EP2500869B1 - Method for providing local data services - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a method for providing location-based data services to vehicles, which carry both on-board units for short-distance communication with toll beacons known places in a road toll system and mobile terminals for data reception in a mobile network.

A method of this kind is known from EP 1 431 946 known, being sent by a toll collection center location-based information on the mobile network to onboard units whose places are known from beacon passages or GPS position messages received via the mobile network at the headquarters.

Road toll systems using a network of geographically distributed toll beacons with localized communication zones to locate vehicles by short distance communication with their on-board units (OBUs) at the location of the toll-bake are characterized by high reliability and accurate localization. However, the volume of data that can be exchanged via such short-distance communications is severely limited by their short range and the speed of the vehicles: In general, only a short data telegram is possible, which contains the device identifier of the on-board unit as a priority in order to be able to use it in the road toll system identify before the vehicle leaves the communication zone of a toll-bake. Large volume mobile data services are nowadays used over 2G, 3G or 4G mobile networks (GPRS, UMTS or LTE etc.) with mobile terminals such as mobile phones, PDAs, handheld PCs, web pads, etc. that are carried in the vehicle by the user or integrated in its onboard unit. However, the localization accuracy of mobile terminals in such mobile networks is very limited for the use of location-based data services, even if additional GPS receivers are incorporated, and also results in increased mobile network traffic with corresponding additional costs.

The aim of the invention is to combine the advantages of the known technologies with one another in order to locate them Data services with large data volume and high positioning accuracy to provide vehicles.

• Speichern einer Liste von Dienstkennungen von auf den Ort einer Mautbake bezogenen Datendiensten in dieser Mautbake, einer Zuordnung zwischen der Gerätekennung und der Teilnehmerkennung eines Fahrzeugs im Straßenmautsystem, und zumindest einer Buchung einer Dienstkennung für eine Geräte- oder Teilnehmerkennung im Straßenmautsystem,
• Senden der Gerätekennung einer eine Mautbake passierenden Onboard-Unit mittels Kurzstreckenkommunikation an die Mautbake,
• Ermitteln der Dienstkennungsbuchung für die genannte Geräte- oder zugeordnete Teilnehmerkennung,
• Überprüfen, ob die Dienstkennung aus dieser Buchung in der Dienstkennungsliste ortsbezogener Datendienste dieser Mautbake enthalten ist und wenn ja, Senden der zugeordneten Teilnehmerkennung an den durch die Dienstkennung identifizierten Datendienst, und
• Zurverfügungstellen von ortsbezogenen Daten durch diesen Datendienst über das Mobilfunknetz an das durch die Teilnehmerkennung identifizierte Mobilterminal.

This object is achieved by a method of the aforementioned type, in which the onboard units have unique device identifiers, the mobile terminals unique subscriber identifiers and the data services unique service identifiers and located on one or more attached to the mobile network application servers and data connections, preferably via a central office the road toll system to which toll banners are connected and which includes the following steps:

• Storing a list of service identifications of toll-billing-related data services in this toll-bake, an association between the equipment identifier and the subscriber identifier of a vehicle in the road toll system, and at least one reservation of a service identifier for a device or subscriber identifier in the road toll system,
• Sending the device identifier of a tollbake passing onboard unit to the tollbake via short distance communication
• Determining the service ID booking for said device or associated subscriber identifier,
• Checking whether the service identifier from this booking is included in the service identifier list of location-related data services of this toll-bake and, if so, sending the associated subscriber identifier to the data service identified by the service identifier, and
• Providing location-related data through this data service over the mobile network to the mobile terminal identified by the subscriber identifier.

