Improving Air Quality through Wi-Fi-enabled City Buses

Challenge:

Millions of people around the world depend on municipal transportation systems to go about their daily lives. But as concerns mount over high levels of pollution in urban areas and transportation budgets are stretched thin, cities need cost-efficient solutions aimed at improving the effectiveness of their existing infrastructure and assets.

One municipality wanted to reduce pollution and save money on fuel costs by analyzing data collected from its fleet of city buses in real time. The city enlisted the help of a Lantronix partner specializing in IoT transportation networking solutions to devise a reliable way to establish Wi-Fi connectivity between their bus drivers and technicians. By opening this line of communication, bus drivers and technicians would have the power to easily monitor the Engine Control Unit (ECU) and reconfigure critical engine parameters such as fuel mixture and ignition time in response to changes in the environment.

Could Lantronix provide a networking solution that would enable the transmission of driving information and allow remote adjustments of engine parameters in real time?

Key Requirements:

• Simultaneous Soft Access Point and Client Mode
• Ability to easily reconfigure ECU parameters
• Serial functionality to control UART from a Javascript application on the local web server
• Seamless remote access to device data

Solution: The Lantronix^® xPico^® Wi-Fi Embedded Device Server

The OEM connected the Lantronix xPico Wi-Fi embedded device server to the vehicle’s Controller Area Network (CAN) bus to establish real-time data communication between the vehicle and the technician. Featuring Lantronix simultaneous soft access point (Soft AP) and client mode, the xPico Wi-Fi device server now allows technicians remote access to the ECU and any system it controls. Drivers and technicians can use information gathered during routes to easily reconfigure ECU parameters and increase fuel efficiency.

This OEM chose Lantronix because of how simply xPico Wi-Fi integrated with their existing device and its web to serial capabilities via the WebAPI. With the help of Lantronix technical support, the OEM used the WebAPI feature to develop a Javascript application to make this information available on a portable tablet device.

Lantronix xPico Wi-Fi Deployment Application: Allowing Secure & Simultaneous Network Access to Real-Time Data

Results:

• Cost-effective – Saved the OEM from expending valuable time and resources to build a robust Wi-Fi solution from scratch
• Faster time-to-market – OEM was able to reduce product development time and go to market faster with an IoT solution
• Compact form factor – Made it easy for the OEM to incorporate a mobile-ready, wireless solution into their product design

About the Lantronix xPico Wi-Fi

Reduce your development costs, shorten your time to market, and leverage mobile solutions with the xPico Wi-Fi, one of the world’s smallest and most flexible embedded Wi-Fi IoT modules. The xPico Wi-Fi provides low power, simultaneous Soft AP and client mode, full IP and WLAN stacks, and includes an industry best 5-year warranty.

Lantronix xPico Wi-Fi Key Benefits:

• Easy to deploy and use: No need for software development or to write a single line of code.
• Simultaneous Soft AP and Client mode: Allowing for easy points of access while maintaining a secure network without the need for special clients.
• Mobile-ready: Enables direct access to device data via smartphones, tablets and connected PCs.
• Robust: Device server application suite hardened by Lantronix over the last decade.
• Secure: 256-bit AES Encryption.
• Industrial-ready: Operating environment at extended temperatures: -40° to +85° C.
• Standards-based: Conforms to latest WLAN and IP internetworking standards ensuring interoperability with a broad range of deployed equipment.
• Customizable: Designed with customizable capabilities for rapid OEM adoption.
• Power: Low-power profile optimized for battery-powered devices.
• Peripheral Connectivity: Serial, SPI, USB (device), GPIOs.
• Form Factor: Compact footprint available in both SMT (castellation) and B2B connector options.
• Guaranteed: 5-Year limited warranty