NZ621996B - Onboard-Installation for a vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

Disclosed is an on-board unit for a traffic telematics system. The unit is comprised of a first communication module, designed for near-range radio communication with a first external communication device, a second communication module, designed for far-range radio communication with a second external communication device, and a non-volatile memory. The non-volatile memory can be accessed both by the first and second communication module. Each communication module has a power-supplied communication mode and a powerless or power-saving rest mode. Power is supplied to the memory in response to an action of the communication module that is accessing the memory. This power may be supplied by the communication module itself or by a battery. nal communication device, and a non-volatile memory. The non-volatile memory can be accessed both by the first and second communication module. Each communication module has a power-supplied communication mode and a powerless or power-saving rest mode. Power is supplied to the memory in response to an action of the communication module that is accessing the memory. This power may be supplied by the communication module itself or by a battery.

Description

Patents Form No. 5 N.Z. No. 621996 NEW ZEALAND s Act 1953 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION ONBOARD—INSTALLATION FOR A VEHICLL We, KAPSCH CCOM AG, an Austrian company, of Am Europlatz 2, A—1120 Wien, Austria, do her by dcclar the invention, for which. we pray that, a patent may' be granted. to us, and the method, by which it is to be performed, to be particularly described in and by the following statementz~ _2._ Onboard—Installation for a Vehicle The present invention s to an d unit for a traffic telematics system. The invention further relates to an onboard system for a vehicle comprising such an onboard unit.

Onboard units (OBUs) are used in a large number 0’ — ent applications of traffic telematics s, whether for electronic fication of a vehicle or for payment of road, access, area or city tolls, for payment of parking fees, for access control (for example barrier systems), for electronic vehicle registration (EVR), etc., etc. For this purpose, on— board units are often equipped with a short—range communication module, for example in accordance with the DSRC (dedicated short range communication) standard, so that they can be local— ised to the local radio coverage range of an interrogating ra— dio beacon. Here, the communication Hmdule is supplied with power together with the rest of the electronics of the onboard unit by a battery installed in the onboard unit.

In order to save power and to achieve a long service life of the y, d units or the ication module thereof generally have a power~supplied or power—consuming working and communication mode and a power—saving rest mode. By addressing the onboard unit by means of an external communica— tion device, for e a radio beacon of a road toll system, an access barrier, a control device or the like, the onboard unit can be awakened from its rest mode and shifted temporarily into its working or communication mode; it then lapses back into the rest mode until the next communication. Commercially obtainable onboard units can currently achieve a battery ser— 3O vice life of up to seven years in this way.

The object of the invention is to equip onboard units of the aforementioned type with further functionalities, in par— ticular without impairing the battery service life of the on— board unit.

This object is achieved in a first aspect of the invention with an onboard unit for a traffic telematics system, comprising: a first communication module, designed for near—range radio communication with a first external communication device, a second ication module, designed for far-range radio communication with a second external communication device, and a non—volatile memory, which can be accessed both by the first and the second communication module, wherein each ication. module has a power—supplied communication mode and a powerless or power—saving rest mode, wherein the power supply of the memory, during an access thereto, is effected. by the respective communication. module which is accessing the memory.

In accordance with the ion the onboard unit, in addition to the short—range communication module mentioned in the introduction, is also equipped with a further communication module which is designed for an even shorter radio range, referred to here as “near—range radio communication”. In the present description, near—range radio ication is understood to mean communication over a radio range of at most a few centimetres or a few tens of centimetres, as is implemented in particular by the NFC (near field communication) standard. For distinction, the conventional short—range ication module of the onboard unit will be referred to hereinafter as a “far—range ication module”. In the present description, such a far—range radio communication will 3O be understood to mean communication over a far range of at most a few metres, a few tens of metres, or a few hundred metres, as is implemented for example by the DSRC (dedicated short range communication), GEN-DSRC, RC, IEEE p or WAVE (wireless access for vehicular environments) or ITS—G5 standards, including WLAN and Wifi®, Bluetooth® or also active and passive RFID (radio ncy identification) technologies. _.4_ In accordance with the invention the near—range ica— tion nwdule and the far—range ication deule access a common non—volatile memory, for example a flash memory, wherein the ange communication module, during use thereof, ef— fects the power supply of the memory, such that there is no need to start up thc power ive far—range communication module. Additional near—range functionalities can thus be cre- ated without increasing the power demand of the onboard unit, that is to say without significantly impairing the battery ser— vice life of the onboard unit. For e, configuration data for the onboard unit can thus be input via the near—range radio interface, or arbitrary data can be read out from the onboard unit, for example logfiles for inspection by the user or au— thorities, without “waking up" the main— or far—range communi— cation components of the onboard unit and thus g the bat— tery.

