A highway toll collection system based on cloud computing, smart terminals and smart boxes

Abstract

The present invention provides a highway toll collection system based on the integration of cloud computing, smart terminals, and smart boxes. The system includes a cloud platform, smart terminals, smart boxes, peripheral hardware devices, and a database. Vehicle driving information read by the peripheral hardware devices is transmitted to the smart box, which then transmits it to the smart terminal. The smart terminal then transmits the vehicle driving information to the cloud computing platform via an app. The cloud computing platform then returns the billing results to the smart terminal. The smart terminal pays the vehicle, and the cloud computing platform completes the streamlined production and storage process, achieving centralized billing services.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to the field of information technology, and in particular to a highway toll collection system based on the combination of cloud computing, smart terminals and smart boxes. Background Art

[0002] Since the business tax to value-added tax (VAT) reform and the abolition of provincial toll booths, the current highway toll collection system has been divided into four tiers: lanes, toll booths, section management centers, and provincial centers. Each tier requires supporting hardware and software, making management inherently cumbersome and complex, involving multiple data transmissions and queries. Data transmission between tiers is performed sequentially, such as parameter distribution from top to bottom and toll collection data upload from bottom to top. Given the large volume and high frequency of data transmission, ensuring data consistency during transmission is a difficult and complex task.

[0003] Lane terminal equipment includes industrial computers, barrier machines, front and rear coils, display boards, canopy lights, RSU controllers, card readers, and mobile payment terminals. Control of these terminals is centralized on the industrial computers, and all hardware and software interactions are also performed on them. However, existing industrial computers are large and occupy a large area, making them difficult to maneuver and hindering the miniaturization of toll station lanes. Adding additional hardware requires on-site commissioning by professionals, making simple adaptation difficult. Furthermore, any anomalies with the industrial computers are difficult to resolve quickly.

[0004] The toll collection software for lanes has complex business logic, requiring accurate calculation of highway tolls while also ensuring the control and scheduling of multiple peripheral devices. Any business adjustments require managing both toll collection and peripheral devices. Reducing the complexity of lane software and improving its operational and maintenance costs are key challenges for lane toll collection software.

[0005] Toll booths are a key area of operation for owners. Key tasks include verifying toll data, managing hardware and equipment, issuing toll parameters, monitoring equipment performance indicators, and managing personnel. Each of these tasks requires significant labor and management costs. Reducing these costs without sacrificing quality is a pressing issue.

[0006] The provincial center lacks a unified data cloud management platform, and the consistency and timeliness of parameter distribution cannot be guaranteed, making it difficult to carry out unified management of toll stations. Summary of the Invention

[0007] In order to solve the problems in traditional highway toll collection systems, namely, highway lanes, toll stations, section management centers and provincial networking centers, each of which requires supporting hardware and software equipment, involves multiple data transmission and query, and the consistency and timeliness of data upload parameters cannot be guaranteed. Toll stations are difficult to manage in a unified manner, and the integrated industrial control computers relied on by lane terminals are large in size and high in cost, which is not conducive to the miniaturization of toll station lanes and subsequent maintenance. The present invention proposes a highway toll collection system based on the combination of cloud computing, smart terminals and smart boxes.

[0008] The technical solutions of the present invention are as follows:

[0009] A highway toll collection system based on cloud computing, smart terminals and smart boxes, which includes the following modules:

[0010] The cloud computing platform includes a cloud billing platform and a cloud management platform. The cloud computing platform provides computing power, network, storage capacity and cloud services based on the hardware resources and software resources of cloud computing to complete pipeline production and storage. The cloud billing platform includes a billing module, a rate management module and a data persistence module. The billing module of the cloud billing platform first receives the vehicle driving information transmitted to the lane intelligent terminal from the lane intelligent terminal through the intelligent box to control the peripheral hardware device, calculates the charging amount, and then returns the charging amount information to the lane intelligent terminal to deduct the toll to complete the transaction, and at the same time transmits the charging flow to the cloud management platform; the cloud management The management platform includes an authentication management module, a basic information management module and a statistical reporting module. The cloud management platform receives transaction flow data from the cloud billing platform for persistent storage. The basic information management module of the cloud management platform is responsible for authentication management, the basic information management module is responsible for basic information management including vehicle blacklist data, and the statistical reporting module is responsible for statistical reporting. The cloud management platform provides data support for the cloud billing platform; the cloud billing platform and the cloud management platform can interact with data with the highway lane smart terminal, toll station operation terminal, section management center operation terminal and provincial network center, set permissions for each smart terminal and operation terminal and issue instructions to them;

[0011] A smart box is a multifunctional controller, specifically a multifunctional intelligent hardware controller integrating an embedded chip and a network chip, including a serial port connection module for network-to-serial port conversion, an IO connection module for network-to-IO port conversion, a network connection module for integrated routing, and a network setting module. The smart box is connected to the smart terminal via a Type-C to Ethernet port, and is connected to peripheral hardware via serial ports, IO ports, and network ports. Specifically, the smart box is connected to the camera and RSU antenna via the Ethernet port, to the card reader, mobile payment box, scale, and display board via the serial port, and to the barrier machine, coil, and awning light via IO ports. The smart box allows data interaction and instruction transmission with the smart terminal through apps installed in the smart terminal, including those running Android and HarmonyOS operating systems.

[0012] The lane intelligent terminal is a smart tablet installed with universal Android and HarmonyOS operating systems and development and management application software, using Socket and Https communication methods and encryption. The lane intelligent terminal management application software includes a hardware monitoring module, a vehicle pass transaction module, a picture and video acquisition module, and a transaction log module. The vehicle pass transaction module includes four modes: MTC cloud lane mode, ETC cloud lane mode, movable hybrid lane mode, and emergency charging mode. The lane intelligent terminal is connected to the smart box, interacting with the peripheral hardware devices through the smart box and identifying and issuing instructions based on the information fed back by the smart box.