The invention is based on the finding that a large-volume data service with high localization precision can be made available via the existing infrastructure of a network of geographically distributed toll banners of a road toll system in conjunction with a mobile radio network, which does not cause any additional costs for localizations in the mobile radio network. In each toll bake - or outsourced to a proxy or a center of the road toll system - an adjustment takes place between the data services booked by a passing on-board unit with the data services available at the toll-bill location, so as to prevent unnecessary traffic and disruption of the driver by irrelevant information. The driver can subscribe or book exactly those data services which are of interest or safety relevant to the driving operation. Thus, for example, traffic-related information large data volume, eg graphically complicated congestion maps, weather maps with precipitation and icing zones, etc. are distributed location-based, location-related application calls are initiated, eg payments from the mobile terminal, etc. In this sense, under the term "data service" used here are arbitrary Applications understood, including the aforementioned.

It should be mentioned at this point that it is from the scriptures US 70 10 267 and WO 2001/01711 is known per se for the distribution of location-based advertising to emit by means of a network of Bluetooth beacons advertising links (URLs) to passing mobile phone users to ask them to retrieve additional information via mobile Internet. Such a solution requires a separate network of Bluetooth beacons and is unsuitable for safety-related traffic applications because it requires user attention and interaction to select information, compromising the safe operation of a vehicle.

As noted, the list of service identifications of the toll billing-related data services are stored in the same toll-bake, and the service identifier registration for said device or associated subscriber identifier is determined in that toll-bake, which provides a rapid on-site response - i.e. in the respective toll-bake - to which these passing on-board units permit, without the toll-bake having to resort to a remote proxy or a remote center.

In a first embodiment of the invention, the location-relatedness of the data service is ensured by its service identifier, ie each service identifier stands for a data service specific to the toll-billing location. In a further embodiment of the invention, it can preferably be provided that the subscriber identification also sends the toll-billing location to the identified data service so that it can more precisely adapt its services or data to the toll-billing location. For example, a data service identified by its service identifier can thus be responsible for a larger area with a plurality of toll banners and specifically adapts its data or services to the respectively transmitted toll-billing location.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the service registration entry is stored in a list of tollbakings and said service identifier registration is determined in the tollbake based on this list. The user can enter the desired data services under his device or subscriber identifier, for example in a central list of the road toll system, which is then distributed to all toll banners. As a result, communication between the onboard unit and the tollbake can be kept to a minimum and does not require modification to conventional road toll standards.

Alternatively, the service ID booking can be stored in the onboard unit and said service ID registration is performed by sending that booked service ID (s) together with the device and / or subscriber ID from the onboard unit to the tollbaket / become. This variant has the advantage that the user does not have to centrally book his services in the road toll system, but can do so locally on his on-board unit, which offers significant runtime advantages in the processing of services, especially for locally limited services.

The named association between device identifier and subscriber identifier can also be made at different points in the system. In a first variant, in which the data services are connected to the toll banners via the control center of the road toll system, the association between the device identifier and the subscriber identifier is stored in a list of the center of the road toll system via which the transmission to the data service takes place and where the subscriber identifier associated with the device identifier is determined from the list. Although this requires a corresponding central registration in the road toll system, but simplifies the communication between onboard units and toll beacons. The said assignment list can also be distributed from the control center to the toll beacons, so that the subscriber identifier assigned to the device identifier can be determined from the local list in the tollbaket, which enables accelerated processing.

In a further variant, the subscriber identifier associated with the device identifier can be stored in the onboard unit and sent by the latter to the tollbake, which makes central registration unnecessary, but requires a corresponding modification of the short-distance communication.

The method of the invention is suitable for any road toll systems with various types of short-range communications, e.g. via infrared, RFID (radio-frequency identification) or WLAN (wireless local area network). It is particularly favorable if the short distance communication takes place according to the DSRC (dedicated short range communication) or WAVE standard (wireless access in a vehicle environment), which standards have wide distributions in road toll systems with geographically distributed toll beacons.

• Fig. 1 eine erste Ausführungsform des Verfahrens der Erfindung im Rahmen eines schematisch dargestellten Straßenmautsystems; und
• die Fig. 2 und 3 Varianten des Verfahrens von Fig. 1 anhand eines Ausschnitts des Straßenmautsystems von Fig. 1.