Here, the power supply to the memory during the memory ac— cess can be effected in two ways. On the one hand the power can be supplied directly by the communication module accessing the memory if the communication module for example has its own power supply (battery) or can be supplied with power directly via radio (”passive transponder”), such as (a passive NFC or RFID tag. It is particularly favourable if the near—range com— munication module is a passive NFC tag, that is to say func— tions in accordance with the NFC rd and can be supplied with power via radio. NFC requires a close proximity of the ex— ternal communication device to the onboard unit in order to es— tablish communication, which gives the user assurance of ad— dressing precisely this onboard unit. Due to the radio power 3O supply of the NFC tag, it is ensured that the battery of the onboard unit is in no way used during this process.

The second communication module may optionally be a pas— sive RFID tag, which can be ed with power via radio in order to save battery power. ___5__ On the other hand, the power supply to the memory during access to the memory can be effected by an activation or switching—on of a separate power supply, for example a battery, to the memory. For example, the onboard unit has its own or an external battery for power supply, and the respective communi— cation module accessing the memory, said communication module being fed by this battery in the communication mode, actuates a switch during the memory access, said switch switching on the power supply to the memory at least and preferably only for the on of the memory access. This also includes the case that the switch. detects (”feels") the memory access, for e over the memory access bus of the communication module, in or— der to then apply the power supply to the memory in a timely manner. These embodiments are favourable for those types of communication modules and memories in which a power supply via radio would not be sufficient to supply sufficient power to the ication module and/or the memory during the memory ac— cess.

The far-range communication module could in principle be of any type known in the art for onboard units, for example a mobile radio module for a cellular mobile network c land mobile network, PLMR). The far—range communication module is preferably a DSRC or WAVE module or an active RFID tag, which is supplied with power by the battery of the onboard unit. Al— ternatively, the second ication module could also be sup— plied exclusively via radio power, for example in the form of a e RFID tag.

The onboard unit or the memory is preferably designed to prioritise a memory access of the far—range communication mod— 3O ule over a memory access of the near—range communication mod— ule. Alternatively the far—range communication module, if in the communication mode, can vate the first communication module. Collisions in the event of memory access can be pre— vented. by these measures: The far—range radio communication thus always enjoys higher ty than the near—range radio —6-— ication, which prevents faults in the traffic tics system.

As already mentioned briefly, the memory preferably con— tains configuration data for the traffic tics system which can be written into the memory via the near—range commu— nication module and can be read out from the memory via the far—range communication. module. Here, the configuration data may be in particular one or more of the following elements: user identification, vehicle identification, tolling' account identification, axle number, tolling parameters, load designa— tion, account credit or account balance of an electronic purse of the onboard unit, cryptographic keys, or timestamps, in par— ticular concerning vehicle use. If the external near—range com— munication device for example is a mobile telephone, smartphone or the like, which is equipped with an NFC transceiver and cor— responding application software, the t e of the electronic purse of the onboard unit can be charged in this way or the onboard unit can thus be configured in l for op— eration, for example.

Alternatively or additionally, the memory may contain transaction data of the traffic telematics system which can be written into the memory via the far—range communication module and can be read out from the memory via the first communication module. Here, the ction data may be one or more of the following elements: location data, beacon fications, load designation, tolling transactions, parking‘ fee transactions, account e of an electronic purse of the onboard unit, cryptographic keys, or timestamps, in particular concerning ve— hicle use. For example, logfiles, protocols, etc. can thus be 3O read out via the near—range radio interface, for example into an NFC—enabled mobile telephone or smartphone ing to the user or a controller.