[0013] Peripheral hardware devices include but are not limited to antennas, coils, cameras and other hardware devices that obtain vehicle driving information. The data obtained is transmitted to the smart terminal through the smart box, and the smart terminal receives instructions issued by the smart box to complete the operation.

[0014] Preferably, the cloud management platform includes a security assurance management module, which includes a backup scheme design unit, an authentication center design unit, a data transmission design unit and a network security design unit, and establishes security assurance through four unit levels; the backup scheme design unit means that the transaction data of the lane intelligent terminal management application software will be double-backed up, and the Android system has two backup methods of database storage and file storage. The data retention period can be determined according to the set time. The operation of the cloud computing platform will adopt a load balancing method. The data uses two methods of file storage and database storage. The database data is the final data using three methods of scheduled logical backup, physical backup and master-slave backup; the authentication center design unit refers to the registration system used by the intelligent terminal hardware, the intelligent box and the operator. Before use, the intelligent terminal hardware, the intelligent box and The operator first registers on the cloud management platform, and the registration is completed after the administrator confirms it. The verification of the smart terminal hardware, multi-function controller and operator must be consistent before use. The PSAM card authentication for reading CPC cards and ETC will adopt a one-time login and one-time authentication mechanism; the data transmission design unit refers to the data transmission using two network transmission methods, 4GVPN network and highway toll network. This system uses MD5 verification to ensure the integrity of the received data, and the data is transmitted after encryption. The cloud computing platform must verify the authenticity of the sending smart terminal while receiving the data so that the data transmission has source authentication. After successful transmission, the smart terminal will retain the source data of the sent data in the smart terminal, and the retention time will be set according to actual needs; the network security design unit refers to the construction of a 100M dedicated line network to achieve network structural security, and enable the access control and terminal identification functions of the cloud computing platform.

[0015] Preferably, the cloud services provided by the cloud computing platform according to the requirements of highway lanes include vehicle billing services, basic information management services and basic rate management services, transaction and log storage services, picture and video storage services, status list services, mobile payment services, vehicle driving path display services, mobile terminal update services and peripheral remote control services.

[0016] Preferably, the cloud services provided by the cloud computing platform according to the needs of highway toll stations include card and ticket management services, image and video audit services, transaction data and transaction log viewing services, transaction vehicle travel path viewing services, toll station personnel management services and toll station charging financial management services.

[0017] Preferably, the cloud services provided by the cloud computing platform according to the needs of the highway section management center include card and ticket management services, image and video audit services, transaction data and transaction log viewing services, transaction vehicle driving path viewing services, toll personnel management services, toll financial management services, and real-time data statistics and real-time reporting services of the sub-center.

[0018] Preferably, the cloud services provided by the cloud computing platform according to the needs of the provincial highway network center include all the above-mentioned basic services as well as real-time transaction data statistics and real-time report data query and prevention services; in addition, the provincial network center cloud service can connect the charging data to the existing transaction reconciliation system.

[0019] Preferably, the toll station operation intelligent terminal and the section management center operation intelligent terminal interact with the cloud computing platform via the 4GVPN network, and the provincial networking center interacts with the cloud computing platform via a dedicated network.

[0020] Preferably, the cloud computing platform uses a Redis database.

[0021] Preferably, the MTC cloud lane mode refers to a mode of highway lanes that supports ETC passage, CPC card passage and paper roll passage at the entrance, and supports ETC billing, CPC billing, cardless / bad card billing, paper roll billing and ETC to cash billing at the exit, supports all existing special situation processing, and ETC information and CPC card information are read in an integrated manner; the ETC cloud lane mode is for non-stop toll lanes; the mobile cloud lane refers to a mode of highway lanes that supports ETC passage, CPC card passage and paper roll passage at the entrance, and supports ETC billing, CPC billing, cardless / bad card billing and paper roll billing at the exit, and ETC information and CPC card information are read in a transparent manner; the emergency charging mode refers to a mode in which the basic information and basic rate are used as standby in the event of a major accident, and billing is performed in a local fitting manner, and transaction flows and transaction logs are uploaded afterwards.

[0022] The beneficial effects of the present invention are as follows: the present invention proposes a highway toll collection system based on the combination of cloud computing, smart terminals and smart boxes, which unifies the charging of the highway toll collection system in the cloud and is completed by a cloud billing platform through a cloud computing platform, thereby greatly simplifying the complex software and hardware management of the four levels of the toll collection system: lanes, toll stations, section management centers and provincial centers, so that the cloud computing platform can provide convenient cloud services to all levels. This breaks the data transmission between levels and solves the problem of data consistency that cannot be guaranteed due to this data transmission. At the same time, it is equivalent to establishing a unified data cloud management platform at the provincial center. The parameter distribution can ensure consistency and timeliness, and can realize unified management of toll stations. At the same time, the lane peripherals are connected to the smart box with data reception and command transmission functions to replace the industrial computer. The lane smart terminal controlled by the cloud computing platform transmits the instructions to the lane peripherals through the smart box to control the passage of vehicles and complete billing and payment. That is, the smart box, smart terminal and cloud computing platform are combined, and the network connection function of the smart terminal is used to interact with the cloud computing platform. The peripheral control function of the smart box is used to connect to the toll station peripherals. The smart terminal sends instructions to the smart box through the APP to complete the entire data calculation process from the peripheral hardware device to the smart box and then to the cloud computing platform. It replaces the traditional industrial computer. Due to its low cost and easy maintenance, and the small and light characteristics of the smart terminal and smart box, it can realize the "miniaturization" construction of toll stations in the future, reduce the land used by enterprises to build toll stations, and reduce the cost and dependence of enterprises on large equipment to build toll stations.

