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Since 1996, SDAU (Service De l’Aménagement Urbain) has been operating the pneumatic household waste collection facility of Monaco.
A 6-km long underground tubular network over 22 hectares transports waste by suction, from the drop pipes in buildings, at a speed of 70 km/h, and dumps them directly in a holding tank of the incineration plant.
Supervision of the process was renovated in 2007, with the following objectives:
- improve the operation of the facility
- start up new sections
- deploy a facility operating tool in an intranet network using a web portal
The SDAU entrusted this project with 2GI Technologie-EASYCOM for their expertise in industrial computing, and Topkapi was chosen to supervise the system: the standby service integrated and the potential for customizing Topkapi's Web server were major criteria in the choice.
The SDAU performs 3 to 4 collections per day, with an average time of one hour each. The organization of the collections –sequence between sections- and setting of the different associated parameters – suction speed, etc. - are prepared from supervision, then transferred to the coordinator controller. During collection, Topkapi ensures information traceability, by logging each event and notifies the operator in case of alarm through its built-in standby service module. After collection, waste is weighed and the weighing information logged in a MySQL relational database interfaced with Topkapi.
A php Web portal allows to view and use the facility in the nomad mode. This portal meets several needs:
- reporting tool on weighing data allowing to produce customized reports on the fly (to use data stored in the MySQL base)
- viewing and using remote supervision
- communication between the operator and 2GI Technologies through email
Securing data exchanged for viewing the Web portal was a vital point: this was guaranteed by implementing a secured authentication procedure similar to that used in banking encryption.
It allows to:
- authenticate the internet server transmitting the data
- ensure confidentiality and integrity of information transmitted and exchanged
- authenticate the client
To have a single web portal and uniform security management, Topkapi’s web site was integrated to the portal. This is possible thanks to the ASP code of Topkapi’s web, which is open and modifiable.
The developer also has access to all basic functions which were used to produce it. Customization has allowed to:
- transpose browsing ergonomics (hyperlinks, …) of the Web portal to Topkapi’s web
- extend security management of data exchanges to Topkapi’s web