In a further aspect the invention creates an onboard sys— tem for a vehicle which on the one hand comprises an onboard unit of the type presented here, of which the memory contains -'7_ an identification of the onboard unit which can be read out via the first communication module, and on the other hand a further NFC tag, separate fron1 the d. unit, which contains an identification of the separate further NFC tag which can be read out via radio.

The onboard system according to the ion enables the control of the e linking of an onboard unit to a vehicle.

Onboard units of the type mentioned here are lly ed releasably to the vehicle due to their autonomous power supply and. therefore the need. for an occasional battery exchange, which in itself runs the risk of manipulations if a clear asso— ciation between the onboard unit on the one hand and vehicle on the other hand is required, for example for vehicle registra— tion or charging purposes. Due to the use of a separate further NFC tag, which can be read out er with the near—range communication module of the onboard unit by the external commu— nication device, the identification of the onboard unit on the one hand read out in such a way and the characterisation of the separate tag on the other hand can be checked for correct asso— ciation.

It is particularly favourable if the further NFC tag is formed as an adhesive label, which, once adhered, can no longer be ed without being destroyed. The separate NFC tag thus produces a permanent vehicle linking between the tag identifi— cation and vehicle, whereas the associated identification of the onboard unit can be used for the corresponding purposes in the traffic tics system, for example for toll or parking fee purposes, EVR purposes, access purposes, etc.

In accordance with a preferred variant the memory of the 3O onboard unit may also contain the identification of the sepa— rate further NFC tag, which facilitates the checking of the NFC tag identification.

In yet a further aspect the invention creates an external near—range ication device for an d system of the type presented here, which is characterised. in that it is —8<— formed as an NFC reader and is designed to read out the identi— on of the onboard unit from the onboard unit and to read out the identification of the separate r NFC tag from the separate further NFC tag and to check against a se of on— board unit identifications and NFC tag identifications associ— ated with one another, or in that it is formed as an NFC reader and is designed to read out the identification of the separate further NFC tag from the memory of the d unit on the one hand and from the separate further NFC tag on the other hand and to check these against one another. The vehicle linking of an onboard unit attached (in fact releasably) in the e can thus be checked using a single device, more specifically by jointly reading out the fication of the permanently at— tached NFC tag.

In yet a further aspect the invention lastly creates an onboard unit of the type ted here, which is characterised by a third communication module which is formed. as an NFC reader and is designed to read out the identification of a fur- ther NFC tag, separate from the onboard unit, and to write this identification into the memory, wherein the far—range communi— cation module of the onboard unit is formed as a DSRC, ITS—G5 or WAVE module and is designed to transmit the NFC tag identi— fication read out in such a way to a second external communica— tion device. The vchiclo linking of the d unit can also be verified with these embodiments. The separate NFC tag is preferably again formed for this purpose as an adhesive label, which, once adhered, can no longer be detached without being destroyed.

The first communication module and the third communication 3O module are preferably formed by a common NFC module which can be switched over between an operating mode as first communica— tion module and an operating mode as third communication mod— ule.

The invention will be explained in greater detail — after with reference to exemplary ments illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which: Fig. 1 shows a schematic overview of an onboard system ac— cording to the invention for a vehicle, said onboard system be— ing connected to external first and second ication de— vices; Fig. 2 shows, in the form of a block diagram, a first em— bodiment of the onboard system from Fig. 1 connected to first and second external communication devices; Fig. 3 shows, in the form of a block m, a second em— bodiment of the onboard unit of the invention connected to ex— ternal first and second communication devices; and Fig. 4 shows, in the form of a block diagram, a third em— bodiment of the onboard unit of the invention connected to ex— ternal first and second communication devices.

Fig. 1 shows an onboard system 1 for a vehicle 2, of which the only detail that is shown is the reen 3. The onboard system 1 can be fitted in or on the vehicle 2, for example ad— hered to the inner face of the windscreen 3. The onboard system 1 comprises an onboard unit 4 and an NFC tag (near field commu— nication tag) 5 separate therefrom, of which the function will be explained below in greater detail. ,_She onboard unit 4 serves for radio communication with a traffic telematics system 6, of which only a communication de— vice in the form of a roadside radio beacon 7 (roadside entity, RSE) is shown entatively and by way of example. The radio beacon 7 may be both nary and mobile, for e ar— ranged on a control vehicle or formed as a hand—held device for a controller, and handles radio communications 8 with the on— board unit 4 via a transceiver 7’, for example if the vehicle 2 passes the radio beacon 7 or vice versa.