[0023] The present invention integrates the lane billing function and the flow generation function of the toll station into the cloud computing platform, realizing the centralization of the billing business. The data is directly generated by the provincial center, eliminating the data upload and download process. The vehicle blacklist and the rates required for billing are centrally managed on the cloud platform. In the traditional toll collection system, the vehicle blacklist and billing rates required by the toll station are issued through the provincial network center. The vehicle status list and the billing rates are not issued in time, which easily leads to inconsistent billing results at various toll stations and untimely interception of blacklisted vehicles. In the present invention, since the billing function and the flow generation function are both on the cloud computing platform, the rates required for billing are also stored on the cloud computing platform. While billing, it verifies whether the vehicle is on the blacklist and whether it is a vehicle, so as to achieve effective interception of blacklisted vehicles and ensure timeliness.

[0024] The present invention integrates the daily operation functions of enterprise toll stations, the daily operation functions of enterprise road section management centers and the management functions of the toll collection system by the provincial networking center through a unified cloud platform, thereby reducing dependence on various other systems, such as the existing flow transmission system, thereby reducing the expenditure on maintaining other systems and reducing the management and maintenance of various systems. The provincial networking center realizes unified management of highway tolls. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0025] Figure 1 This is an architectural diagram of a highway toll collection system based on cloud computing, smart terminals, and smart boxes.

[0026] Figure 2 This is a diagram of the composition of a highway toll collection system based on cloud computing, smart terminals and smart boxes.

[0027] Figure 3 This is the MTC cloud lane entry transaction process.

[0028] Figure 4 This is the MTC cloud lane export transaction process.

[0029] Figure 5 This is the ETC cloud lane passage process.

[0030] Figure 6 Transaction flow for movable hybrid lane entrance.

[0031] Figure 7 Export transaction process for movable hybrid lanes

[0032] Figure 8 This is the transaction process for entering the emergency mode.

[0033] Figure 9 Export transaction process for emergency mode. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0034] The present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0035] The present invention proposes a highway toll collection system based on cloud computing, smart terminals and smart boxes. Figure 1 As shown, the system comprises peripheral hardware devices, a smart box, smart terminals, a cloud computing platform, and a database. Peripheral hardware devices include vehicle information collection devices or auxiliary devices such as antennas, coils, cameras, and printers. The smart box connects to these peripheral hardware devices and smart terminals via serial ports, network connections, and I / O connections. The smart terminals are responsible for hardware monitoring, vehicle access transactions, image and video capture, and transaction log generation. The cloud computing platform consists of cloud billing and cloud management. The cloud billing platform is responsible for billing and rate management, while the cloud management platform is responsible for authentication management, statistical reporting, and basic information management. It also interacts with different smart terminals and uses Redis as the database. The following details the different modules.

[0036] A cloud computing platform, comprising a cloud billing platform and a cloud management platform. The cloud computing platform provides computing power, network, storage capacity and cloud services based on the hardware and software resources of cloud computing to complete pipeline production and storage. The cloud computing platform provides data and business support by leasing public cloud resources from operators and carrying a cloud billing system. The cloud billing platform comprises a billing module, a data persistence module and a rate management module. The billing module of the cloud billing platform receives vehicle driving information from lane smart terminals, which is obtained by the lane smart terminals through controlling peripheral hardware devices via smart boxes and is then transmitted to the lane smart terminals. The billing module calculates the charge amount and then returns the charge amount information to the lane smart terminals to deduct the toll to complete the transaction, and at the same time transmits the charge flow to the cloud management platform. The cloud management platform comprises Authentication management module, basic information management module and statistical report module, the cloud management platform receives transaction flow data from the cloud billing platform for persistent storage, the authentication management module of the cloud management platform is responsible for authentication management, the basic information management module is responsible for basic information management including vehicle blacklist data, and the statistical report module is responsible for providing statistical reports, and the cloud management platform provides data support for the cloud billing platform; the cloud billing platform and the cloud management platform can both interact with the above data with the highway lane smart terminal, toll station operation terminal, section management center operation terminal and provincial networking center; set permissions for each smart terminal and operation and issue instructions to it; the cloud computing platform provides different cloud services according to the different needs of highway lanes, toll stations, section management centers and provincial networking centers.

[0037] A smart box is a multifunctional controller, in particular a multifunctional intelligent hardware controller, specifically a controller based on the KeilV5 platform, developed in C language, integrating the embedded chip STM3 and the network chip W5500, including a serial port connection module with a network-to-serial port function, an IO connection module with a network-to-IO function, a network connection module with an integrated routing function, and a network setting module and other multifunctional intelligent hardware; the smart box is connected to the smart terminal through a Type-c to network port, and the smart box is connected to the peripheral hardware through the serial port, IO and network port. Specifically, the smart box is connected to the camera and RSU antenna through the network port, and is connected to the card reader, mobile payment box, weighing platform and display board through the serial port, and is connected to the barrier machine, coil and awning light through IO. The smart box allows data interaction and instruction transmission with the smart terminal through APPs installed in the smart terminal, including Android and HarmonyOS operating systems.

[0038] The lane intelligent terminal, the lane management terminal is a smart tablet based on an operating system above Android 9.0, using the Java (JDK1.8) development language, Socket and Https communication methods, OpenSSL and the new 3DES+SM4 dual algorithm national standard certified encryption method, installed with the HarmonyOS operating system, and developed with management application software. The lane intelligent terminal management application software includes a hardware monitoring module, a vehicle pass transaction module, a picture and video acquisition module, and a transaction log module. The vehicle pass transaction module includes four modes: MTC cloud lane mode, ETC cloud lane mode, movable hybrid lane mode, and emergency charging mode. The lane intelligent terminal is connected to a smart box, interacts with peripheral hardware devices through the smart box, identifies them based on the information they feedback, and issues instructions. It interacts with the cloud computing platform through a direct network built on the 4G network and verified by VPN, namely a 4GVPN network;

[0039] Peripheral hardware devices include but are not limited to antennas, coils, cameras and other hardware devices that obtain vehicle driving information. The data obtained is transmitted to the lane terminal through the smart box, and the lane smart terminal receives instructions issued by the smart box to complete the operation.