The invention will be explained in more detail with reference to embodiments illustrated in the accompanying drawings. In the drawings show:

• Fig. 1 a first embodiment of the method of the invention in the context of a schematically illustrated road toll system; and
• the FIGS. 2 and 3 Variants of the method of Fig. 1 on the basis of a section of the road toll system from Fig. 1 ,

According to Fig. 1 Vehicles 1 move on a road 2 as part of a road toll system, which comprises a plurality of geographically distributed toll beacons 3 (only one shown) and at least one center 4. The vehicles 1 lead vehicle equipment Onboard units (OBUs) 5, which can perform short-distance communications 6, ie wireless communications of limited range, with the toll beacons 3 as they pass through or reach within their reach.

The on-board units 5 have unique device identifications (OBU-IDs) OID in the road toll system with which they identify themselves to the toll beacons 3 in the course of a short-distance communication 6 (message 7). After the passage of an on-board unit 5, a tollbaket 3 can thus deposit a toll transaction 8 via a data connection 9 to the center 4, which toll transaction 8 contains at least the device identifier OID of the onboard unit 5 and the location "pos" of the tollbaket 3. The Mautbakenort pos can also be specified in the form of a unique identifier of the toll beacon 3, when the center 4 knows the places of toll beacons 3.

In the center 4, due to the received toll transactions 8, a use of the toll bag location pos by the vehicle 1 may be charged or leased, e.g. driving on a toll road, entering a tolled district, staying at a toll road, etc., as known to those skilled in the art.

Various technologies can be used for the short-distance communication 6, eg infrared (IR), radio frequency identification (RFID), dedicated short range communication (DSRC), wireless local area network (WLAN), wireless access in a vehicle environment (WAVE), ZigBee Preference ^®, Bluetooth ^®, etc. is a DSRC or WAVE compound as is used in conventional road toll systems.

In addition to the on-board unit 5, the vehicle 1 also carries a mobile terminal 10 which can be integrated in the on-board unit 5, connected to it or separate therefrom. The mobile terminal 10 is a mobile terminal for data reception 11 in a mobile network 12 so-called second, third, fourth, etc. generation (2G, 3G, 4G, etc.), in particular according to GSM, UMTS, LTE or WIMAX standards. The mobile terminal 10 is for this purpose For example, a mobile transceiver integrated in the on-board unit 5 or a mobile telephone designed for data reception, a handheld PC, a webpad, etc., are integrated both "stand-alone" and in an on-board electronic system of the vehicle 1.

The mobile terminal 10 is identified in the mobile network 12 via a unique subscriber identifier (mobile ID) MID. The subscriber identifier MID can be, for example, a telephone number, IMSI, IMEI or IP address in the mobile radio network 12.

Via the mobile radio network 12, location-related data services 13 can be received in or used by the mobile terminal 10, e.g. also interactive. The data services 13 are based, for example, on one or more application servers (not shown), which are connected to the mobile radio network 12 directly or. are connected via appropriate gateways.

The data services 13 are also connected via data links 14, preferably the Internet, connected to the toll beacons 3, u. preferably via the center 4 of the road toll system. The center 4 can be used for this purpose e.g. an Internet gateway 15 for communicating with data services 13 on the Internet. If the central office 4 is omitted, the data services 13 or the application servers providing them are connected directly to the toll beacons 3 via the data connections 9, 14.

The data services 13 each have a unique service identifier (service ID) SID with which they are identifiable, e.g. a URL (uniform resource locator) on the Internet. Each data service 13 is specific to the location of one (or more) toll beacons 3, i. in this sense, a location-based data service. In addition, a data service 13 can also in turn - if he e.g. is responsible for several toll banks 3 - specially adapted to the respective Mautbakenort pos adapted data or services "data" offer, as represented by the list 16.