If the radio coverage range of its radio communications 8 is limited to a local area, the radio beacon 7 can locate the onboard unit 4 in this area, for example in order to bill a lo- ~10— cation usage of the e 2 in the form of road, , area or city tolls, in order to collect a parking fee, in order to release an access barrier, or in order to record an fica— tion of the vehicle 2, its user, etc. read out from the onboard unit 4 etc., etc.

The onboard unit 4 of the onboard system 1 is also capable of handling radio communications with a further al commu— nication device 10 of the user via a further radio interface 9.

For e, the communication device 10 may be a mobile tele— phone, smartphone, notebook PC or tablet PC, personal digital assistant (FDA), etc. belonging to the user of the vehicle or to a controller. The communication device 10 may also handle further radio communications 9’ with the separate NFC tag 5.

The radio communications 9, 9' between the (”first”) ex— ternal communication device 10 and the onboard system 1, that is to say the d unit 4 and the NFC tag 5, are designed exclusively for the near range, that is to say their radio range is limited to a few centimetres or a few tens of centime— tres, such that the communication device 10 has to be t into the immediate vicinity of the onboard unit 4 and of the NFC tag 5 in order to be able to carry out the radio communica— tions 9, 9'. By contrast, the radio communications 8 between the onboard unit 4 and the (”second") external communication device 7 have a much larger range by comparison, for example a few metres, a few tens of metres, or a few hundred metres, such that they are also referred to here as ange" radio commu— nications 8, although this is also short—range radio here, for example in ance with short—range radio standards such as DSRC (dedicated short range communication), CEN—DSRC, UNI—DSRC, 3O WAVE (wireless access for vehicular environments) and IEEE 802.11p, ITS—G5, WLAN (wireless local area network), Wifi®, Bluetooth®, RFID (radio frequency identification) or the like.

Fig. 2 shows the structure of the onboard system 1, of the first communication device 10 and of the second communication device 7 for handling the radio communications 9, 9' and 8 in _11_ detail. For the far—range radio communications 8 with the sec— ond communication devices 7, for example radio beacons, the on— board unit 4 contains a corresponding far—range communication module ll in accordance with the respective short—range radio rd DSRC, CEN—DSRC, UNI—DSRC, WAVE, IEEE 802.11p, ITS—GS, WLAN, Wifi®, Bluetooth® or RFID, which is supplied with power by a battery 12 of the onboard unit 4 (a communication module ll according to the RFTD standard which requires such a power supply 12 will also be ed to here as an ”active” RFTD tag). The battery 12 may also be part of an ement con— nected via a cable to the onboard unit 4.

The far—range communication module 11 of the onboard unit 4 can access a memory 13 of the onboard unit 4 in order to pre— pare, generate or process the radio communications 8, more spe— cifically the data packets transmitted and/or ed therein, said memory containing configuration and/or ction data for this purpose. For example, the memory 13 contains configu— ration data for the correct functioning of the onboard unit 4 in the traffic telematics system 6, or credits for the speci— 2O fied accounts, such as one or more of the following elements: a unique identification of the onboard unit 4 (OBU fica— tion), a user identification of the driver of the vehicle 2, a vehicle identification of the vehicle 2, an fication of a toll or fee account of the user or of the vehicle, vehicle pa- rameters such as axle number, weight, size, purpose etc. of the vehicle 2, toll— or parking—fee—specific ters such as fee class, passenger number or the specified vehicle ters, etc., etc. The configuration data may also contain data, in particular the account balance, of an ”electronic purse" in the 3O onboard unit 4 or of a credit or debit account in the traffic telematics system 6, or credits for the specified accounts. The configuration data may further also be load designations, with the result that the content of the memory 13 forms a load pro- tocol; cryptographic keys for encrypted communications via the communication modules, and/or timestamps, in particular by the _12_ vehicle driver for temporal control of the vehicle use, with the result that the onboard unit forms an 1’electronic tacho~ graph”. For such a timestamp recording, an OBU—internal clock is advantageous which can possibly be synchronised by the near— range and/or far—range radio communications 9, 8 from the com— munications devices 10, 7, for example when passing radio bea— cons.