[0040] The cloud management platform includes a security assurance management module, which includes a backup plan design unit, an authentication center design unit, a data transmission design unit and a network security design unit, and establishes security assurance through four unit levels; the backup plan design unit means that the transaction data of the lane smart terminal management application software will be double-backed up, and the Android system has two backup methods: database storage and file storage. The data retention period can be determined according to the set time. The operation of the cloud computing platform will adopt a load balancing method. The data uses two methods of file storage and database storage. The database data is the final data using three methods: scheduled logical backup, physical backup and master-slave backup; the authentication center design unit refers to the registration system used by smart terminal hardware, smart boxes and operators. Before use, the smart terminal hardware, smart boxes and operators must first register on the cloud management platform. The registration is completed after the administrator confirms and verifies the smart terminal hardware , the multi-function controller and the operator must be consistent in order to use it, and the PSAM card authentication for reading CPC cards and ETC will adopt a one-time login and one-time authentication mechanism; the data transmission design unit refers to the data transmission using two network transmission methods, 4GVPN network and highway toll network, and the data is transmitted to achieve integrity, privacy, source authentication and non-repudiation verification. This system uses MD5 verification to ensure the integrity of the received data. The data is encrypted and transmitted to ensure the privacy of the data during transmission. The cloud computing platform must verify the authenticity of the sending smart terminal while receiving the data so that the data transmission has source authentication. After the smart terminal is successfully sent, the source data of the sending data will be retained in the smart terminal to achieve data non-repudiation. The retention time will be set according to actual needs; the network security design unit refers to the construction of a 100M dedicated line network to achieve network structural security, and enable the access control and terminal identification functions of the cloud computing platform to ensure security. The highway toll collection system based on the combination of cloud computing, smart terminals and smart boxes is as shown in the figure below. Figure 2 As shown, Figure 2 The Zhongyun platform is a cloud computing platform. The multifunctional controller on the lane side is the smart box, and the mobile terminal is the lane smart terminal. The lane smart terminal utilizes its network connection function to interact with the cloud computing platform, and the smart box's peripheral control function connects to the toll booth peripherals. The lane smart terminal sends instructions to the smart box via an app to complete the entire data calculation process from the peripheral hardware device to the smart box and then to the cloud computing platform, thereby enabling data to flow from the peripheral to the smart box to the lane smart terminal. Data interaction between the lane side and the cloud computing platform is carried out through the 4GVPN network. Data exchange between the cloud computing platform and the operating terminals of the toll booth and section management center is also carried out through the 4GVPN network. Data exchange between the cloud computing platform and the provincial network center is carried out via a dedicated line.

[0041] The cloud platform leases public cloud resources based on demand and provides Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) services, including server virtualization, data storage, and network access. Server virtualization provides the simplest cloud computing delivery model, delivering computing resources in the form of a virtualized operating system, workload management software, hardware, network, and storage services. It also provides efficient storage services and effective data backup services, and builds encryption algorithms based on domestic highway keys, encryption equipment for data channel encryption and device authentication. It also relies on the internal network of cloud service resources to connect with the toll station cloud service to achieve business data communication. The cloud platform provides cloud services based on highway lane requirements, including toll-collecting vehicle billing services, basic information management services and basic rate management services, flow and log storage services, image and video storage services, status list services, mobile payment services, toll-collecting vehicle route display services, mobile terminal update services, and peripheral remote control services. Specifically, the billing module within the cloud billing platform provides vehicle billing services. This involves the mobile lane intelligent terminal transmitting vehicle route information, as captured by the peripheral, to the cloud billing platform in the cloud. The cloud platform then performs billing based on this information and returns a billing result to the terminal for transaction completion. The billing process also handles various special cases, such as free green pass, U-turn billing, paper roll back-up billing, and online billing for cardless or damaged cards.

[0042] The basic information management module within the cloud management platform provides basic information management services, including the addition, modification, and logical deletion of various information related to owners, road sections, toll booths, and issuers. The rate management module within the cloud billing platform provides basic rate management services, including version updates for fitted path rates and guaranteed rates. Cloud updates enabled by the basic rate management and basic information management services eliminate the need to send update parameters to actual toll booths and toll lanes, completely eliminating the time lag associated with basic information updates and resolving billing inaccuracies caused by out-of-date basic information or rates.

[0043] The cloud management platform provides transaction and log storage services. The cloud billing platform's vehicle toll collection service generates a billing transaction record upon calculation in the cloud. After the lane intelligent terminal completes the transaction, a confirmed transaction record is formally generated and stored in the cloud. Log storage includes both billing service logs and transaction logs uploaded by the terminal, addressing the current issue of lane toll collection logs and transaction records being lost due to hardware failure, resulting in toll losses.

[0044] The cloud management platform also provides image and video storage services. Vehicles passing through lanes generate images and videos, which are uploaded to the cloud based on transaction information. This solves issues related to transaction information and image and video correlation, as well as image and video loss due to lane or toll booth hardware issues. Images and videos generated by vehicles that reach exit toll booths but do not complete a transaction are also stored, providing evidence for potential audits.

[0045] The cloud management platform also provides a status list service. Vehicles need to query the status list when passing through toll booths. If the vehicle is on the status list before billing, a billing failure will be reported. The failure is due to the status list, and the status list must be processed before billing can proceed. This cloud-based query eliminates the time lag caused by the status list being sent to toll booths one by one.

