Transportation
Transportation services include air travel, subways, and trains. Underground tunnels for highways and mass transport vehicles are also maintained by the transportation sector. Millions of people depend on the availability of transportation services every day, so these services need to prioritize safety for their passengers. They also need to make sure their infrastructure is as efficient and reliable as possible.
Monitoring
Considerations
Airport Terminals
UPS Systems
Airport terminals utilize electronic technology for vital functions like security equipment, passenger safety, communication, flight information, and baggage handling. During grid outages, a battery-based Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) system provides short-term back-up power to ensure these operations can continue.
Cooling Pipes & Plumbing
Cooling pipes circulate chilled water or refrigerant to regulate ambient temperature and cool machinery in airport terminals, while plumbing infrastructure serves kitchens and bathrooms. Both cooling pipes and plumbing involve large amounts of fluids. Even in stable environments, they can collapse and cause flooding around sensitive equipment.
CRAC Units
IT infrastructure housed in server rooms supports systems for communication, passenger processing, and security. Since computer equipment produces heat as it runs, airport terminals need to regulate temperature in server rooms to prevent overheating. Computer Room Air Condition (CRAC) units use refrigerant chemicals to cool server rooms.
Subway & Electric Railway Tunnels
Ventilation Systems
Limited airflow in tunnels, subway stations and electric railways can cause an uncomfortable build-up of heat. It can also turn dangerous in the event of fire if smoke has nowhere to escape. Extractor fans and ductwork promote sustainable air circulation, but this infrastructure is vulnerable to damage or collapse.
Flooding
Because subway stations and tunnels are underground, water from above tends to drain into them, and this water must be pumped out regularly. However, extreme weather events such as hurricanes can overwhelm pumping infrastructure quickly and cause major disruptions.
UPS Systems
Electric railways are heavily dependent on electricity for operations, so they also incorporate battery-based UPS systems to power rails, minimizing disruptions when primary power sources fail.
CO2 & Carbon Monoxide
An overabundance of CO2 and carbon monoxide can be extremely dangerous for passengers and personnel, especially in spaces with poor ventilation. To ensure breathable air quality, tunnels, subway stations, and electric railways need to monitor the atmosphere for excessive levels of these gases.
Small DC Battery Systems
In tunnels and underground stations, electricity from the grid supports powered third rails, climate control systems, ticket kiosks, and lighting for visibility. During grid outages, these vital systems draw emergency backup power from small DC battery systems.
Battery Monitoring
Both air and ground transportation depend on grid infrastructure to power critical safety systems and serve passengers, but grid outages can happen unexpectedly. DC battery banks and battery-based UPS systems must be ready to provide temporary back-up power at all times.
Unfortunately, battery units are also prone to sudden failures, and it only takes one failed unit to compromise an entire string. Backup systems are only deployed occasionally, so technicians may not realize a failure has occurred until it’s too late, leaving them vulnerable to outages.
The best way for transportation companies to safeguard DC and UPS integrity is to install a Cellwatch Battery Monitoring system. Through Cellwatch, Parameter automates all stages of the battery monitoring process to ensure operations can continue during outages. With tailored solutions for DC and UPS applications, the system is semi-permanently connected to provide real-time visibility by measuring multiple conditions and alerting to potential failures.
Benefits include:
- Real-time tracking for critical units
- Reduced risk of unexpected outages
- Streamlined repairs and deferred replacements
- Increased cost savings and maximum battery life
- Seamless management of battery health data from multiple strings and units
Environmental Monitoring
In technologically dense areas like airport terminal server rooms, maintaining an optimal environment is pivotal. When atmospheric conditions fall outside of expected parameters, valuable equipment can incur damage. In crowded, enclosed spaces like tunnels, subway stations, and electric railways, maintaining proper airflow and ensuring a breathable atmosphere is essential for safety.
Dangerous environmental changes can happen suddenly and invisibly, so an effective monitoring system is a necessity.
Parameter empowers transportation companies with comprehensive visibility into critical environmental metrics. Our environmental monitoring technology tracks multiple conditions, including temperature, humidity, airflow, CO, CO2, smoke, and more. When a failure is detected, the system immediately sends out an alert indicating the nature and location of the issue.
Benefits include:
- Reliable and accurate threat detection
- Remote monitoring capability
- Seamless integration with native BMS
- Enhanced data-driven decision-making
- Wireless, Wi-Fi, and wired technology options
Leak Detection
Plumbing, HVAC, and cooling infrastructure are necessary in airport terminal operations, but they put the risk of conductive fluid and coolant leaks very close to sensitive computer equipment. Likewise, flooding caused by groundwater draining into tunnels and subway stations can be extremely destructive, and when pumps don’t kick in right away, flash flooding can disrupt operations, damage electrical components, and threaten passenger safety.