Additionally or alternatively, the memory 13 can contain transaction data, which it receives or collects during the op— eration of the d unit 4 in the traffic telematics system 6, for example said data being constituted by one or more of the ing elements: location data, which the onboard unit 4 records itself or receives from radio beacons 7, beacon identi— fications of radio beacons 7 passed by the onboard unit, iden— tifications of communication s 7 encountered by the on— board unit, toll or parking fee transactions generated over the course of nge radio communications 8, for example when passing a roadside radio beacon 7, transactions which influence or reproduce the account balance of an electronic purse of the onboard unit 4 or of a credit or debit account in the traffic telematics system 6, for example debit transactions, or load designations, dangerous goods declarations, or the like. The transaction data may also be provided with ponding time— stamps, as ned previously for the uration data.

A far—range radio communication 8 may cause a direct acti— vation of the far—range ication module ll and. trigger there a processing procedure, for example a g of data in the secure environment of the onboard unit 4. This processed data may then be read out, for example immediately via a near— 3O range radio communication 9.

Of course, the onboard unit 4 is only illustrated in a highly fied manner for this purpose; further components such as processors, hardware or software modules, etc., which are necessary for the cooperation described here between the communication module 11 and the memory 13 and for the handling of the radio communications 8, 9 ned here, are not illus— trated for s of clarity.

As illustrated symbolically by the arrow 14, power can be supplied to the memory 13 during the write and/or read access (15) of the communication module 11 to the memory 13 by the ication module 11 (and therefore by the battery 12 in the embodiment shown in Fig. 2). Of , the arrow 14 is only symbolic here; for example, power can be supplied to the memory 13 directly by the battery 12, and the memory 13 can be sup- plied with power in a controlled manner correspondingly by the communication module 11 during the memory access 15.

In order to save power and to maximise the service life of the battery 12, the d unit 4, in particular the far—range communication module 11 thereof, can be switched over between a power—saving or powerless rest mode and a power—supplied or power~draining communication mode. In other words, the onboard unit 4 or at least the far—range communication module 11 thereof lapses, in the breaks between chronologically inter— spaced far—range radio communications 8, into a powerless or power—saving sleep or rest mode, from whiCh it is woken up again for example by a new radio communication 8, which starts from the second communication device 7.

So as not to impair this energy—saving function and so as not to reduce the service life of the battery 12, the onboard unit 4, for near—range radio communications 9, comprises a separate nearerange ication module 16, which, via the ra— dio communications 9, can be supplied with power by the first external communication device 10, for example a Hmbile tele— phone belonging to the user (arrow 17). For this purpose, the 3O communication device 10 has a /writer (transceiver) 18, for example an NFC reader and/or writer, designed for near“ range radio communications 9. The ange communication mod— ule 16 therefore in turn has a “powerless" rest mode when not addressed by the communication device 10 and is supplied from there with power, and a power—supplied communication mode, in _l4_ which it is addressed by means of a near—range radio communica— tion 9 and. is aneously supplied. with power from. the transceiver 18 (arrow 17).

A near—range communication module 16 of this type can be ed for example as a passive NFC tag, wherein ”passive" means that it is supplied with power via a radio ication 9. Passive NFC tags can also be considered as passive RFID transponders for extremely short radio ranges from a few centi~ metres to a few tens of centimetres. 1O As soon as the ange communication module 16 is in the radio power—supplied communication mode, it can access the memory 13 (arrow 19) and in so doing can supply power to the memory 13 (arrow 20). This is independent of whether or not the far—range communication module 11 is in the ication or rest mode and in turn supplies power (14) to the memory 13, or whether or not the entire rest of the d unit 4 is in the rest or operating mode. The content of the memory 13 can thus be read and/or written via the near—range radio communication 9 and the passive communication module 16, irrespective of whether the onboard unit 4 and/or the far~range communication module 11 thereof is working or sleeping.

