An underground internet cable began to be laid in Japan to signal snow falling so that it was removed faster

On November 9, 2023, Japanese corporations NTT and NEC announced the development of technology that allows the use of underground fiber-optic Internet cables to assess snowy city roads. It is assumed that this decision will allow more efficient planning of street clearing during snowfalls in order to ensure uninterrupted traffic. Telecom operator NTT has already begun laying such cables in pilot mode.

Project participants note that in areas where heavy snowfalls are regularly observed, measures for timely snow removal are extremely important to maintain urban functions. Usually such work is carried out at night, when traffic is minimal. But sometimes it is necessary to carry out cleaning during the day to avoid transport collapse. Decisions on snow removal are made by specialists taking into account the volume of precipitation, weather forecast and other parameters. The new system, created by the NTT and NEC researchers, allows the generation of road cleaning recommendations automatically.

A diagram demonstrating the principle of operation of the technology, in which an underground Internet cable helps to recognize snow on the road

The idea is to use signals passing through fiber optic cables to determine the intensity of vibration on a nearby roadbed. A special model based on artificial intelligence allows us to draw a conclusion on the state of the road surface based on such data. The results obtained are compared with the speed of the transport flow. As a result, the system makes recommendations as to when it is necessary to clean a particular section of the road from snow. Moreover, the assessment can be carried out in real time for each street separately.

It is assumed that in the future this solution will help partially solve the problem of lack of qualified specialists. In addition, AI algorithms will optimize the process of cleaning roads taking into account the available snow removal equipment.^[1]

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