Date: Sunday, 20th September 2009, 10:15-17:30
Location: Ericsson, Kistavägen 25, Kista-Stockholm

You will find the summary of the workshop below or as
.pdf version for download here

Summary compiled and composed by Dr.-Ing. Karl-Oskar Proskawetz.
Thanks to Ingrid Paulus and Dr. Timo Kosch for further annotations and revisions.
© COMeSafety (2009)

The 5th International Workshop on Vehicle Communications took place in Stockholm on  September 20th 2009, one day prior to the ITS World Congress. Ericsson kindly hosted the workshop in its building and conference room in Kista near Stockholm. The event was opened by Timo Kosch, coordinator of COMeSafety. He welcomed all participants and pointed out that this workshop is the last one being organised by COMeSafety. Afterwards he handed over to the moderator Kelly Odell for chairing the VSC workshop. Juhani Jääskeläinen provided the welcome address from the European Commission, Directorate General for Information Society and Media (EC DG INFSO) and highlighted the achievements reached as well as the objectives of the current VSC workshop. Ray Resendes from US DoT NHTSA and Hatakenaka-san from the Japanese MLIT also welcomed the Workshop participants and expressed their expectations on the meeting.

The Workshop took place on the Sunday before the ITS World Congress with more than 65 delegates, mainly from Europe, the USA and Japan.

The workshop was organised by the European specific support activity (SSA) COMeSafety (Communications for eSafety), co-financed by the European Commission, and was supported by the US Department of Transportation, the Japanese Ministry for Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MLIT), the CAR 2 CAR Communication Consortium and Ericsson.

Ray Resendes (USDOT) pointed out the importance of the VII programme for the ITS roadmap and harmonisation in USA. The activities are now being further developed towards IntelliDrive as a single framework. The consortium was formed in 2005 and has addressed safety, mobility, private services, maintainability, security and privacy. He noted that the design of a complex system requires the expertise of companies with a wide range of diverse skills. The practical work comprises conceptualisation and requirements engineering of the system and its components up to testing the complete system and demonstration of the benefits. For 2013, a decision on the need for regulation of Vehicle-2-Vehicle based systems is foreseen. A decision on Vehicle-2-Infrastructure based systems is expected later. In addition, harmonisation activities with Europe and Japan have started.

Akio Hosaka (AHSRA) presented the cooperative ITS projects of Japan. Field operational testing is planned on metropolitan areas and further areas with different aspects driven by MLIT and NPA. Vehicle-2-Vehicle Communication uses 5.8 GHz as well as 700 MHz. For 2010, a test is planned involving SMARTWAY, DSSS and ASV. SMARTWAY is based on an open platform enabling various applications like traffic information services, electronic toll collection and private sector services like in-car online shopping. After the operational approval for Tokyo expressway in 2009, nationwide deployment of the Smartway cooperative system is scheduled for 2010 and applications might start in 2012.

During the panel discussion, questions on the objectives of the research work and actions needed to increase the penetration have been discussed in more details. The regions have different time scales for developing, testing and deploying the potential services. In Europe, a bunch of potential services and their social economic impact are still under research. Traffic information is rather mature, but ensuring coverage is difficult. Japan plans to develop the safety systems further and also addresses efficiency systems, which results in design tradeoffs. To speed up system penetration, retrofit and aftermarket solutions as well as regulation for Vehicle-2-Vehicle Communication are considered in the USA, while in Europe standardisation shall pave the way for later deployment and lessons learned from eCall will be taken into account.