The toll-bake 3 in turn contains a list 17 with the service identifiers SID of those data services 13 which are responsible for their location pos are responsible or available. The entries in the service identifier list 17 are here designated A-SID ("available SIDs").

In turn, a list 18 of the desired or "booked" data services 13 is stored in the on-board unit 5, each referenced by a service identifier SID, designated here in the list 18 as a B-SID ("booked SIDs"). Each entry in the list 18 thus represents a "service registration" of the OBU 5 with the device identifier OID relating to a data service 13 with the service identifier SID. The list 18 can be used in the production or output of the OBU 5 to the user in the OBU 5 stored and / or created or changed via a user interface or during operation "on the fly".

When passing a toll-bake 3, the OBU 5 transmits in the course of the short-distance communication 6 to their device identifier OID also the list 18 of the data services booked by it B-SID, see message 7. In the toll-bake 3 is checked to see if one (or more) the booked service identifications B-SID in the list 17 of the data available at the toll bag location pos 13 is included. If yes, i. If there is a match between a booked service identifier B-SID and an available service identifier A-SID, this service identifier (A or B) SID becomes a toll transaction 8 via the data connection 9 together with the device identifier OID and (optionally) the toll bag location pos the central station 4 sent.

The service identification list 17 could alternatively be held in the toll booth 3 or in an intermediate proxy computer (not shown), in which case the said reconciliation between booked data services B-SID and data services A-SID available at the toll-bill location also into the center 4 or whose proxy computer could be outsourced.

In the center 4, an assignment list 19 between the device identifiers OID of the on-board units 5 and the subscriber identifications MID of the mobile terminals 10 is stored. To build the list 19, the user of the vehicle 1, for example register with its device and subscriber identities OID, MID in the center 4, for example via the Internet 14 or a connected to the center 4 (not shown) point of sale terminal.

In the center 4 of a received device identifier OID assigned subscriber identifier MID is now determined from the list 19 and instead (or in a non-inventive example also in addition) of the device identifier OID in a modified transaction message 8 'used, which via the Internet 14 to the by the service identifier SID specified data service 13 is sent. The data service 13 with the service identifier SID receives the subscriber identifier MID and - if he is responsible for several beacons pos - optionally also the beacon location pos and provides its location-related data data - possibly depending on the location pos - via the mobile network 12 to the subscriber identifier MID identified mobile terminal 10 available (message 20). The mobile terminal 10 can respond directly to the receipt of the message 20 and display or use the location-related data contained therein data of the service 13, or have previously been placed in special readiness for reception by the onboard unit 5, if a connection between onboard unit. 5 and mobile terminal 10 exists.

The location-related data data (message 20) may be, for example, an SMS, voice mail or an advertisement of a website or graphic or also a "remote process call" (RPC) for starting or triggering an application.

Fig. 2 shows a variant of the method of Fig. 1 in which the service ID entries of the on-board unit 5 are not stored in this itself but in a list 21 of the tollbaket 3. The list 21 contains the service IDs B-SID for a device identifier OID. The list 21 is preferably distributed from the center 4 to all their toll beacons 3 and can be co-created, for example, when creating the list 19. The on-board unit 5 therefore needs in the course of a short-distance communication 6 to a toll-bake 3 only in a conventional manner their device identifier Send OID (message 7 '), and the toll-bake 3 determines the data services B-SID booked for the received device identifier OID from the booking list 21, and then reconciles them with the list 17 of the available service identifiers A-SID and again in the case of coincidence the messages 8, 8 'via the central office 4 to the corresponding data service 13 deduct.

Fig. 3 shows a further alternative of the method of Fig. 1 and 2 , in which the list 19 is deposited directly in the toll-bake 3. The assignment of the subscriber identifier MID to the device identifier OID takes place here directly in the tollbaket 3, so that a modified message 8 'can be sent via the data connection 9 to the central station 4, in which the subscriber identifier MID already appears instead of the device identifier OID. It is understood that this variant with both the embodiment of Fig. 1 as well as those of Fig. 2 can be combined.

