Guido Gehlen, Sabine Sories, Friedhelm Ramme and Michael Meyer
A cellular network-based research prototype has shown the potential for reducing the number of automobile accidents and for improving traffic flow when motor vehicles are enabled to communicate with one another over 3G networks. The concept, which was developed by Ericsson Eurolab in collaboration with Vodafone and German car manufacturers, helps save lives by providing real-time alerting services that give drivers more accurate and timely information compared with radio broadcast-based systems. What is more, because the solution relies on existing cellular infrastructure, it offers a smooth deployment strategy and provides a quick return on investment.
There were more than 1.2 million accidents on Europe’s roads in 2008, causing 39,000 deaths and 1.7 million injuries. Timely road traffic warnings could thus have the potential to prevent numerous accidents and save thousands of lives each year. And in the event that an accident does occur, an automatic emergency call (eCall) could give emergency centers the ability to respond more effectively.
At the end of 2008, the European Commission took a major step toward the deployment of intelligent transport systems (ITS) by publishing its ITS Action Plan, which proposes a directive that lays down the framework for deploying ITS. The action plan covers the following areas:
- optimal use of roads, traffic and travel data;
- continuity of traffic and freight-management ITS services;
- road safety and security;
- integration of vehicles into the transport infrastructure;
- data security, protection, and liability issues; and
- EU ITS cooperation and coordination.
Figure 1. May 2009 CoCar demonstration at MAN truck test area in Munich, Germany |
Addressing road safety and security actions, the Cooperative Cars (CoCar) project demonstrated, in May 2009 that mobile broadband communication can defuse dangerous situations by helping motorists to coordinate and adapt to surrounding traffic (Figure 1). For example, in situations where a traffic jam lies just around the bend, the system automatically alerts – in less than half a second – approaching vehicles to the fact that the vehicles ahead are braking or decelerating abruptly.
Figure 2. CoCar system overview |
Service layer network enhancements from Ericsson Eurolab that run on top of Vodafone’s mobile WCDMA/HSPA networks (Figure 2) make it possible for specially equipped vehicles from Daimler, MAN and Volkswagen to diffuse potentially dangerous driving situations (Figure 3).
Figure 3. Warning in a MAN truck: “Emergency vehicle approaching” |
Sensors in the vehicles automatically detect dangerous situations and send an IP-based warning to a real-time road-traffic information center that then distributes the messages to vehicles in the vicinity of the hazard. The receiving vehicles check the relevance of the warning and, if pertinent, warn the driver. Vehicles can be addressed individually, using unicast services, or as a group, using locally restricted cellular broadcast enabled by MBMS (Figure 4).
Figure 4. Real-time distribution of hazard warning using MBMS |
There is tremendous business potential in equipping the 300 million cars and 45 million commercial vehicles on European roads. Penetration would be rather slow if only newly produced vehicles are included. However, given that the required client functions can be deployed in connected personal navigation devices (PND) as well as mobile phones, the adoption of a multiclient strategy will greatly accelerate market introduction. The service may also easily be combined with the introduction of the eCall service.
Once cars have been equipped with the cellular communication modules, the stage will be set for a host of novel vehicle-related services and applications, such as safety, road efficiency and infotainment. Of course, to provide these services, the automotive and telecommunications industries will need to develop and standardize a common multipurpose platform – a horizontal architecture for an automotive service enabler that contains subscriber and device management, privacy, security, and QoS functions. To this end, ETSI has already begun defining an ITS Reference Architecture.
Ericsson presented its vision of a cellular technologies-based ITS communication architecture at ITS World Congress 2009. The principal elements of this vision are
- broadband networks, such as WCDM/HSPA and LTE;
- operator-managed service-control functions; and
- several service-layer extensions (including real-time data management, vehicle gateways, and vehicle application servers).
As part of its presentation, Ericsson demonstrated hazard-warning and in-car multimedia applications.
