INESC TEC develops Internet and Digital Television system for STCP buses

Project SITMe will be travelling on STCP route 207 buses

This is a six month long project and it will be fully functional on 11 buses, each with two screens to display news, information and entertainment for passengers. The Semanário Grande Porto and Porto Canal will provide the up-to-date information for the Porto region.

Multiple technologies guarantee constant connection

This communications equipment for public transport is able to use various wireless network technologies, such as 3G, Wi-Fi and WiMax. The equipment intelligently and cognitively selects the technology that guarantees larger bandwidth (bit/s) at each point on the bus route, thus offering a wide-ranging communication service for all passengers on the bus.

Those using the public transport system in the metropolitan Porto area can enjoy an even better experience as this communications system guarantees Internet access with maximum bandwidth throughout the journey and it can reach up to 40Mbit/s. In addition to the Internet and Digital TV services, SITMe can also be used as video surveillance or to support the bus driver, thus making the public transport network safer and more efficient.

Covering the whole transport network with SITMe

The communications architecture developed is ready to be included on the tube and in taxis, meaning that passengers can enjoy uninterrupted service on different modes of transport.

Project SITMe began in September 2009 and the whole architecture was designed for the current system and all of the software that is now working on the buses was developed within this time frame. With less than one month in operation, the pilot has already had thousands of passengers using the onboard Internet access and dozens of GBytes of traffic have been transferred.

SITMe lays the foundations for new wireless projects

Tânia Calçada, a researcher at INESC TEC involved in SITMe, states that the project is open to new initiatives for wireless networks. “After the six month pilot, SITMe will end. But at the Telecommunications and Multimedia Unit at INESC TEC the research will continue in wireless communication for transport. The experience and knowledge acquired during this project has led to other ideas that will be explored in new R&D projects and PhD dissertations.”

The project is a National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF) initiative and was funded by the European Union - European Regional Development Fund through the PO Norte. The project was also supported by ELO – Sistemas de Informação, ISGUS (ELO Ibérica S.A.), ONI and the Porto Digital company.

The project was presented at INESC TEC’s headquarters on 22nd December and will be operational for the next six months free of charge on the STCP 207 bus route.