MARK IV Selected to Provide Electronic Toll Collection Technology for Mexico City Toll Roads

TORONTO, Sept. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- MARK IV IVHS (MARK IV), a global technology leader and innovator of Intelligent Transportation Systems, today announced that it has entered into an agreement  with OHL Concesiones (Obrascon Huerte Lain) to deploy its latest RFID technology on  major toll roads in Mexico City.  The agreement includes providing MARK IV's new JANUS®       high-performance, multiprotocol reader and Total System Performance Management Services.

The Viaducto Elevado Bicentenario and the Segundo Piso of Periferico Norte are all electronic toll (AET) roads that make up 23.5 miles of a ring road system of new toll roads planned for Mexico City and the adjoining Estado de Mexico state.  The Viaducto Elevado Bicentenario project consists of three phases; the first section is already operational using MARK IV's readers while the last two phases are scheduled to be complete in 2011.  The Segundo Piso of Periferico Norte is scheduled to open in 2012.

In addition, the JANUS reader system will be deployed on the Circuito Exterior Mexiquenese, to the northeast of Mexico City.  This 56 mile beltway connects with the Mexico-Queretaro, Mexico-Pachuca, Penon-Texcoco, Mexico-Puebla radial highways and the city limits with the State of Morelos. Its layout communicates one of the most densely populated areas of the country.

"We selected MARK IV's active transponder technology because of the performance it offers and the sophisticated features not available in alternative tags," said Hector Quinde Razuri, director of exploitation of OHL Mexico. "MARK IV's multiprotocol reader allows OHL to take advantage of these value-added features while also addressing the legacy tags in use in Mexico."

"With toll roads each issuing different toll tags in Mexico City, OHL needed a unique value-added solution that would accommodate these legacy tags while delivering MARK IV's advanced functionality and high capture performance," said Chris Murray, president of MARK IV IVHS, Inc. "We designed our multiprotocol solution so that it was easy to upgrade existing JANUS readers. Multiple protocols are supported by the simple addition of JANUS multiprotocol RF modules. This can be accomplished without shutting down lanes or risking any loss of revenue."

The JANUS multiprotocol reader will debut on the Viaducto Elevado Bicentenario and Circuito Exterior Mexiquense later this year.  The JANUS multiprotocol will be capable of reading tags that use MARK IV's Time Division Multiplexed (TDM) protocol while also reading ISO 10374/ATA, ISO 18000-6B and ISO 18000-6C tags.

The JANUS multiprotocol reader will allow toll authorities with existing populations of alternative tag technology to develop and execute a migration to the higher performing active platform and offer, as their needs arise, more robust applications to support advanced road user charging methodologies.

About MARK IV's JANUS Multiprotocol Reader System

The new JANUS platform is a cost-effective, multi-lane capable reader that offers redundancy features and builds upon the industry-leading performance of MARK IV's predecessor system, with the addition of new features and even greater reliability.  New features, including an open source operating platform and industry standard USB and Ethernet interfaces allow for easy expansion and integration.

Performance enhancements include fractional lane assignment that delivers improved system operations and better enforcement capabilities. Further, the high-position resolution analysis can automatically adapt to traffic speed.  Dynamically adjustable output power and input sensitivity coupled with more efficient use of bandwidth deliver even greater success capturing and writing to mismounted transponders.  The JANUS reader has a buffered transaction capacity five times greater than its predecessor and is capable of auto switch-over recovery to preserve optimal performance.

The modular architecture of the base JANUS system means that existing customers can upgrade to a multiprotocol configuration when business requirements dictate.  The single-antenna-per-lane architecture of a JANUS reader can support up to eight lane channels or five open road tolling (ORT) channels in MARK IV-protocol-only configuration.  With JANUS multiprotocol RF Modules, the reader can support four lane or two ORT channels in multi-protocol configuration, handling any combination of the four supported protocols simultaneously, with all lanes and protocols reporting on a common network connection.  

Administration of the JANUS reader is completed through an intuitive Web interface that supports remote diagnostics, including power and antenna sensitivity adjustments, firmware update management and system performance monitoring.

About MARK IV's Total System Performance Management Services

With more than 16 years of toll industry field experience, MARK IV brings a wealth of hands-on technical and operational know-how that can help ensure our customer's toll system and applications run at peak performance.  MARK IV's Total System Performance Management Services help to ensure that MARK IV products operate efficiently and benefit from the best system configurations. MARK IV offers a flexible suite of support services designed to meet business needs and assist in effectively managing toll operations to ensure high-quality system performance while controlling operational costs.

About MARK IV IVHS

MARK IV IVHS is a global technology leader and innovator of intelligent transportation solutions (ITS).  With more than 21.8 million transponders on-the-road and more than 3,700 lanes equipped, MARK IV IVHS is the largest supplier of electronic toll collection equipment in North America.  MARK IV IVHS has enabled many landmark ITS deployments, including: the world's first, non-stop, all-electronic toll road (Highway 407 ETR); interoperability between truck electronic preclearance systems and toll collection; and, the E-ZPass® system of the 24 toll authorities who comprise the E-ZPass Group in the Northeastern United States.  For more information, visit www.ivhs.com.

About OHL Concessions

OHL Concessions is one of the world's leading investors in the international infrastructure market, ranking among the top 10 private developers of transportation infrastructure. The company was founded in the year 2000 as a subsidiary of the OHL Group – one of Spain's leading construction, concessions and services groups – with the corporate purpose of developing under concession all types of infrastructure in any part of the world. The concession division has become a strategic business line for the OHL Group.  For more information, visit http://www.ohlconcesiones.com.

SOURCE MARK IV IVHS