China Mobile Smart Parking

Smart Parking, powered by NB-IoT technology, is making it easier for drivers to find free parking spots. Cities can better manage their parking assets and maximize the revenue available to them as a result. Drivers searching for parking create congestion and pollution by circling and hunting for available parking. Smart Parking services are able to significantly ease these problems by guiding a driver directly to a parking space.

China Mobile have implemented two separate NB-IoT Smart Parking systems. The first has involved installation of smart parking sensors across some of the 4000 spaces identified as part of the Yunnan Intelligent Parking project. The second, in Southeast Guizhou, involves a total of 6 sets of entrance and exit systems around the highlighted parking lot, combined with a parking management system connecting more than 300 parking bays. These two implementations are designed to showcase the capabilities of NB-IoT for Smart Parking, and China Mobile’s Intelligent Parking services. The parking system utilises sensors installed in each parking bay, which are able to detect when the space is occupied, and send the status via the NBIoT network. Parking attendants and parking management are able to use a tablet device to monitor space occupancy. Using the sensors and NB-IoT network means that charging can commence as soon as space is occupied to ensure that accurate billing takes place.

China Mobile has invested heavily in their NB-IoT network, with their partner DTmobile who provide the NB-IoT network equipment. This means that coverage is extensive, allowing the sensors installed in the parking bays to be reliably connected to the network to ensure the service is available.

• [Data Management - Connectivity Stability]
  Coverage – Improved coverage offered by NB-IoT over existing mobile networks means that China Mobile have been able to connect smart parking sensors in locations where coverage would of previously been harder to discover. Parking sensors are embedded into pavement of the parking bay, which is normally under a vehicle and often within a large parking garage. These are challenging conditions to obtain coverage, but NB-IoT has proven that it is able to connect sensors even in these challenging conditions
• [Efficiency Improvement - Energy]
  Low power consumption – NB-IoT is designed to use small amounts of power and to be battery powered in many scenarios. This is an important attribute for smart parking sensors, as it is unlikely that they will access to mains power and so must be battery powered. Nb-IoT modules are designed to offer a battery life of many years, meaning that the sensors can be installed without regard to the location of power supplies and will need very little maintenance in the years ahead
• [Cost Reduction - Maintenance]
  Low cost – NB-IoT has created a simpler way to manage parking across the different pilot implementations has led to reduced management and maintenance costs. The ability to remotely monitor the status of parking bays, bill more accurately and increase the utilization of parking bays means that revenue generated is higher and the costs to monitor and maintain the parking bays are lowered.