The following panel discussion highlighted the different starting points in the regions. Japan focuses on a highway and infrastructure based approach driven by cooperation of the road authorities and private companies. The ITS on-board unit should not add too much cost. More detailed results are expected within three to four years. The US approach has a particular emphasis on implementation and testing intersection applications. First results of effectiveness analyses might be expected in three to four years, too. The European methodology combines detailed cooperative system modelling, system simulation and validation using designed tests. The panellists supported the exchange of the methodologies and recommended one platform world wide for reducing the cost, achieving high penetration and offering a wide spectrum of applications. Takaaki Sugiura sees some problems in ensuring reliable radio communication within cities. Because of this reason, Japan favours an additional communication link at 700 MHz. The other panelists pointed out that communication is regarded as an additional sensor and the traffic scenarios have to take into account penetration rates below 100%. However, total system reliability would need to be guaranteed in the scale of 10-9. While Japan already focuses on nationwide deployment of certain services in 2010, the further US activities will be based on simulation and operational tests in different states. Europe plans field operational tests for addressing open questions and measuring the effects of the complex system for selected applications.

John Miles (Ankerbold) did highlight the road operators’ perspective to manage the motorways with more capacity, higher efficiency and increased safety. The network operations are manifold. Road operators have big concerns with respect to public expectations, political aspirations and all the possible cases where things can go wrong and the outcome is worse than under normal conditions. For example, in-vehicle signage could lead to savings of about 400.000€ on variable message signs, but reliability and credibility of the messages have to be guaranteed even for the initial deployment. John Miles brought up a lot of detailed questions on benefits and risks, impact of “probe vehicles” on road operation, technology, cost, responsibilities and business models. He stated that road safety engineers are by far not yet fully convinced by ITS. They cannot afford early deployments to go wrong! PIARC and FISITA started a dialogue for improving mutual understanding and concerns between vehicle manufacturers and road operators. Further consultation of all key players was strongly recommended.

For USA, Brian Cronin (US DoT) highlighted the ongoing standardisation in the US and the need for mapping and harmonising the different overlapping standardisation activities in the regions. The elaboration should be based on mobile applications based on 5.8 to 5.9 GHz and areas where some groups have played a leading role.

For Japan, Hironao Kawashima (Keio University) referred to the many stakeholders requesting a modified technology using two different frequencies. He states that 700 MHz is better suited for Vehicle-2-Vehicle Communication especially at small intersections with dense traffic situations. The 5.8 GHz is preferred for Vehicle-2-Infrastructure Communication. Using two frequencies offers advantages, but will not allow the international harmonisation of the lower layers. For the upper layers, IEEE protocols are tested. Ensuring security and privacy would require the installation of an “operator”, which might be integrated with the road infrastructure. Aspects of reliability and liability are still under discussion. Vehicle-2-Vehicle Communication is seen as a new infrastructure where not all stakeholders are currently identified.

Russ Shields (Ygomi) remembered that TC204 was established in 1992 and came up with an architecture 20 years ago. Now, he stated, three different architectures exist and have to be harmonised. Standardisation should build on what is already there. Looking at how the successful GSM companies tried to get their patents into the standard and made income from royalties could help to learn for the current processes. The Japanese 700 MHz frequency band is set aside for public safety in the USA. For the deployment decision in 2013, a global harmonised security and privacy standard should be aimed.

Presenting the results of the CoCar project, Guido Gehlen (Ericsson) highlighted the future innovation potential of cellular networks for ITS. Cellular networks are standardised and used world wide. Location-based services and broadcast mechanisms as well as increasing mobile datarates up to 300 MBit/s support a range of ITS applications. The CoCar project focused on vehicular and road traffic applications involving traffic message centre and external service provider aspects. A simulation study based on a part of the Rhine-Main road network and vehicle speeds between 90 km/h and 140 km/h provided a deeper insight in performance, latency and capacity. For Vehicle-2-Vehicle Communication, a latency of less than 500 ms for single messages and even less than 100 ms for already connected cases were proven. A prototype with five vehicles, PNDs and mobile phones was built and demonstrated at a test site in Munich in May 2009. Mobile network operators would like to use 800MHz – the digital dividend – for their networks. First launches of the Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology are planned for 2010 and the next innovations target the IP Multimedia Subsystem. Open APIs are provided for integration of telecoms and IT. Scalable cellular networks would offer a cost efficient way for establishing vehicle communication complementing IEEE 802.11p.

We are looking forward seeing you in Stockholm!

Organized by:
COMeSafety - A EU Specific Support Activity