Development of Reliable Wireless Connectivity in Support of e-Ticketing System in Nebraska Rural Construction Sites

The research team proposes Site-Net, a low-cost and easy-to-use private wireless network to address the poor e-ticketing connectivity issue and advance the current e-ticketing practices. The objectives of Site-Net are cost-efficiency and automation. Cost efficiency will ensure the low cost of capital expenditure for the whole system and can be applied to various scenarios. Automation will ensure that the network will operate automatically without human intervention in the field. The Site-Net includes multiple components, i.e., one cellular base station with an embedded omnidirectional antenna, one embedded core network, a LEO backhaul, and multiple mobile devices. The design and development of Site-Net will leverage the unique experiences of Husker-Net (deployed by the research team), which is the first-ever campus-scale private 5G network in Nebraska. Another aspect of the development involves integrating long-range (LoRa) radios into the Site-Net to automatically record truck plate numbers and collect paper-load tickets from truck drivers, helping CTS better manage e-Tickets and ensuring their safety at construction sites. LoRa offers significant advantages, including an extended communication range—up to 3 miles in urban areas and 10 miles in rural settings—at a low cost, with individual nodes costing less than $900 (LoRa: $200, Jetson Nano: $500, camera: $200) to assemble. These strengths allow for seamless connectivity between devices spread over several miles, all while requiring minimal infrastructure. We will evaluate the efficiency of our integrated Site-Net and Lo-RaWAN wireless network with the Nebraska Department of Transportation (NDOT)’s existing wireless tools offered by wireless and e-Ticketing vendors.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Programmed
• Funding: $173,485.00
• Sponsor Organizations:

  Nebraska Department of Transportation

  1500 Nebraska 2
  Lincoln, NE  United States  68502
• Project Managers:

  Halsey, Lieska

• Principal Investigators:

  Ho, Chun-Hsing

  Kim, Kyungki

  Liu, Qiang

• Start Date: 20250701
• Expected Completion Date: 20270531
• Actual Completion Date: 0

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Rural highways; Tickets; Wireless communication systems
• Geographic Terms: Nebraska
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Finance; Highways;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01945347
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Nebraska Department of Transportation
• Files: RIP, STATEDOT
• Created Date: Feb 10 2025 11:08AM