The tunnel monitoring system consists of several subsystems, namely lighting, ventilation, traffic guidance, CCTV, fire alarm/control, emergency communication, and public address (PA) systems. For the lighting and ventilation systems, Advantech provides industrial Ethernet switches, programmable automation controllers (PACs), and X-ring redundancy network technology for monitoring, control, and reliable data transmission between subsystems.
In this system, EKI-7710G switches are employed to collect data from the various equipment and devices in the tunnel and form a network ring for data redundancy purpose; all data is then transmitted to EKI-9428G layer 3 switch in the control room. Advantech’s EKI-7700 series of industrial management Ethernet switches allow users to quickly scale up their industrial networks in a cost-effective manner. Their robust design also ensures reliability and stability, while Advantech’s X-Ring technology gives the shortest available recovery time (<10 ms), thus improving both the reliability and speed of network infrastructure.
The APAX PACs are used for collecting data and controlling the tunnel subsystems. The APAX-5580 high performance PAC is the main control platform; with standard IEC 61131-3 development tools CODESYS, this platform allows engineers to rapidly develop programs and applications, thereby significantly shortening the time to market. APAX-5620 controllers are also employed for additional tasks pertaining to system communications, such as HMI/SACDA, database management, and data logging. This architecture ensures system stability, meaning that the APAX-5620 controllers will contribute to operate even in the event of an HMI program causing a system crash.
Finally, control over the logic configuration for network nodes, control computation, I/O points for field connections, and field network management is realized using Advantech’s WebAccess software solution. This software provides a means for system monitoring through the creation of widgets and user interfaces for visualizing data and displaying alerts as well as general functions such as printing and computer network management. To do this, it combines multiple information technologies, including geographic information system (GIS), SCADA, multimedia, and network security technologies, thus providing a unified platform for viewing GIS images and monitoring data in real time.
