Autostrada Brescia Verona Vicenza Padova consolidates freeway systems

Autostrada Brescia Verona Vicenza Padova (ABP), an A4 Holding Group company, operates 235 km of Italian freeway under concession. Its operations cover the freeway sections of the A4 between Brescia and Padua and the A31 Valdastico. More than 350,000 vehicles travel along these routes each day. To consolidate systems and simplify operation, ABP has worked with Italian system integrator F.M. Automazione to integrate its freeway management systems via REST API and COPA-DATA’s zenon IIoT Services.

Highlights

• zenon software platform is device and software agnostic.
• Use of REST API delivers enhanced integration.
• Excellent interoperability across devices, technologies and communication protocols enabled by zenon IIoT Services.
• Enhanced security via separation of OT and IT layers.
• A single, intuitive interface provides standardization and improved usability for operators.
• Optimized communication flows with hundreds of datapoints captured in response to a single request.

Technical evolution of the Traffic Operations Center

ABP relies on an extensive network of technical equipment. This is expected to expand over the coming years, given the speed with which technology is evolving and IIoT devices are transforming systems and processes.

As part of the digital innovation project at its Traffic Operations Center, A4 Holding Group needed to centralize the control, monitoring, management, and maintenance of all devices along the freeway sections into a single system. The goal was to provide control room operators with a single interface. This would act as a hub for information from the various subsystems and provide a common look and feel. This way, the new system would facilitate the work of operators, shorten training time, and avoid mistakes in understanding critical information – thereby increasing the security and quality of operational management.

The new software system had to be designed in such a way as to accept the integration of new devices and third-party applications while maintaining high technical standards in usability and security.

A forward-looking integration via a RESTful application

The diverse devices and systems deployed along the freeway sections added to the complexity of the project. These systems had been implemented in different phases, using specific software solutions developed by different suppliers, each of which use proprietary communication protocols. This technical fragmentation led to an extremely diverse set of standards and languages which would need to be integrated.

To ensure unified and centralized management, the ABP team leant on the support of the system integrator and COPA-DATA Gold Partner F.M. Automazione. The team asked F.M. Automazione to use standardized interfaces based on REST API. This approach would enable interoperability between existing systems and the Operations Center, thus making it easier for the heterogeneous technologies to communicate and integrate.

REST APIs offer numerous advantages, especially when dealing with integration between complex, distributed systems. They provide a simple, scalable, and flexible architecture for managing and exchanging data efficiently and securely while enabling the interoperability between different operating systems and technologies required by modern systems.

COPA-DATA’s zenon IIoT Services enable easy integration

F.M. Automazione specializes in the design and construction of industrial automation systems and equipment. As an established ABP partner, it has built a number of SCADA systems based on the zenon software platform which are used by ABP to monitor infrastructure and tunnels.

F.M. Automazione eagerly accepted the challenge to integrate the installed systems with the control center software via REST API. Renzo Rossi, SCADA Project Manager at F.M. Automazione, explains, “A4 Holding Group’s request to interface via RESTful applications was certainly forward-looking. This modern, high-tech project is proof of the extreme competence with which the group's management handles the freeway section and cares about the safety of its travelers.”

Thanks to the features offered by zenon IIoT Services, F.M. Automazione was able to ensure simple, fast, and, most importantly, secure integration, while fulfilling customer requirements. With a few simple steps, the control center software was able to send requests using GET or POST commands for read or write access to the data made available by the zenon-based SCADA systems installed by F.M. Automazione.

However, along the freeway section there were also some systems that were not managed by the SCADA systems built with zenon. These systems were not set up for easy integration via REST API. To resolve this, F.M. Automazione created a zenon Gateway using zenon IIoT Services quickly and without the need for manual programming. This way, ABP’s control center could also easily integrate the devices not controlled by the zenon-based SCADA.

zenon IIoT Services can interface with any device regardless of whether it is new generation or preexisting. This solution has enabled ABP to eliminate all unnecessary costs associated with existing systems and achieve results more quickly.

zenon IIoT Services securely enables data exchange between devices and distributed systems via REST API, allowing ABP to have seamless integration between OT and IT. 

Simplified implementation of the overarching solution

In order to make available the data from the SCADA systems built with the zenon software platform, F.M. Automazione simply selected and connected the SCADA data that needed to be exchanged with zenon IIoT Services. No programming was required to make the data available through REST APIs.

The zenon Data Hub driver, an existing zenon Service Engine component, is used as the connector. This communicates any changes in the presented variables to the zenon Data Hub. This then presents the actual process image of the variables shared by the SCADA systems. Once the data is within the zenon Data Hub, clients – in this case, the customer’s software – can query the data through REST requests such as GET or POST.

Security is enhanced because the OT level is completely separate from the IT level. The advantage here is that control center operators have full access to SCADA data and can also send commands without directly accessing the SCADA software.

This adds another layer of security as only those actions which are pre-authorized by administrators can be carried out, safeguarding critical infrastructure. Plus, the operator benefits because they only need to interact with a single interface – there’s no need to learn all the installed subsystems or SCADA software.

Operators at ABP’s control center can monitor the status of the devices installed along the freeway section. They have a full overview of all relevant values through an optimized cross-system communication flow. 

Optimization of data flows and assured commissioning

By choosing to work with the zenon software platform, F.M. Automazione was able to elevate the capabilities of the entire technology network. Renzo Rossi explains: “Even though we had to work with a SCADA system that was not designed to communicate variable data via REST, I can say that it was very easy to change the database to make it available and sharable like this. Because of the flexibility of zenon IIoT Services and its ability to communicate via REST API, we were able to provide a high-performance solution. With a single request, the ABP control center can obtain all the relevant information about a device installed along the freeway section.”

The F.M. Automazione team found zenon very easy to work with. Renzo Rossi adds, “The nomenclature of the database of variables already in the SCADA systems enabled the optimization of data flows exchanged between zenon Data Hub and the control center. Each request made by the client to the zenon Data Hub entails the exchange of a wide range of information packets. Thanks to our system, with a single request we can provide all the necessary data – such as those about the status of ventilation systems in a tunnel. This means that 100-200 data points can be sent in a single exchange, optimizing communication flows.”

To provide the highest level of security and performance before the actual installation, F.M. Automazione carried out a point simulation phase. It built a simulator capable of reproducing all field systems and integration with zenon IIoT Services. During this phase, all points were tested in read and write, which enabled very quick and problem-free testing and commissioning, as required by ABP quality standards.

The zenon-based SCADA system monitors the systems and devices installed in the Colli Berici tunnels. Data is easily and securely presented to ABP’s Traffic Operations Center via REST API using zenon IIoT Services.

A solution ready for the future

Another key advantage for ABP is that the control center software will not need to be reprogrammed if a device is able to provide additional datapoints in the future. That’s because the way in which the requests are made will remain exactly the same. Any additional data can be communicated automatically because the new variable will be integrated into the SCADA system following the same syntax as the existing variables. The value of the new variable will automatically be included in the response to the query made by the client.

The advantage is that hundreds of data points can be returned with a single call. Communication becomes much more efficient and less cumbersome. Although the request may be complex, there is no need to send multiple requests to obtain the information about the overall status of any device.

Stefano Rossignoli, Project Manager at A4 Holding Group, concludes, “We have known F.M. Automazione for many years and their expertise has once again been an important asset in this technical upgrade project. Using the functionality that COPA-DATA’s zenon software platform provides combined with F.M. Automazione’s experience has enabled us to achieve our goals effectively and with a future-oriented approach.”