Classifications

• • G—PHYSICS
  • G07—CHECKING-DEVICES
  • G07B—TICKET-ISSUING APPARATUS; FARE-REGISTERING APPARATUS; FRANKING APPARATUS
  • G07B15/00—Arrangements or apparatus for collecting fares, tolls or entrance fees at one or more control points
  • G07B15/02—Arrangements or apparatus for collecting fares, tolls or entrance fees at one or more control points taking into account a variable factor such as distance or time, e.g. for passenger transport, parking systems or car rental systems
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G07—CHECKING-DEVICES
  • G07B—TICKET-ISSUING APPARATUS; FARE-REGISTERING APPARATUS; FRANKING APPARATUS
  • G07B15/00—Arrangements or apparatus for collecting fares, tolls or entrance fees at one or more control points
  • G07B15/06—Arrangements for road pricing or congestion charging of vehicles or vehicle users, e.g. automatic toll systems
  • G07B15/063—Arrangements for road pricing or congestion charging of vehicles or vehicle users, e.g. automatic toll systems using wireless information transmission between the vehicle and a fixed station
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G07—CHECKING-DEVICES
  • G07C—TIME OR ATTENDANCE REGISTERS; REGISTERING OR INDICATING THE WORKING OF MACHINES; GENERATING RANDOM NUMBERS; VOTING OR LOTTERY APPARATUS; ARRANGEMENTS, SYSTEMS OR APPARATUS FOR CHECKING NOT PROVIDED FOR ELSEWHERE
  • G07C5/00—Registering or indicating the working of vehicles
  • G07C5/08—Registering or indicating performance data other than driving, working, idle, or waiting time, with or without registering driving, working, idle or waiting time
  • G07C5/0841—Registering performance data
  • G07C5/085—Registering performance data using electronic data carriers

Definitions

• the invention relates to an electronic toll system for traffic routes and a method for its operation.
• the EU strives for a recording or billing system based on a vehicle device, i.e. a system in the vehicle, and a common invoice for all toll-driven routes within the EU based on a contractual relationship, e.g. in the homecountry.
• the person liable to pay the toll has to pay his fees / charges based on the statutory and private conditions, if he wants to use the traffic infrastructure that is subject to toll or has already used it. This means that the person liable to pay the toll is obliged to choose which system to use to pay the toll.
• GSM Global System for Mobile communications
• DE 101 04 499 A1 teaches a road toll collection system with a vehicle device for the autonomous determination of a road usage fee for a vehicle within a usage billing area. If necessary, data that is required to determine the road toll is transmitted from an operator center to the vehicle device by means of a communication device.
• the on-board device continuously calculates partial usage fees for sections of the route traveled and the total usage fee for a trip by summing the individual partial usage fees. When the destination or other predetermined criteria are reached, the vehicle device transmits the total usage fee determined up to this point in time to the operator center for billing via the communication device.
• the object of the invention is to provide an electronic toll system for traffic routes which is based on already existing and widespread technologies and can therefore be implemented very quickly, inexpensively and in particular also across borders, and a method for its operation.
• the invention is based on the idea of realizing an electronic toll system based on commercially available GSM / UMTS mobile telephones or comparable devices such as PDAs, car telephones, etc. with a GSM function.
• the basic idea is for the communication of the toll customer with the toll operator exclusively the already internationally interoperable mobile radio systems, e.g. B. GSM to use.
• no changes to the hardware have to be made to existing mobile radio systems and terminals.
• the existing mobile terminals, radio telephones, etc. are usually available to toll customers and can be used.
• Existing system interfaces for data transmission, for billing, etc. can also be used without major changes.
• each mobile radio network data of the respective radio cell are transmitted to the radio telephone via an organizational channel, that is to say the radio telephone constantly receives information about which radio cell it is currently in.
• This information provided by the base stations is used according to the invention to record the radio cells passed through by toll customers in the radio telephone.
• This data will be collected then transferred to a toll center according to various options, such as time, online, customer order, etc.
• Short distances for example on motorways, can usually not be verified or are relatively imprecise, unless the mobile network operator optimizes its network expansion on motorway sections that appear to be particularly relevant. However, a plausibility check is always possible.
• a further advantage of the invention is a clear separation between the transport infrastructure operators (possibly monopolized), the competitive international toll operators and the national and international network operators / service providers.