[0046] The billing services provided by the cloud billing platform include payment services, such as mobile payment services. When choosing mobile payment during a transaction, the billing is returned through the mobile payment provided by the cloud. After the transaction is completed, the mobile payment revenue and transaction flow can be counted in real time, making the reconciliation of flow and mobile payment more concise.

[0047] The cloud management platform also provides a vehicle driving path display service. The cloud-based vehicle driving path display service can be retained for a long time. You only need to set a retention time, and the long-term driving path display service will not be provided due to hardware problems in the lanes or toll stations, thereby resolving various disputes with drivers and passengers.

[0048] The cloud management platform also provides mobile terminal update services, which can uniformly update terminal APPs through the cloud. Necessary updates and unnecessary updates can be set. This update method keeps all terminal software consistent and avoids update omissions.

[0049] The cloud management platform also provides peripheral remote control services, which send various peripheral control commands or terminal forced off-duty commands to toll lanes through remote operations, such as sending commands to the terminal to lift the barrier, close the lane, check the antenna status, etc., thereby achieving the purpose of remote control.

[0050] The cloud platform (i.e., cloud computing platform) provides cloud services based on the needs of highway toll stations, including card and ticket management services, image and video audit services, transaction data and transaction log viewing services, transaction vehicle travel path viewing services, toll station personnel management services, and toll station fee financial management services.

[0051] Specifically, the card and ticket management service is to transplant the existing CPC card allocation and usage and invoice collection and usage of the toll station to the cloud service platform, and the application for allocation and the application for invoice collection will be completed on the cloud platform.

[0052] The picture (video) audit service saves pictures (videos) of all vehicles passing through the toll station, and uses these pictures or videos as evidence to support the audit, and the retention period is longer.

[0053] The transaction flow and transaction log viewing service is consistent with the lane flow and log viewing service, the difference is that all lanes can be viewed.

[0054] The transaction vehicle driving path viewing service is consistent with the lane, the difference is that the toll station cloud can view all lanes.

[0055] The personnel management service of a toll station refers to the toll collector's work shift management and basic information management.

[0056] The toll collection financial management service at a toll station means that when the toll lane personnel are handing over their shifts, they can automatically confirm the amount of cash and mobile payments directly on the toll station cloud. They only need to make the current confirmation and complete the handover. The finance department will count the cash handed in by the personnel based on the cash and mobile payment amounts confirmed by the lane.

[0057] Based on the needs of highway section management centers, the cloud platform provides services including ticket management, image and video auditing, transaction data and log review, vehicle route review, toll collector management, toll finance management, and real-time data statistics and reporting for sub-centers. Toll collector management not only adjusts work shifts but also handles personnel transfers at various toll stations. Financial management involves remittances through confirmation by financial personnel at each toll station.

[0058] The cloud platform provides cloud services based on the needs of the provincial highway network center, including all the above-mentioned basic services as well as real-time transaction data statistics and real-time report data query and prevention services; in addition, the provincial network center cloud service can connect toll data to the existing transaction reconciliation system, thereby simplifying the connection with department-level transaction reconciliation and improving reconciliation efficiency.

[0059] The MTC cloud lane mode refers to a highway lane mode that supports ETC, CPC card and paper roll passage at the entrance, and supports ETC billing, CPC billing, cardless / bad card billing, paper roll billing and ETC to cash billing at the exit. It supports all existing special case processing, and the ETC information and CPC card information are read in an integrated manner. The entry transaction process is as follows: Figure 3As shown, when a vehicle enters the highway and passes through the MTC lane of the toll station, the hardware peripheral induction coil at the lane end triggers the ETC, and the vehicle's ETC card is read in an integrated manner. After reading the ETC card, if it can be read, the information is passed to the cloud billing module of the cloud computing platform for storage. If the ETC card is unavailable or there is no ETC card, the information is displayed on the toll collector's smart terminal, and a CPC card or paper roll is manually issued to the vehicle. At the same time, the information is also passed to the cloud computing platform for storage based on the success of the transaction. At the same time, video recording begins from the time the ETC is triggered. The video is also used to display information when the ETC cannot be read, and the entire video information of the vehicle passing through is saved to complete the lifting of the barrier and release. The export transaction process is as follows Figure 4 As shown, when a vehicle exits the highway and passes through the toll station lane, the hardware peripheral induction coil at the lane end reads the vehicle ETC card in an integrated manner, triggers ETC, and reads the ETC information. Different processing is performed depending on whether the ETC information is read: if the ETC information is read, the information is passed to the cloud billing module of the cloud computing platform to conduct the transaction, and the transaction is saved successfully; if the ETC card is not read successfully, the information is obtained based on the CPC card and paper roll obtained by the vehicle when entering the highway. If special circumstances are encountered, such as no card or a broken card, or ETC to cash payment, there will also be relevant solutions to obtain information. At the same time, the information will be displayed on the toll collector's smart terminal, and the information will be passed to the cloud billing module in the cloud computing platform for identification with the entry information to calculate the fee. After the transaction is successful, it will be saved; video recording starts from the time the ETC is triggered, and the video is also used to display information when the ETC cannot be read. At the same time, the video information of the vehicle passing through the entire process is saved, the payment is completed, and the vehicle is released.

[0060] The ETC cloud lane mode refers to a non-stop toll lane. Unlike existing ETC lanes, the billing calculation and flow generation are all performed in the cloud. The terminal only operates on data reading and hardware control, and does not generate toll flow or perform toll calculation. Figure 5 As shown, when a vehicle passes through the ETC lane of a toll station, the hardware peripheral induction coil at the lane end triggers the ETC through induction to read the vehicle's ETC card, and transmits the information to the cloud billing module of the cloud computing platform. The billing calculation and flow generation are completed directly on the cloud computing platform, and the transaction is saved after it is successful. At the same time, the video recording starts from the time the ETC is triggered. The video is used to display information during the vehicle's passage, and the entire video information of the vehicle passing is saved, and the barrier is lifted to release it.