Another variant of the association between the device identifier OID and subscriber identifier MID is that the subscriber identifier MID is stored directly in the OBU 5 to their device identifier OID or the OBU 5 - when it is connected to the mobile terminal 10 - receives from this the subscriber identifier MID. In this case, in the message 7 or 7 'via the short-distance communication 6 instead of (or to) the device identifier OID, the subscriber identifier MID can be sent to the tollbaket 3 and used in the further procedure. Also this variant is with each of the in the Fig. 1-3 shown embodiments combined.

Billing of the location-related data or data services 13 can be performed by the center 4, by the application server of the data services and / or by the operator of the mobile radio network 12.

The invention is not limited to the illustrated embodiments, but includes all variants and modifications that fall within the scope of the appended claims.

Claims (8)

1. A method for providing location-specific data services (13) to vehicles (1) that carry onboard units (5) for short-range communication (6) with tolling stations (3) at known locations (pos) in a road-tolling system as well as mobile terminals (10) for data reception (11) in a mobile communication network (12), wherein the onboard units (5) have unique device IDs (OID), the mobile terminals (10) have unique terminal IDs (MID), and the data services (13) have unique service IDs (SID) and are located on one or more application servers connected to the mobile communication network and are connected to the tolling stations (3) via data connections (14), preferably via a control center (4) of the road-toll system, comprising:

   Storing a list (17), in this respective tolling station (3), of service IDs (A-SID) of data services (13) related to the location (pos) of a tolling station (3), a mapping (19) between the device ID (OID) and the terminal ID (MID) of a vehicle (1) in the road-tolling system, and at least one booking (18) of a service ID (B-SID) for a device or terminal ID (OID, MID) within the road tolling system;

   Transmitting the device ID (OID) of an onboard unit (5) passing a tolling station (3) to the tolling station (3) by means of short-range communication (6, 7, 7');

   Retrieving the service ID booking (18) for said device ID or corresponding terminal ID (OID, MID);

   Testing whether the service ID (B-SID) from this booking (18) is included in the service ID list (17) of location-specific data services (13) for this tolling station (3), and if so, transmitting the corresponding terminal ID (MID) to the data service (13) identified by the service ID (SID), and providing location-specific data (data) by this data service (13) via the mobile communication network (12) to the mobile terminal (10) identified by the terminal ID (MID).
2. The method of Claim, characterized in that the tolling station location (pos) is also sent to the identified data service (13) along with the terminal ID (MID), and is applied by the service.
3. The method of Claim 1 or 2, wherein the service ID booking (18) is stored in a list of the tolling station (3) and said retrieval of the service ID booking (18) is done at the tolling station (3) with reference to this list.
4. The method of Claim 1 or 2, wherein the service ID booking (18) is stored in the onboard unit (5) and said retrieval of the service ID booking (18) is done by sending this to the tolling station (3) together with the device and/or terminal ID (OID, MID).
5. The method of any of Claims 1 through 4, wherein the data services (1) are connected to the toll stations (3) via the control center (4) of the road-toll system, characterized in that the mapping between device ID (OID) and terminal ID (MID) is stored in a list (19) at the control center (4) of the road tolling system, via which the transmission to the data service (13) takes place and where the terminal ID (MID) mapped to the device ID (OID) is retrieved with reference to the list (19).
6. The method of any of Claims 1 through 4, characterized in that the mapping between device ID (OID) and terminal ID (MID) is stored in a list (19) of the tolling station (3), where the terminal ID (MID) mapped to the device ID (OID) is retrieved with reference to the list (19).
7. The method of any of Claims 1 through 4, characterized in that the terminal ID (MID) mapped to the device ID (OID) is stored in the onboard unit (5) and sent by it to the tolling station (3).
8. The method of any of Claims 1 through 7, characterized in that the short-range communication (6) takes place according to the DSRC or WAVE standard.

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