SOUTH AFRICA: Huawei has deployed its railway perimeter security tool that uses both an optical fibre which can detect vibration and CCTV cameras across six depots managed by Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa throughout the country.
Huawei showcased the tool to Railway Gazette International at InnoTrans in Berlin on September 24.
Huawei’s perimeter security tool is deployed across railway land. It contains an optical fibre which can detect vibration and CCTV cameras which are connected to an AI analysis unit.
Once the fibre detects vibration, it is matched with the cameras. If the intrusion is confirmed, an alarm is transmitted to the AI unit, which further analyses the data. Its algorithm is designed to eliminate false positives to minimise alerts being raised unnecessarily.
If an unauthorised incursion is confirmed, a report is sent to the Prasa control centre where staff can review the footage and then take further action, for example sending personnel to the site.
The technology forms part of a suite of measures Prasa is taking to restore services to pre-pandemic levels.
‘We were running quite a very decent service with about 10 trains in an hour up to 2019. We have about 620 km of overhead wires. All of those were stolen. That’s why we are working so hard with our technology partner Huawei to ensure that whatever happens in the future, we never lose what we have put up’, explains Raymond Maseko, Prasa’s Western Cape Regional Manager.
Huawei claims that this is the first optical-visual detection application in rail. The company has plans for further deployment of the tool in the KwaZulu-Natal province, centred on Durban.
