In order to reduce congestion on the roads and save lives, governments in various countries are investing in solutions that make highways “smarter.” By using intelligent transportation systems (ITSs), operators are able to monitor and react to traffic-flow issues, speed emergency communications and response, better inform the public of traffic issues, and expedite traffic by using automated toll collectors.

     Networked applications are critical to the success of ITS solutions, and they require the ability to handle many types of data and performance requirements. Ethernet is a cost-effective, high-bandwidth, intelligent technology that gets the most out of the ITS network infrastructure. Performance requirements of intelligent transportation system (ITS) networks are increasing dramatically. Traditional networks are being upgraded to meet these requirements, using fiber, wireless technology, lower-cost endpoints, and scalable architectures. Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) represents an excellent end-to-end solution for these requirements, and as a result, Ethernet is being deployed as an underlying architecture in many ITS networks.