• the accuracy of the location or the toll route used by the person liable for the toll only plays a subordinate role, since it is based on the fact that the toll owner specifies the toll route to be driven and the system only has to check the accuracy of this information.
• Accurate billing using the toll system according to the invention is generally difficult on short journeys. For short journeys, therefore, either no toll is charged because the effort to collect it is too great, or a flat rate is charged.
• the toll is collected on long-haul routes using the proposed toll system as a competitive alternative to the existing toll collection companies.
• the institutions involved in the toll system can assume multiple roles, e.g. the toll operator can simultaneously act as a GSM service provider and vice versa.
• the toll is preferably billed to the toll customer via the toll customer's mobile phone bill.
• the toll can also be paid directly by the toll operator by invoicing or debiting the amount from the toll customer's account.
• plausibility checks of the route traveled can preferably be carried out by the toll operator, for example by evaluating the cells passed or by spot-like location of the mobile terminal.
• checkpoints are advantageously provided for this purpose, which, in contrast to other Toll Collect systems, can be defined very flexibly.
• the number and location of the checkpoints can be set individually for each toll trip without the drivers of the toll vehicles becoming aware of this. This makes fraud and sabotage considerably more difficult than conventional systems.
• An improved plausibility check of the toll trip is possible, for example, by setting so-called "forbidden intermediate checkpoints" (blacklist Checkpoints), i.e. checkpoints (radio cells) that toll customers are not allowed to drive through with their vehicle.
• blacklist Checkpoints i.e. checkpoints (radio cells) that toll customers are not allowed to drive through with their vehicle.
• the toll center can request the toll terminal to immediately report any passage through certain critical points that are not part of the booked toll route.
• an architecture adaptation is conceivable in which direct interfaces between infrastructure operators and mobile operators can be used, bypassing the toll operator, e.g. for exact vehicle location.
• An architecture adaptation can be provided, in which clearing houses, in competitive situations, act as intermediaries between a plurality of mobile radio operators and toll operators and / or toll operators and infrastructure operators.
• SMS Short Message Service
• GPRS General Packet Radio Service
• Voice Voice
• a simplified start / destination entry by means of a voice menu or IVR portal IVR portal (Interactive Voice Recognition) can be provided with the response “configuration and confirmation SMS”.
• breaks in the route or route changes can be communicated to the toll center via the toll terminal.
• the booking information to be transmitted from the toll customer to the toll center can be preconfigured via an Internet portal to support and facilitate later entry by mobile phone. For example, routes frequently used by toll customers can be saved permanently and called up using a reference number. It is then sufficient to transfer the reference number to the toll center in order to book a specific route.
• the mobile radio-based communication relationship between toll center and toll terminal can be used to transmit traffic information, traffic control information (eg special price for special routes), weather information, etc. to the toll customer's terminal.
• a standard mobile phone or a special mobile phone i.e. a mobile phone with special convenience controls for toll customers or an inexpensive mobile phone with reduced functionality can be used as a toll terminal.
• the EU-wide and additional function of the communication component has proven to be advantageous without the need for infrastructure by using the existing GSM roaming mechanisms with the advantage that no country-specific toll devices (on-board units) are required abroad.
• Communication between the mobile operator and the toll operator for toll collection and charging can be handled entirely via interfaces that already exist in the mobile communications environment.
• Toll customers can use existing standard mobile phone contracts for toll collection.
• Mobile communications contracts in all forms are suitable for this, such as postpaid / prepaid contracts, individual contracts e.g. for the self-employed and for car tolls, framework contracts for freight forwarders, etc.
• the toll operator can also issue his own toll cards (SIM cards) as a GSM service provider, without having to set up his own GSM infrastructure.
• SIM cards toll cards
• the clean separation of roles between the GSM operator, the toll operator and the infrastructure manager enables extensive competition towards the customer, both with regard to the GSM customer relationship and the toll customer relationship.
• the system can advantageously be used as an addition to existing toll systems, but is also suitable as a basic component for countries without an existing toll collection infrastructure, since it can be set up quickly and inexpensively.
• FIG. 1 shows a schematic representation of the parties involved in the toll system according to the invention
• Figure 2 shows a flow diagram of toll collection
• FIGS. 3-6 show various case examples of the results of the final evaluation of the list of radio cells passed through from the toll terminal to the toll center.
• the toll system described is a toll-based toll system that can be operated across borders.
