GBase Database Powers Sichuan Expressway into a New Era of Smart Transportation with Seamless Tolling

As evening falls, a steady stream of vehicles approaches the toll station amid a chorus of gentle "beep" sounds. Barriers lift and lower in sequence, and cars glide out one after another, their red taillights blossoming in the twilight. With the advancement of digital and intelligent expressways, "barrier-free" and "seamless" travel is becoming a reality for drivers and passengers.

Recently, a new generation of smart toll stations on Sichuan expressways were launched and have been operating stably at Yuchanshan, Jianmen Pass, Yibin University Town, Desheng, Guanwen, Nanming, and Nanchong East and other locations. Leveraging an all-China software and hardware stack, these stations achieve digital and intelligent toll management. At the core data layer, the GBase database provides high-performance support for the toll system, accelerating the construction of smart transportation on Sichuan expressways.

As expressway networks expand and the number of drivers continues to grow, traditional toll stations face mounting pressure on operations and safety management. The need to boost traffic efficiency through intelligent upgrades is more urgent than ever.

Sichuan’s transportation authorities continue to advance the digital transformation of highways and accelerate the construction of smart roads, building multiple intelligent toll stations across the province. By rearchitecting traditional toll systems with next-generation station-level cloud-based toll systems and ramp free-flow systems, and integrating smart toll robots, ETC special-situation assist devices, and smart cloud cabins, they have cleared data flow bottlenecks, enabling intelligent and automated toll operations that offer smart, convenient, and comfortable service to travelers.

Digital and Intelligent Toll Management

Compared with traditional toll stations, the new-generation smart toll stations apply fully intelligent technologies and an all-China platform to deliver convenient and efficient toll management with reduced manual intervention, significantly boosting work efficiency. Data collection and statistics are faster, providing data support and decision-making references for higher-level unified management. In lane operations, the new smart toll system, through the operational modules of the smart cloud cabin, can directly control all functions within the booth. Toll operators only need to perform simple actions prompted by the system to complete each business process, which not only greatly enhances operational efficiency but also effectively shortens vehicle waiting times, ensuring smooth lane traffic.

Full-Stack Independence and Control

GBASE has joined forces with the domestic software and hardware ecosystem to help Sichuan expressway achieve 100% localization of the new-generation smart toll station’s software and hardware, from chips and databases to operating systems and upper-layer applications, completely freeing them from reliance on foreign critical technologies and products. By adopting the “fully independent and controllable” GBase database, a secure, stable, and high-speed data foundation is built, enhancing the toll system’s response efficiency and data security.

Efficient Visual Migration

To meet the project requirements, GBASE’s technical team conducted thorough research and migration assessments of the existing database applications, providing an efficient and easy-to-use migration solution. Using the MTK migration tool, they visually migrated the source database’s table structures, views/indexes, data, stored procedures, and triggers, meeting the project’s needs in functionality, performance, migration, and business testing. They validated data integrity and consistency and actively cooperated in the joint debugging and adaptation of applications.

Business Continuity Assurance

Leveraging the stability of the GBase database, a High-Availability Cluster (HAC) is deployed, enabling automatic disaster recovery switchover within seconds to achieve uninterrupted 24/7/365 operation of the expressway toll system, ensuring business continuity and the accuracy and timeliness of data flows.

The once-perilous Shu Roads, famously “harder to traverse than the blue sky,” have long since become thoroughfares. From towering mountains to the digital cloud, the ever-flowing lanes encapsulate generations of breakthrough wisdom. To date, GBase database has been deployed on expressways in over ten provinces across China, including Tianjin, Chongqing, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Shanxi, Hebei, Jilin, and Anhui, underpinning core business systems such as toll collection and operations monitoring. In this shift from traditional to smart infrastructure, GBase will partner with more transportation users to bring to life the vision of “Smooth Traffic, Pleasant Journeys.”