Transportation companies need a way to catch leaks and floods early so they can be contained quickly.
Parameter helps transportation companies protect assets and minimize disruptions with innovative leak detection solutions. Leaks often start out small and spread quickly, so our technology alerts to the presence of conductive fluids and chemicals immediately, allowing technicians enough time to address leaks before they spread.
Benefits include:
- Accuracy of ±2 feet / ±0.5% of cable length with map-applied distance read
- Extensive detection along 10,000 feet of detection cable
- Wireless range up to 1600 feet
- Long-lasting, resettable, and reusable detection cables
- Real-time alerts
Product Lines
Ideal for both airport and tunnel applications, Parameter’s RLE Leak Detection product line offers solutions for everything from coolant leaks to flash floods. The equipment sends immediate alerts as soon as fluid is detected so that technicians have enough time to resolve this issue before it escalates.
Liquid Sensing Cables
Parameter’s conductive fluid sensing cables can be run around the perimeter of a large space or in a serpentine pattern under the floor for comprehensive coverage of large server rooms or public transport stations. For liquid cooling applications in server rooms, our chemical sensing cables are exceptionally reliable and durable, resistant to chemical corrosion, and offer an especially fast reaction time.
Spot Detectors & Controllers
For smaller, more visible areas like airport comms rooms or HVAC/plumbing drip pans, Parameter’s simple and cost-effective zone controllers and spot detectors notify personnel as soon as a leak is detected in a specific area. For more complex spaces like subway stations or tunnels, our distance-read controllers can identify the precise location of leaking or flooding.
Parameter’s RLE Environmental Monitoring product line is designed to help transportation companies maintain environments that are both safe for passengers and conducive to server efficiency by tracking critical factors and alerting to failures. With wired, wireless, and Wi-Fi platforms available, our comprehensive systems ensure streamlined integration across multiple locations.
WiNG Monitoring
With Parameter’s revolutionary WiNG wireless platform, a complete system of sensors, gateway manager, and range extenders monitors your environment for changes in temperature, humidity, CO2, dew points, and conductive fluid leaks. These solutions allow transportation companies to fine-tune environments to promote passenger safety, maintain equipment performance, and optimize operations. There are no recurring fees, and once you’ve purchased the equipment, it’s yours for life.
Wi-Fi Sensors
Parameter’s Wi-Fi sensors enable you to leverage existing Wi-Fi networks to consistently and accurately monitor conditions such as temperature, humidity, CO2, and leaks. Our Wi-Fi sensors are compatible with WiNG-MGR or BMS systems.
Wired Facility Monitoring & Sensors
For operations that require the utmost security, Parameter simplest closed-circuit monitoring through the wired Facility Monitoring System (FMS), which monitors sensitive facilities, temperature, and equipment status. To expand FMS functionality, Parameter offers wired sensors for temperature, humidity, motion, door status, smoke, power failures, and power currents.
As the core Cellwatch product, Cellwatch Battery Monitoring is a secure and flexible preemptive battery maintenance solution for UPS applications in Airport infrastructure and electric railways. Cellwatch Battery Monitoring utilizes advanced measurement techniques to continuously monitor entire systems and provide extremely accurate readings throughout charge, discharge, and float periods.
Comprehensive UPS Visibility
Cellwatch Battery Monitoring is tailored for UPS applications to ensure battery health. In addition to functionality for alerting against and preventing thermal runaway, the platform tracks string voltage, cell level voltage, ohmic value, and current temperature to identify cell failures within a UPS string.
Preemptive Maintenance
By providing real-time visibility into battery performance, Cellwatch Battery Monitoring streamlines preemptive maintenance to increase backup power reliability, achieve cost savings, and maximize useful battery life.
Cellwatch Central
In addition to the core Cellwatch product, Parameter also offers Cellwatch Central, a specially tailored platform for multisite monitoring. By consolidating data collection into a unified system, Cellwatch Central enables colocation to analyze battery performance across over 50,000 jars and streamline management of battery types, installation data, and maintenance events via a unified system.
Discover Advanced Transportation Monitoring Solutions From Parameter
Not only can the right monitoring system alert to failures, but it can also enable incident prevention, enhance efficiency, increase cost savings, and deliver peace of mind.
Contact Parameter to discover flexible monitoring solutions for transportation infrastructure that check all these boxes.