• GSM Global System for Mobile communications
• UMTS UMTS
• similar cellular mobile radio systems can be used, which are referred to as GSM in the following.
• the toll system is suitable for all types of traffic routes, e.g. Roads / highways, waterways, railways, and for all types of vehicles that use these routes.
• the toll system can be set up as a standalone system or overlay to existing toll systems.
• a (GSM) mobile radio terminal of a mobile radio customer which is used for toll collection in the vehicle to be tolled, is preferably used as the toll device.
• the mobile phone as a vehicle terminal (on-board unit) includes a toll client application as an alternative: - on standard SIM (SAT application)
• the toll device has the following tasks:
• CGI Cell Global ID
• SAI Service Area ID
• the toll center is a technical facility of the toll operator, which provides the technical interfaces to the parties involved in the toll system, in particular mobile network operators, traffic infrastructure operators, controlling units (enforcement agencies), etc.
• the toll center has the following functions:
• Mobile networks Existing mobile networks are used for Mobile communications
• An intermediate control point is a control point of the infrastructure manager.
• Toll Collect systems these are e.g. Motorway bridges with cameras for automatic registration of license plates for all vehicles passing through.
• any mobile radio cell can serve as a checkpoint and can be defined individually for each toll customer and each journey.
• Figure 1 shows how the above components interact in the sense of a modular architecture with the parties involved, tasks and interfaces:
• the mobile customer 1 is a contract customer of a GSM network operator or a service provider, whose toll bill is to be used for the mobile phone bill.
• Toll customer 2 is the keeper / driver of the toll vehicle, usually identical to or in close relationship with mobile customer 1.
• Toll customer is the temporary contractual partner of the toll operator for the
• the toll customer pre-books the toll journey and reports the start and stop of the toll journey to the toll center.
• the mobile radio network operator 3 is the home network operator of the mobile radio customer with whom the customer has a contractual relationship. It provides technical interfaces to the toll operator and enables data communication (e.g. via SMS, GPRS or voice) and billing (e.g. via existing PayPerEvent interfaces). The mobile network operator handles roaming to other mobile networks when traveling abroad.
• the roaming network operator 3a is a network operator whose network communicates with the toll device when the vehicle is abroad.
• the standard GSM roaming contracts with regard to technical connection and inter-operator billing apply between the home network operator 3 and the roaming network operators 3a.
• the roaming network operator handles mobile communication with the toll terminal abroad and forwards the data traffic to the home network operator. He bills with the home network operator about existing roaming procedures.
• the toll operator 4 operates one or more toll centers and processes the toll business in the direction of toll customer 1 via the mobile home network operator 3 and in the direction of the traffic infrastructure operator 5. He has a contractual relationship with toll customer 1 for the duration of the toll journey, for example by means of proof via coupon SMS. Furthermore, the toll operator has contractual relationships and uses technical interfaces to those mobile radio network operators 3 through which he wants to conduct toll transactions. In addition, the toll operator has contractual relationships with all relevant infrastructure operators 5 and reimburses them for all toll journeys processed via him and provides technical interfaces for "enforcement" support ready, for example by notifying checkpoint passages, inquiring about special vehicles and toll coupons.
• the toll operator can set checkpoints for the individual toll journeys, e.g. B. also at the request / specification of the infrastructure manager.
• the transport infrastructure operators 5 provide the road infrastructure and either carry out the sovereign or private law task of "enforcement”, i.e. vehicle inspection, or have delegated it to legally independent enforcement agencies.
• the enforcement point 6 carries out on-site traffic controls in order to identify toll offenders and take measures against them; for state infrastructure this is e.g. the highway police.
• toll customer 1 registers the planned route with toll center 7 of toll operator 4.
• This "booking" can take place via various communication accesses. Conceivable here are, among other things, the sending of an SMS, the communication via data channels of the mobile radio networks, the use of a voice access with IVR system or access via the Internet.
• Transmitted during registration / booking the toll customer preferably has the following contents: his identity, for example in the form of his mobile phone number (MSISDN) or another reference that is clear to the toll operator, to the identity and the MSISDN of the toll customer -
• MSISDN mobile phone number
• the vehicle data relevant to the toll calculation e.g. vehicle type, number of axles, weight, hazard class, etc., or a clear reference to this data for the toll operator.
• the toll center 7 transmits a booking reference to a suitable terminal to the customer.
