A Milan-based transport operator inked a strategic agreement with NEC Italia to use the latter’s fibre sensing system to improve traffic management and analysis along its routes.

The deal with Milano Serravalle – Milano Tangenziali, which manages the operation of sections of major roads in the region, which use NEC’s Fibre Optic Smart Sensing (FOSS) product.

NEC explained the FOSS system was able to use existing fibre for “continuous traffic monitoring” as the cables were “sensitive to variations in pressure, vibrations and deformations”.

This, it claimed, meant it was able to “precisely detect changes in the surrounding environment, caused by the passage of vehicles, which alter the propagation of light through the fibre”.

Its system then picks up the signals using an IoT device allowing them to be analysed with the end goal of improving management of events on the road.

NEC Italia COO Andrea Bellaccomo said with wider use, the technology had the potential to “make our cities safer, making the conservation of roads more efficient, collecting useful information for management, not only [in] real time but also with prediction on traffic behaviours”.