[0061] The mobile cloud lane refers to a highway lane mode that supports ETC, CPC card and paper roll passage at the entrance, and ETC billing, CPC billing, cardless / bad card billing and paper roll billing at the exit. The reading method of ETC or CPC hardware information is different. The mobile cloud lane does not need to be connected to any external hardware device except for the printer. ETC information and CPC card information are read in a transparent manner. Its entry transaction process is as follows: Figure 6 As shown in the figure, when a vehicle enters the highway and passes through the mobile cloud lane at the toll station, if there is an ETC card, the information is read through the transparent transmission method. If the ETC card is not available, the vehicle information needs to be manually entered. The CPC card or paper roll is manually issued to the passing vehicle, and the information is passed to the cloud billing module of the cloud computing platform for storage. The clearance is completed. This lane does not require any external hardware equipment except for the printer. The export transaction process is as follows Figure 7 As shown, when a vehicle exits the highway and passes through the toll station lane, the reading of the ETC card or CPC card adopts the transparent transmission method. If it is an ETC card, the information is directly transmitted to the cloud billing module of the cloud computing platform to complete the billing calculation and generate the flow. If it is a CPC card, paper roll, CPU card or the card is missing or damaged due to special reasons, the transaction information needs to be confirmed first and then the information is passed to the cloud billing module of the cloud computing platform to complete the billing calculation and generate the flow. After the transaction is completed, keep it and lift the barrier to release it.

[0062] The emergency charging mode refers to the mode in which the basic information and basic rate are used as backup in the event of a major accident, and the charging is carried out in a local fitting manner, and the transaction flow and transaction log are uploaded afterwards. The entry transaction process is as follows: Figure 8 As shown, when a vehicle enters a highway and encounters a major accident at a toll station, an emergency toll collection mode will be used when passing through a toll station. If an ETC card is available, the information will be read through the transparent transmission method. If the ETC card is not available, the vehicle information must be manually entered. A CPC card or paper roll will be manually issued to the vehicle, and the information will be passed to the cloud computing platform for storage, completing the lifting of the barrier and releasing the vehicle. The export transaction process is as follows Figure 9 As shown, when a vehicle exits the highway and encounters a major accident at the toll station, an emergency charging mode will be adopted when passing through the toll station. The reading of ETC cards or CPC cards is transmitted transparently. If it is an ETC card, the relevant information will be obtained and the billing calculation will be completed locally before the transaction flow data is uploaded to the cloud computing platform. If it is a CPC card, paper roll, CPU card, or the card is missing or damaged due to special reasons, the transaction information needs to be confirmed first, the billing calculation will be completed locally, and the transaction flow data will be uploaded to the cloud computing platform. After the transaction is completed, the barrier will be lifted to release the vehicle.

[0063] Below we give a specific embodiment to illustrate the specific operation mode of the lane end of the highway toll collection system based on the combination of cloud computing, smart terminals and smart boxes of the present invention.

[0064] Step (1) When the toll collector is working in the toll lane, he / she identifies the province and signs in through the cloud toll collection APP on the smart terminal and starts the toll collection work for the current shift. At this time, the cloud toll collection APP can view the basic information of the current toll station and lane, the basic information of the toll collector, the operating status of the peripherals and the toll collection records, and the cloud platform shows that the toll collector is online.

[0065] Step (2) When the driver drives the vehicle to the toll lane, the smart terminal will identify whether the vehicle has an ETC pass mark based on the feedback from the peripheral device. If there is an ETC pass mark, the peripheral device will read the ETC vehicle and vehicle driving information and transmit it to the smart terminal. The smart terminal will interact with the cloud computing platform through the APP to transfer the vehicle and vehicle driving path information. The cloud computing platform will return the billing result based on the vehicle and vehicle driving information. The smart terminal will initiate a deduction instruction based on the returned billing amount. The smart terminal controls the peripheral device to interact with the ETC on the vehicle and returns the deduction result to the smart terminal. The APP will display the deduction result to the toll collector. The toll collector confirms and releases the vehicle. At the same time, the smart terminal will transmit the deduction result to the cloud computing platform. The cloud computing platform will persist the charging flow based on the deduction result and serialize it and send it to other platforms.

[0066] Step (3) When the driver drives the vehicle to the toll lane, the smart terminal will identify whether the vehicle has an ETC pass mark based on the feedback from the peripheral device. When there is no ETC pass mark, the toll collector will obtain the vehicle pass medium from the driver. The toll collector will determine whether the peripheral device is needed to read the vehicle and vehicle driving information or enter the vehicle and vehicle driving information based on the pass medium. After confirming the vehicle and vehicle driving information, the smart terminal will transmit the vehicle driving information to the cloud computing platform. The cloud computing platform will return the billing result based on the vehicle driving information. The APP will display the billing result to the toll collector for confirmation. After confirmation, the toll collector will select the payment method. After the driver pays successfully, the toll collector will confirm and the smart terminal will automatically control the printing device to print the invoice and lift the barrier to let the driver pass. At the same time, the payment method and invoice information of the smart terminal will be transmitted to the cloud computing platform. The cloud computing platform will serialize the toll flow based on the payment method and invoice information and send it to other platforms.

[0067] Step (4) If the current shift is about to end, the smart terminal will give a reminder to leave work according to the interval time set by the enterprise.

[0068] Step (5) When the toll collector is ready to leave work, he clicks "leave work" on the smart terminal. The smart terminal will prompt the toll collector to verify the fee amount for the current shift based on the fee record. The toll collector will leave work after confirmation, and the cloud platform system will display that the toll collector has left work.

