Bracknell Forest Council

Bracknell Forest Council had to find a way to improve on its real-time traffic management system while cutting costs.

The Challenge

Building Smart Cities is now the only way that any urban environment can cope with the volume of traffic going through its. At the heart of the South of England, Bracknell Forest Council has to deal with the huge tidal flows in and out of London as well as being a commercial hub in its own right.

Bracknell Forest Council was faced with pressure to reduce their budget and deliver better service to its residents. Bracknell’s solution was to use a sophisticated CCTV IP based system from Tyco, now Johnson Controls, and an Urban Traffic Management Control (UTMC) system supplied by Siemens to manage the traffic in real time.

The Tyco and Siemens systems required separate data and IP addresses. In a classic private mobile network solution, that would mean two SIMs in two routers, instantly doubling cost and nullifying any savings made. Additionally, there was a short window for implementation, meaning neither Siemens or Tyco had enough time to develop and deploy a combined platform.

The Solution

Mobius was able to draw from its substantial retail expertise, where credit card data and shop management data flow through the same pipe but have to be kept separate due to PCI DSS security requirements. This meant that Mobius could allow both Tyco and Siemens to use the same router and SIM but run in completely separate and secure data streams.

Once again drawing from its retail experience, Mobius Connect offers a simple swap out service in case any device in the field should fail. Mobius supplies an exact ‘clone’ of the failed unit and ‘swaps it out’ by technical courier. Having the clone in place means that the site is back up and running as quickly as possible and not dependant on any on site work, which can be difficult and is often dangerous.

The Benefits

Speed of deployment and ongoing revenue costs were greatly improved, so that Bracknell Forest Council could deliver a better service despite the cutbacks. Bracknell Forest Council have the option now to safeguard their existing UTMC and even expand it.

By building a network that could support both traffic systems from the same SIM, Mobius halved the operating cost of the site. The ‘Retail swap-out’ model reduces costs further for roll out and reduces maintenance time and costs.

In terms of reliability, both Tyco and Siemens recognise that a Mobius Mobile Network has proven to be more reliable than a fixed line system.