Millions of hours are wasted in traffic every year, and anything short of zero fatalities is unacceptable. Yet departments of transportation and cities worldwide still face a common set of obstacles in transforming Intelligent Transportation Systems to meet the needs of today and the future. At the heart of this transformation lies the ability to connect, secure, manage, and scale increasingly complex roadside infrastructure.
At the recent ITS World Congress event in Atlanta, we discussed these challenges and how to overcome them. The event brought together global leaders, researchers, and industry professionals to discuss and showcase new technologies – with sessions covering connected and automated vehicle safety, AI in transportation, sustainability, and more. The goal is to create a safer, greener, and smarter transportation system for the future.
Here are six key challenges for ITS vendors and how Cisco is helping them overcome them:
- Enabling ITS Vendor Interoperability
At ITS World Congress, we saw that one of the greatest challenges for transportation agencies is integrating equipment from different ITS vendors, each with their own protocols, management tools, and connectivity standards. Cisco solves this with an open, standards-based approach to networking. Using protocols such as Ethernet, IP, and industry-standard APIs, Cisco’s industrial switches, routers, and wireless access points serve as common ground-allowing disparate ITS devices (from cameras to traffic signal controllers) to communicate seamlessly.
At Cisco, we’ve been building products in the industrial space for more than 20 years. Our products are designed to be fully interoperable with technology vendors in transportation.
At the network level:
- As the OT world transitions to Ethernet and Fiber, Cisco is bringing 40+ years of IT innovations to the industrial world.
- Open Standards: Cisco supports open communication protocols ensuring that ITS devices from multiple vendors can connect and exchange data without proprietary barriers.
At the data application level:
- Edge Computing: Cisco’s edge devices enable data processing close to the source, translating between device languages and normalizing data for centralized management.
- API-Driven Integration: Cisco’s APIs allow ITS management software to interact with network hardware, enabling automation and facilitating integration with third-party solutions.
This interoperability is key to building adaptive, future-proof ITS environments-where agencies can easily adopt new technologies and vendors without being locked into a single ecosystem.
- Solving the challenges of independent network deployments
Traditional ITS deployments are often managed and secured independently, leading to inefficient operations, duplicated infrastructure, and security blind spots. Cisco’s solutions support collaboration by consolidating network, management, and security functions into a unified architecture.
How Cisco helps:
- Unified Network Infrastructure: With Cisco’s industrial-grade switches and routers, agencies can converge multiple ITS applications onto a single, robust network. This eliminates parallel cabling and hardware, simplifying operations and maintenance.
- Centralized Management: With Cisco Catalyst Center and Catalyst SD-WAN Manager. Each provides a shared pane of glass for configuring, monitoring, and updating an ITS network.
- Integrated Security: Centralized policies and monitoring help agencies enforce consistent security across all connected systems, minimizing risk and reducing complexity.
The result is a more agile, secure, and efficient ITS operation-where data flows freely, resources are shared, and agencies can respond quickly to changing needs.
- Common Network Infrastructure, Security, and Data Tooling
Cisco provides the critical backbone for modern ITS deployments:
- Rugged Network Devices: Cisco’s industrial switches, cellular routers, and wireless access points are built to withstand harsh roadside environments-ensuring uptime in the face of weather, vibration, and electrical noise.
- Security by Design: Cisco embeds security at every layer, from encrypted communications (using VPNs and MACsec) to integrated firewalls, intrusion detection, and zero-trust network access. Agencies can better detect threats and centralize policy management to avoid gaps in defense.
- Access to data management tools: Cisco enables agencies to collect, aggregate, and analyze data from diverse sources (controllers, sensors, LIDAR, radar, cameras,) using scalable edge computing and cloud integration. This unlocks actionable insights for traffic management, incident detection, and planning.
- Securely Connecting Roadside Infrastructure at Scale
Connecting thousands of roadside devices-traffic signals, environmental sensors, and variable message signs requires robust, scalable, and secure solutions. Cisco’s products are purpose-built for this challenge:
- High-Performance Connectivity: Industrial-grade Ethernet switches, 5G/4G/LTE cellular routers, and Wi-Fi access points deliver reliable bandwidth and low latency, even in challenging outdoor conditions.
- Zero-Trust Security: Many street cabinets lack strong physical security and can be broken into easily. It’s important that every device and user must be authenticated and authorized before accessing the network, reducing the risk of intrusion or lateral movement.
- Remote Management: Centralized tools allow agencies to deploy, configure, and patch network devices remotely, and zero-trust remote access built into our network equipment allows agencies to deploy, configure, and patch devices remotely, reducing field visits and minimizing downtime.
- Increasing Cyber-Resilience
With growing cyberthreats on critical infrastructure, roadway agencies need to implement security in depth. To help increase cyber-resiliency, Cisco provides:
- Comprehensive visibility of ITS assets: With Cisco Cyber Vision embedded in our network equipment, agencies can identify every connected device, their vulnerabilities, and communication activities. Operators now understand their security posture and can act to reduce the attack surface.
- Protect operations with segmentation: Limit the blast radius by isolating devices connected to the same network equipment to protect critical assets in case of a breach or a non-critical asset being compromised.
- Advanced detection and response: With Splunk, agencies can unify all security data into a single tool to correlate events and better detect advanced threats. Remediation workflows help agencies react to incidents quickly, minimizing potential damage.
- Boosting Operational Efficiency
Centralized management and automation tools streamline operations:
- Faster Deployments: New devices can be configured and provisioned remotely, accelerating rollouts and reducing errors.
- Reduced Outages: Proactive monitoring and automated alerts help agencies address issues before they impact service.
- Efficient Maintenance: Secure remote access enables troubleshooting and updates without costly site visits.
Paving the Way for Innovation
With Cisco’s foundation, transportation agencies can improve safety and reduce congestion with these capabilities:
- Scalability: Easily connect new classes of sensors (LIDAR, radar, weather) to support smart mobility applications.
- Data-Driven Services: Use real-time and historical data to support advanced analytics, AI-powered traffic management, and emerging mobility services.
- Futureproofing: Open, modular architecture ensures that agencies can adopt new technologies and standards as they evolve.
Conclusion
Cisco’s solutions empower transportation agencies to connect, protect, and manage their ITS network infrastructure-delivering vendor interoperability, and providing the secure, scalable foundation needed for tomorrow’s intelligent transportation systems. By choosing Cisco, agencies are not only solving today’s operational challenges but also paving the way for safer, more efficient, and more innovative mobility for all.
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