[0069] Step (6) The highway enterprise manager logs into the cloud platform system to check the toll collection situation. The current step and steps 1 to 5 can be operated in parallel. The cloud platform system will display the number of transactions, transaction amount, transaction payment method, transaction medium of the current enterprise and the amount of the transaction split to the highway enterprise at this toll station according to the logged-in manager.

[0070] The system of the present invention attaches importance to security construction throughout the entire process, which is specifically reflected in the following four aspects: backup solution design, authentication center design, data transmission design, and network security design. We will introduce them in detail below.

[0071] The backup plan design means that the transaction data of the smart terminal software will be double-backed up, with the Android system's built-in database storage and file storage. The data retention period can be determined according to the set time. The cloud platform will operate in a load balancing manner, and data will be saved in two ways: file storage and database storage. The database data is the final data and uses three methods: scheduled logical backup, physical backup, and master-slave backup.

[0072] The authentication center design refers to a registration system for smart terminal hardware, multi-function controllers, and operators. Before use, the smart terminal hardware, multi-function controller (i.e., smart box), and operator must register on the cloud management platform. After the administrator confirms the registration, the registration process is complete. The smart terminal hardware, multi-function controller, and operator must be consistent before use. PSAM card authentication for reading CPC and ETC cards will adopt a one-login, one-authentication mechanism.

[0073] The data transmission design refers to the use of two network transmission methods for data transmission, 4GVPN network and highway toll network. The data is verified for integrity, privacy, source authentication and non-repudiation during the transmission process. This system uses MD5 verification to ensure the integrity of the received data. The data is encrypted and transmitted to ensure the privacy of the data during the transmission process. When receiving the data, the cloud platform must verify the authenticity of the sending smart terminal so that the data transmission has source authentication. After successful transmission, the smart terminal will retain the source data of the sent data in the smart terminal to achieve data non-repudiation. The retention time will be set according to actual needs.

[0074] The network security design refers to building a 100M dedicated line network to achieve network structural security and enabling the access control and terminal authentication functions of the cloud platform to ensure security.

[0075] The present invention combines smart terminals, smart boxes and cloud computing, uses the network connection function of smart terminals to interact with cloud computing platforms, uses the peripheral control function of smart boxes to connect with toll station peripherals, and the smart terminal sends instructions to the smart box through the APP to complete the entire data calculation process from peripheral hardware devices to smart boxes and then to the cloud platform, replacing traditional industrial computers. Due to the advantages of low cost and easy maintenance, and the small and light features of smart terminals and smart boxes, the "miniaturization" construction of toll stations in the future can be realized, reducing the land used by enterprises in building toll stations, and reducing the cost of enterprises in building toll stations and their dependence on large equipment.

[0076] The present invention integrates the lane billing function and the flow generation function of the toll station into the cloud computing platform, realizing the centralization of the billing business. The data is directly generated in the provincial center, eliminating the data upload and download process. The vehicle blacklist and the rates required for billing are centrally managed on the cloud platform. In the traditional toll collection system, the vehicle blacklist and billing rates required by the toll station are issued through the provincial network center. The vehicle status list and the billing rates are not issued in time, which easily leads to inconsistent billing results at various toll stations and untimely interception of blacklisted vehicles. In the present invention, since the billing function and the flow generation function are both on the cloud computing platform, the rates required for billing are also stored on the cloud computing platform. While billing, it verifies whether the vehicle is on the blacklist and whether it is a vehicle, so as to achieve effective interception of blacklisted vehicles and ensure timeliness.

[0077] The present invention integrates the daily operation functions of enterprise toll stations, the daily operation functions of enterprise road section management centers and the management functions of the toll collection system by the provincial networking center through a unified cloud platform, thereby reducing dependence on various other systems, such as the existing flow transmission system, thereby reducing the expenditure on maintaining other systems and reducing the management and maintenance of various systems. The provincial networking center realizes unified management of highway tolls.

[0078] It should be noted that the specific embodiments described above can enable those skilled in the art to more fully understand the present invention, but do not limit the present invention in any way. Therefore, although this specification has described the present invention in detail with reference to the drawings and embodiments, those skilled in the art should understand that the present invention can still be modified or replaced with equivalents. In short, all technical solutions and improvements that do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present invention should be included in the scope of protection of the patent for the present invention.