• toll customer 1 Immediately before the start of the journey, toll customer 1 sends the booking reference to toll center 7.
• toll center 7 Upon receipt of the booking reference or when booking immediately before the start of the journey, toll center 7 calculates the toll charges to be collected and transmits the following data to the toll customer via SMS or via a data channel of the mobile radio networks:
• toll coupon A character string called "toll coupon” in the following, which contains the essential information of the booking (at least the starting point, destination, license plate number) and is protected against manipulation from today's perspective as secure acceptable mechanisms (digital signature of the toll operator).
• CGI mobile radio cells
• the mobile phone operator will ask the toll center for a confirmation message about the fee reservation (cover letter), as today's PayPerEvent interfaces enable as a 1st step in a "2-phase Paymenf transaction".
• the end device records and stores the radio cell identifications (CGIs) of all mobile radio cells that are passed through.
• CGIs radio cell identifications
• the end device If the end device detects a mobile radio cell that is listed in the checkpoints, it immediately sends the content of the toll coupon to toll center 7.
• the toll center forwards all received toll coupons to the enforcement agencies relevant to the respective checkpoint. This enables the enforcement agencies to reliably identify all vehicles that have paid the toll based on the transmitted data (in particular the vehicle registration number).
• the toll customer wants to change the route, he can do so by transmitting the following data to the toll center:
• the enforcement point can determine whether the customer has switched on his end device and whether it is in a plausible cell phone by locating the toll customer via the cell phone operator.
• the Location can be refined using known runtime methods or satellite location.
• the plausibility of the stretching guide can be checked in the toll center 7 on the basis of the cells passed through.
• the reliability of the plausibility check increases with the number of cells passed. If the plausibility check gives a negative result, the corresponding enforcement bodies 6 can be informed.
• the toll can be billed via the mobile radio operator 3, typically as a second step of a “2-phase Paymenf transaction.
• the toll operator can bill directly with the toll customer.
• FIGS. 3 to 6 show different situations which the final evaluation of the list of cells passed through from the toll terminal to the toll center can yield. It is assumed that the toll customer has booked route AB. The individual radio cells are represented by circles or ovals. The registered by the toll device, i.e. Radio cells actually driven through by the toll customer are highlighted in gray.
• Figure 3 shows the case of a successful plausibility check.
• the list of cells reported by the toll device fits within the achievable granularity (accuracy) to the specified route AB.
• FIG. 4 shows the case in which the plausibility check reveals a longer route than the route originally specified when the booking was made.
• the list of the reported radio cells clearly shows within the framework of the achievable granularity that a further route was traveled than originally stated. In this case, the toll customer pays for the route actually traveled.
• the plausibility check shows that the toll device did not temporarily record the toll during the journey, e.g. through willful switching off (longer intermediate route missing), through short-term loss of network coverage (individual cells are missing), or due to a defect in the toll device.
• the toll operator can react differently. If checkpoints were placed in the section of the route that was not recorded, the local enforcement forces could automatically be asked to check the toll customer, since the toll terminal did not report the passage as agreed (no positive check that would have given free passage).
• a plausibility check shows that, in addition to the booked route AB, other routes have in the meantime been driven, since in the example shown an "extraordinary" radio cell was detected was left at short notice, e.g. for refueling or rest purposes, or another, non-registered toll route was used.

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• Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Business, Economics & Management (AREA)
• Finance (AREA)
• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Computer Networks & Wireless Communication (AREA)
• Devices For Checking Fares Or Tickets At Control Points (AREA)
• Traffic Control Systems (AREA)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Publications (1)

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• 2004
  • 2004-03-18 DE DE102004013807A patent/DE102004013807B4/de not_active Expired - Lifetime
• 2005
  • 2005-03-18 WO PCT/DE2005/000512 patent/WO2005091229A1/de active Application Filing
  • 2005-03-18 CA CA2561136A patent/CA2561136C/en active Active
  • 2005-03-18 CN CN2005800086868A patent/CN1934593B/zh active Active
  • 2005-03-18 EP EP05735963A patent/EP1725990A1/de not_active Ceased
  • 2005-03-18 US US10/593,221 patent/US7835753B2/en active Active
  • 2005-03-18 RU RU2006136787/09A patent/RU2378700C2/ru active
  • 2005-03-18 JP JP2007503191A patent/JP4839304B2/ja active Active

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