For example, configuration data of the onboard unit 4 con— tained in the memory 13 can thus be input from the communica— tion device 10 or changed, for example a user fication can be input, an axle number of the vehicle can be set, etc.

The near—range communication device 10 serves here as an ”input arrangement" so to speak for the onboard unit 4. To this end, it needs merely to be held in the immediate vicinity of the on— board unit 4 in order to input data into the memory 13 via 3O near—range radio communications 9, even if the onboard unit 4 or the communication module 11 thereof is in the powerless or power—saving rest mode. The communication device 10 may have a physical keypad 21 or virtual keys on a touchscreen 22 for this purpose. _l5_ Similarly, transaction data can also be read out from the memory 13 into the communication device 10 via ange radio communications 9, for example logfiles ning past on uses, toll and parking fee transactions, debit transactions, account balances, etc. In this sense, the communication device can be used as an “output arrangement” so to speak for the onboard unit 4 and can display data thereof, for example on the y 22, without the need for the onboard unit 4 to have its own display for this e. The aforementioned transaction data (logfiles, protocols) may also describe, for example, loads carried by lorries, that is to say any loaded freight is declared in the onboard unit 4 and, where necessary, is also signed electronically by the onboard unit 4 if this constitutes a trustworthy environment by means of physical and onic access control. A signing by the onboard unit 4 can be imple— mented for example by means of a special write command from the near—range communication module 16 or by addressing a special memory region of the memory 13, which initiates subsequent processing by the far—range communication module 11. The proc- 2O essing by the far—range communication module 11 can be consid— ered for example to be particularly trustworthy if increased mechanisms are implemented in the physical and electronic ac— cess control.

In a further embodiment only a part of the entire memory 13 is available to the near—range communication module 16 for reading and writing, other memory regions being onally protected by physical or cryptographic access isms where appropriate. The memory 13 may thus also be composed of a num— ber of physically or logically separate memory modules. 3O In order to ensure that the far—range communications 8, which the onboard unit 4 handles with the communication devices 7, for example radio s, within the scope of the traffic tics systenl 6, are not impaired. by the entioned near~range communication functionality, the memory access 15 of the far—range communication module ll may optionally be priori— ~16— tised over the memory access 19 of the near—range communication module 16, for example by appropriate design of the memory 13 or programming of the processor (not illustrated) of the on— board unit 4. Alternatively, the far—range ication module 11, if in the communication mode, could directly vate the near—range communication module 16 (see arrow 23) in order to ensure its priority.

The near—range communication capability of the communica— tion device 10 and of the onboard unit 4 can be utilised subse— quently to secure the vehicle linking of an onboard unit 4 (which is usually fitted releasably in the vehicle 2, not least due to the need to have to replace the battery 12 occasionally) with respect to the vehicle 2. The te NFC tag 5, which er with the onboard unit 4 forms the aforementioned on— board system 1, is used for this purpose.

The separate NFC tag 5 is formed for example as an adhe— sive label 24, which, once adhered to the windscreen 3, can no longer be detached therefrom without being destroyed and thus has a permanent vehicle linking.

The separate NFC tag 5 is equipped with a radio—readable unique fication TID, which can be read out by the near— range communication device 10 over the course of a further near—range radio ication 9'. If the adhesive label 24 and the onboard unit 4 are brought into close proximity on the ve~ hicle 2, near—range radio ications 9, 9’ both with the NFC tag 16 of the onboard unit and with the separate NFC tag 5 of the adhesive label 24 can be established merely by holding out the communication device 10, and the identification OID of the onboard unit 4 and the identification TID of the further 3O NFC tag 5 can be read out and displayed on the y 22, ei— ther simultaneously or in direct succession.

The user of the near—range ication device 10, for example a controller, can thus check whether the identifica— tions TID and OTD in the traffic telematics system 6 have been recorded as being associated with one another, for example by ~17— checking a list. This preferably occurs automatically since the communication device 10 has access to a device—internal or ex— ternal database 25, for e provided in a headquarters of the traffic telematics system 6, of onboard unit identifica— tions OID and associated NFC tag identifications, on the basis of which the vehicle linking to the onboard unit 4, that is to say its use in the correct vehicle 2 ed with the corre— sponding NFC tag 5, can be checked.

