Norwegian tolling and ITS pioneer Q-Free has announced it expects to release its new ParQSense Outdoor Sensor wireless parking systems portfolio at the ITS World Congress in Copenhagen, Denmark, on September 17-21.
Q-Free hopes that the 2018 ITSWC will see the anticipated official commercial product line release of the full ParQSense Standard Outdoor Sensor portfolio including: ParQSense Standard Outdoor Sensors (bottom) and Base Stations (below); the first version of ParQ, the monitoring, configuration and reporting software custom created by Q-Free for this product line; and the Q-Free HUB.
In addition to ParQ, the Q-Free HUB, a centralized software hub, offers the opportunity to host many different Q-Free and third-party software/hardware applications in the future. This is the first step to implementing a more comprehensive approach to data integration, management and analytics, laying the foundation for Q-Free to evolve into one of the major industry players in all-round mobility solutions.
The company has also revealed the development of a ParQSense IoT (Internet of Things) sensor with a future-oriented dual-cellular LPWAN technology, including Cat-NB1 (typical in Europe) and Cat-M1 (typical in North America) standards in conjunction with Nordic Semiconductor.
Q-Free was selected by Nordic Semiconductors as one of the first strategic partners to test this solution in a field application. This dual standard approach is brand-new and will become available for initial tests the end of 2018; its commercial product release is planned for the second half of 2019. The new ITS-421 IoT Outdoor Sensor will provide more flexibility, eliminating the general need for a base station by using available 4G telecommunication networks, in line with the latest developments in IoT device connectivity.
Over the last few months, multiple pilot projects with the ParQSense Standard Outdoor Sensors and Base Stations have been initiated with the company’s regional offices around the world. Pilot projects with IoT communication requirements can be satisfied by using the cellular capabilities of the ParQSense Base Station in conjunction with the ParQSense Standard Outdoor Sensors. These pilot installations have provided valuable customer feedback and have confirmed excellent sensor detection accuracy and ease of installation.
The complete ParQSense Outdoor Parking Monitoring System includes:
• The ITS-420 ParQSense Outdoor Sensor, which is a long-life flush-mounted unit that uses both radar and electromagnetic detection technologies;
• The ParQSense Base Station, which has been developed for outdoor sensor communication connecting up to 10,000 ParQSense Outdoor Sensors to the Q-Free HUB central software engine;
• The ParQ Information Portal, which is a web application built upon the Q-Free HUB for monitoring and configuring parking sites equipped with ITS-420/421 sensors;
• The ParQSense Application Programming Interface (API), which is a RESTful web service for fast and easy integration of customer’s applications. The API uses standard HTTP calls and methods and is therefore independent of platform and programming language.