Claims

1. A highway toll collection system based on cloud computing, smart terminals and smart boxes. Includes the following modules: A cloud computing platform, comprising a cloud billing platform and a cloud management platform. The cloud computing platform provides computing power, network, storage capabilities, and cloud services based on the hardware and software resources of cloud computing to complete pipeline production and storage. The cloud billing platform comprises a billing module, a rate management module, and a data persistence module. The billing module of the cloud billing platform first receives vehicle driving information from a lane intelligent terminal, which is transmitted to the lane intelligent terminal by the lane intelligent terminal through a smart box controlling peripheral hardware devices, calculates the toll amount, and then returns the toll amount information to the lane intelligent terminal to complete the transaction after deducting the toll, and simultaneously transmits the toll flow to the cloud management platform. The cloud management platform comprises an authentication management module, a basic information management module, a statistical reporting module, and a security assurance management module. The cloud management platform receives transaction flow data from the cloud billing platform for persistent storage. The basic information management module of the cloud management platform is responsible for authentication management, the basic information management module is responsible for basic information management including vehicle blacklist data, and the statistical reporting module is responsible for statistical reporting. The cloud management platform provides data support for the cloud billing platform. The security assurance management module of the cloud management platform includes a backup solution design unit, an authentication center design unit, a data transmission design unit, and a network security design unit, establishing security assurance through four unit levels; The backup scheme design unit means that the transaction data of the lane intelligent terminal management application software will be double-backed up, with two backup methods of database storage and file storage provided by the Android system. The data retention period can be determined according to the set time. The operation of the cloud computing platform will adopt a load balancing method. The data is saved in two ways: file storage and database storage. The database data is the final data and uses three methods: scheduled logical backup, physical backup and master-slave backup; the authentication center design unit refers to the registration system used by the intelligent terminal hardware, intelligent box and operator. Before use, the intelligent terminal hardware, intelligent box and operator must first register on the cloud management platform. The registration is completed after the administrator confirms and verifies the intelligent terminal hardware, multi-function controller and operator. The members must be consistent before they can use it. The PSAM card authentication for reading CPC cards and ETC will adopt a one-time login and one-time authentication mechanism; the data transmission design unit refers to the use of two network transmission methods for data transmission, 4GVPN network and highway toll network. This system uses MD5 verification to ensure the integrity of received data. The data is transmitted after encryption. The cloud computing platform must verify the authenticity of the sending smart terminal while receiving the data so that the data transmission has source authentication. After the smart terminal successfully sends the data, the source data of the sending data will be retained in the smart terminal. The retention time will be set according to actual needs; the network security design unit refers to the construction of a 100M dedicated line network to achieve network structural security and enable the access control and terminal authentication functions of the cloud computing platform; The cloud billing platform and cloud management platform can interact with the highway lane smart terminals, toll booth operation terminals, section management center operation terminals and provincial network centers to perform data exchange, set permissions for each smart terminal and operation terminal and issue instructions to them; A smart box is a multifunctional controller, a multifunctional intelligent hardware controller integrating an embedded chip and a network chip, and includes a serial port connection module for network-to-serial port conversion, an IO connection module for network-to-IO port conversion, a network connection module for integrated routing, and a network setting module. The smart box is connected to the smart terminal via a Type-C to Ethernet port, and is connected to peripheral hardware via serial ports, IO ports, and network ports. Specifically, the smart box is connected to the camera and RSU antenna via the Ethernet port, to the card reader, mobile payment box, scale, and display board via the serial port, and to the barrier machine, coil, and awning light via IO ports. The smart box allows data interaction and instruction transmission with the smart terminal through apps installed in the smart terminal, including those running Android and HarmonyOS operating systems. Lane intelligent terminal, the lane management terminal is a smart tablet installed with universal Android and HarmonyOS operating systems and development management application software, using Socket and Https communication methods and encryption; the lane intelligent terminal management application software includes a hardware monitoring module, a vehicle pass transaction module, a picture and video acquisition module, and a transaction log module. The vehicle pass transaction module includes four modes: MTC cloud lane mode, ETC cloud lane mode, movable hybrid lane mode, and emergency charging mode; The lane intelligent terminal is connected to the smart box, interacts with the peripheral hardware device through the smart box, identifies the information fed back by the smart box, and issues instructions; Peripheral hardware devices include antennas, coils, cameras and other hardware devices that obtain vehicle driving information. The data obtained is transmitted to the smart terminal through the smart box, and the smart terminal receives instructions issued by the smart box to complete the operation.

2. The highway toll collection system based on cloud computing, smart terminals and smart boxes according to claim 1 is characterized in that: The cloud services provided by the cloud computing platform based on the needs of highway lanes include vehicle billing services, basic information management services and basic rate management services, transaction and log storage services, image and video storage services, status list services, mobile payment services, vehicle driving path display services, mobile terminal update services and peripheral remote control services.

3. The highway toll collection system based on cloud computing, smart terminals and smart boxes according to claim 1 is characterized in that: The cloud services provided by the cloud computing platform according to the needs of highway toll stations include card and ticket management services, image and video audit services, transaction data and transaction log viewing services, transaction vehicle travel path viewing services, toll station personnel management services and toll station charging financial management services.

4. The highway toll collection system based on cloud computing, smart terminals and smart boxes according to claim 1 is characterized in that: The cloud services provided by the cloud computing platform according to the needs of the highway section management center include card and ticket management services, image and video audit services, transaction data and transaction log viewing services, transaction vehicle driving path viewing services, toll personnel management services, toll financial management services, and real-time data statistics and real-time reporting services of the sub-center.

5. The highway toll collection system based on cloud computing, smart terminals and smart boxes according to claim 1 is characterized in that: The cloud services provided by the cloud computing platform based on the needs of the provincial highway network center include all the above-mentioned basic services as well as real-time transaction data statistics and real-time report data query and prevention services; in addition, the provincial network center cloud service can connect the charging data to the existing transaction reconciliation system.

6. The highway toll collection system based on cloud computing, smart terminals and smart boxes according to claim 1 is characterized in that: The toll station operation intelligent terminal and the road section management center operation intelligent terminal use the 4GVPN network to interact with the cloud computing platform for data, and the provincial networking center uses a dedicated network to interact with the cloud computing platform for data.

7. The highway toll collection system based on cloud computing, smart terminals and smart boxes according to claim 1 is characterized in that: The cloud computing platform uses the Redis database.

8. The highway toll collection system based on cloud computing, smart terminals and smart boxes according to claim 1 is characterized in that: The MTC cloud lane mode refers to a mode for highway lanes that supports ETC passage, CPC card passage and paper roll passage at the entrance, and supports ETC billing, CPC billing, cardless / bad card billing, paper roll billing and ETC cash billing at the exit. It supports all existing special situation processing, and ETC information and CPC card information are read in an integrated manner; the ETC cloud lane mode is for non-stop toll lanes; the mobile cloud lane refers to a mode for highway lanes that supports ETC passage, CPC card passage and paper roll passage at the entrance, and supports ETC billing, CPC billing, cardless / bad card billing and paper roll billing at the exit, and ETC information and CPC card information are read in a transparent manner; the emergency charging mode refers to a mode in which the basic information and basic rate are used as standby in the event of a major accident, and billing is performed in a local fitting manner, and transaction flows and transaction logs are uploaded afterwards.

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