The NFC tag identification TID of the separate NFC tag 5 may optionally also be stored in the onboard unit 4, for exam— ple in the memory 13 on the occasion of the output or personal— isation of the onboard unit 4 with simultaneous output of the respective NFC tag 5, such that, via the near—range radio com— munication 9, not only the onboard unit fication OID, but also the NFC tag identification TID stored for this purpose, can be read out and ed with the NFC tag identification TID interrogated from the adhesive label 24 via the near—range radio communication 9’. For e, the t use of the on— board unit 4 can be checked, even without access to the data- 2O base 25.

A further possibility lies in equipping the onboard unit 4 with its own NFC reader and/or writer (transceiver) 26. The transceiver 26 can, for its part, interrogate the further NFC tag 5 fitted in the vicinity via a further near—range radio communication 9” and can read out the NFC tag identification TID thereof in the memory 13. The ut NFC tag identifica— tion TID can then be ed, for example together with the onboard unit identification OID, via a far—range radio communi— cation 8 lay the ication device "L for example 51 radio 3O beacon. For example, the correct vehicle linking of the onboard unit 4, that is to say its correct use in the correct vehicle 2, can thus also be checked each time a radio beacon 7 of the vehicle telematics system 6 is passed.

The NFC transceiver 26 can also be provided jointly with the NFC tag 16 by the same physical device, for example an NFC —18— module, which can be selectively switched over into an NFC tag operating mode for emulating the NFC tag 16 and an NFC trans— ceiver operating mode for emulating the NFC reader and/or writer or NFC transceiver 26. The switchover can be implemented for example upon request by one of the communication devices 7, Fig. 3 shows a variant of the embodiment of Fig. 2, in which the far—range ication module 11 can also be sup— plied with power via radio, more specifically via the far—range radio communication 8 (arrow 27). The far—range radio communi— cation 8 can be implemented here for example in accordance with the RFID standard, and the far—range communication module 11 is then a passive transponder, for example a passive RFID tag.

This, if in the power—supplied. communication. mode, can also supply power via the (symbolic) path 14 to the memory 13 during memory access 15.

The other components illustrated in Fig. 3 correspond to the structure of Fig. 2. As can be seen, the separate NFC tag 5 or the adhesive label 24 can also be omitted, as can the bat— 2O tery 12 for the far—range communication module 11; further com— s (not illustrated) of the onboard unit 4 may also use a battery 12, where riate.

Fig. 4 shows a variant of the embodiments of Fig. 2 and 3, in which the near-range and/or the far—range ication mod— ule 16, 11 do not supply power directly (for e via their own radio power supply) to the memory 13, but merely effect the switching—on of the power supply or battery 12 to the memory 13 (or the part of the memory 13 used for this purpose) during the memory access 19, 15. For this purpose, a switch is shown at 28 3O which is controlled by the communication module 16 and/or by the communication module 11 and effects the switching—on of the y 12 to the memory 13 at least (and preferably also only) for the on of a memory access 19 or 15.

Of course, the switch 28 is only symbolic; for example, the corresponding power supply of the memory 13 during the mem— _19_ ory access 19 or 15 can be provided directly from the respec— tive communication module 16, 11, which is in turn powered in the communication mode by the battery 12. It is also possible for the switch 28 to detect itself the memory access 19 or 15 of a ication module 16 or 11, for example over the memory access interface of the respective communication module 16, 11, in order to then switch on the battery 12 to the memory 13 in good time for the memory access 19 or 15. All of these variants of the power supply of the memory 13 during the memory access of the respective communication module 16, 11 are included here by the expression ”effecting the power supply” of the memory 13 during the access 19, 15 by the respective communication module 16, 11.

The invention is not limited to the presented embodiments, but includes all variants, modifications and combinations that fall within the scope of the accompanying claims. -20_

Claims (17)

WHAT WE CLAIM IS:

1. An onboard. unit for a traffic tics system, comprising: a first communication module, designed for near—range radio communication with a first external communication device, a second communication module, designed for far—range radio communication with a second external ication device, and 10 a non—volatile memory, which can be accessed both by the first and the second communication module, wherein each communication module has a supplied communication mode and a powerless or power—saving rest mode, 15 wherein the power supply of the memory, during an access o, is effected. by the respective communication. module which is accessing the .

