
for Transport, is responsible for the management of all public
parking facilities.
From 15 parking facilities in 1992, they have grown
to about 40 parking facilities today, each with 30 to 400 spaces.
With 30,000 daily users, it is strategically important that these
parking facilities work properly with subscriptions, debit cards
and tickets. Their operation was computerized in the early 1990’s.
At that time a server was dedicated for management and seven DEC
Alpha servers controlled the parking gates through a set of terminal
servers and leased lines to the remote parking facilities.
Eventually, the PPS decided to switch its architecture
over to Intel servers running Linux. From seven servers they switched
to four, with a clear increase of power. At the same time they modernized
their network by replacing serial links with Ethernet to the parking
facilities. The DECnet network protocol was replaced by TCP/IP. “This
architecture allows us to establish all kinds of Ethernet-based services
in our parking facilities (video security, intranet facilities, etc.),” said
Sebastian Cottalorda, head of the information systems department
of PPS.
Since the existing terminal servers (used to access
the parking gates) were not multi-protocol they could not be reused
in the new network architecture. There was no possibility of replacing
the parking gates because the cost of a new installation was to high.
This meant the PPS needed to investigate a replacement for the terminal
servers which could be easily integrated into its new network.
A Transparent and Economical Migration
PPS decided
to use Perle IOLAN
DS1 Terminal Servers that satisfied the following
expectations:
- Single-port: these products are extremely compact and
easy to use.
- The rugged metal case is well-suited for use
in the field.
- The Perle IOLAN DS1 integrated transparently,
giving the central computer COM port communication access with
parking gate control
- The attractive price made the final decision
to replace existing hardware easy.
“Thanks to the IOLAN
DS1, we are able
to continue to use all of our parking gates with confidence, after
modernizing our entire network architecture. This was a much more
economical solution than replacing any of the gates,” said
Sebastian Cottalorda.
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