2. The onboard unit ing to Claim 1, characterised in that power is supplied to the memory during the access of at 20 least one ication module by this module itself.

3. The onboard unit according to Claim 1 or 2, characterised in that the first communication module is a passive NFC tag to which power can be supplied via radio.

4. The onboard unit according to any one of Claims 1 25 to 3, characterised in that the second communication module is a passive RFID tag to which power can be supplied via radio.

5. The onboard unit according to any one of Claims 1 to 4, characterised in that power is supplied to the memory during the access of at least one communication module by a 3O battery which can be switched on via a switch controlled by this communication module for the duration of the access to the memory.

6. The onboard unit according to any one of Claims 1 to 5, characterised in that the second communication module is 35 a DSRC, ITS—GS or WAVE module or an active RFID tag to which power is supplied by a battery of the onboard unit.

7. The onboard unit according to any one of Claims 1 to 6, characterised in that the onboard unit or the memory is designed to prioritise a memory access of the second communication module over a memory access of the first ication module.

8. The onboard unit according to any one of Claims 1 to 6, characterised in that the second communication module, if in the communication mode, deactivates the first communication 10

9. The d unit according to any one of Claims 1 to 8, characterised in that the memory contains configuration data for the traffic telematics system which can be written into the memory via the first communication module and read out from the memory via the second communication module, wherein 15 the configuration data preferably contains one or more of the following elements: user identification, vehicle identification, g account identification, axle number, tolling parameters, load designation, t credit or account balance of an electronic purse of the onboard unit, 20 cryptographic keys or timestamps.

10. The onboard unit according to any one of Claims 1 to 9, characterised in that the memory contains transaction data of the traffic telematics system which can be written into the memory via the second ication deule and read out 25 from the memory via the first communication , wherein the transaction data preferably contains one or more of the following ts: location data, beacon identifications, load designation, tolling transactions, parking fee transactions, account balance of an electronic purse of the onboard unit, 3O cryptographic keys or timestamps.

11. An d system for a vehicle, comprising: an onboard unit according to any one of Claims 1 to 10 in conjunction with ClaiH1 3, of which the memory contains an identification of the onboard unit which can be read out via 35 the first communication module, and _22_ a r NFC tag, separate from the onboard unit, which contains a radio—readable identification of the separate further NFC tag.

12. The onboard system according to Claim 11, characterised in that the separate further NFC tag is formed as an adhesive label, which, once adhered, can no longer be detached without being destroyed.

13. The onboard system. according to Claim. 11 or 12, characterised. in that the memory of the onboard unit also 10 ns the identification of the separate further NFC tag.

14. A system, sing an onboard system in accordance with Claim 11 or Claim 12, and a first communication device al to the onboard. system, which external first communication device is formed as an NFC reader and is designed

15 to read out the identification of the onboard unit from the onboard unit and to read out the identification of the separate r NFC tag from the te further NFC tag and to check against a database of onboard unit identifications and NFC tag identifications associated with one another. 20 15. A system, comprising an d system in accordance with Claim 13, and a first communication device external to the onboard system, which external first communication device is formed as an NFC reader and is designed to read out the identification of the separate further NFC tag on the one hand 25 from the memory of the onboard unit and on the other hand from the separate further NFC tag and to check these against one another.

16. The d unit ing to Claim 1, characterised by a ‘third. communication. module, which is formed as an. NFC 30 reader and is designed to read. out an identification. of a further NFC tag separate from the onboard unit and to write this identification into the memory, and in that the second communication module is formed as a DSRC, ITS—G5 or WAVE module and is designed to transmit the aforementioned identification 35 to a second external communication device, wherein the separate NFC tag is preferably formed as an adhesive label, which, once adhered, can no longer be detached without being destroyed.

17. The onboard unit according to Claim 16, characterised in that the first communication module and the third communication module are formed by a common NFC module which can be switched over n an ing mode as first communication module and an operating mode as third communication module. Kapsch TrafficCom AG By Their Attorneys HENRY HUGHES 15 Per: QQQM"