WO2014116147A1

WO2014116147A1 - Mobile terminal, control method thereof, tolling server, and control method thereof

Info

Publication number: WO2014116147A1
Application number: PCT/SE2013/050048
Authority: WO
Inventors: Shinta Sugimoto; Shingo Murakami; Toshikane Oda; Jan FREDANDER; Wataru Matsui
Original assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget L M Ericsson (Publ)
Priority date: 2013-01-23
Filing date: 2013-01-23
Publication date: 2014-07-31

Abstract

There is provided a mobile terminal. The mobile terminal comprises a receiving unit configured to receive a broadcast message directed to a geographical area associated with a toll road. The broadcast message includes a road identity for identifying the toll road. The mobile terminal also comprises a sending unit configured to send road passing information to a tolling server in response to the broadcast message. The road passing information includes the road identity and a user identity of the mobile terminal.

Description

DESCRIPTION

MOBILE TERMINAL, CONTROL METHOD THEREOF, TOLLING SERVER,

AND CONTROL METHOD THEREOF

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The present invention generally relates to a technique for electronic road tolling.

BACKGROUND

[0002] Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) is a system which allows vehicle drivers to make payment for a toll fare automatically. ERP brings various benefits such as: 1) fairness, 2) convenience, 3) reliability, and 4) congestion avoidance. ERP can be designed in a way that those who contribute more to the congestion pay more and those who use roads less frequently or who travel during non-peak hours pay less. User does not need to purchase daily/monthly licenses in order to make ERP-based payment. Since ERP is fully automated, there is no risk of human error in the toll collection. With ERP, vehicles do not need to make stop at

tollgates .

[0003] Currently, Singapore is one of the most advanced countries in terms of penetration of ERP.

Although the ERP system in Singapore works as expected and it is appreciated by society, there exist problems too. The current ERP system deployed in Singapore has the following issues:

- It is expensive to install and maintain

gantries (gantries are implemented with late 1990s technologies) .

- Gantries are large in size and are unsightly.

- The system requires two-way communication between an onboard unit (OBU) and a gantry.

[0004] In order to overcome the above issues, Singapore Land Transport Authority funds a project to develop a next generation ERP system (aka ERP2 ) and they are taking an approach that moves away from a solution that requires ERP gantries.

[0005] A variant of ERP called the Electronic Toll

Collection (ETC) system [1] is also known, and it is widely deployed and has been used in Japan since 2001. However, the ETC system is also a very expensive system because it requires dedicated ETC gantries and

dedicated short-Range Communications (DSRC) OBUs . The DSRC OBU requires a smartcard (e.g., a smartcard compliant with ISO/IEC 7816 or ISO/IEC 14443) and a smartcard reader, which increase the cost of the ETC system.

SUMMARY

[0006] The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and it is an ob ect thereof to eliminate the need for dedicated gantries for an electronic road tolling system and reduce the cost of the system.

[0007] According to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a mobile terminal The mobile terminal comprises a receiving unit

configured to receive a broadcast message directed to geographical area associated with a toll road. The broadcast message includes a road identity for

identifying the toll road. The mobile terminal also comprises a sending unit configured to send road passing information to a tolling server in response to the broadcast message. The road passing information includes the road identity and a user identity of the mobile terminal.

[0008] According to the second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a tolling server. The tolling server comprises a requesting unit

configured to request a broadcast server to broadcast broadcast message to a first geographical area

associated with a toll road. The broadcast message includes a road identity for identifying the toll road The tolling server also comprises a receiving unit configured to receive road passing information from a mobile terminal which received the broadcast message. The road passing information includes the road identit and a user identity of the mobile terminal. The tolling server further comprises a calculating unit configured to calculate a toll for the toll road to be charged to a user of the mobile terminal based on the road passing information.

[0009] According to the third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a control method of a mobile terminal. The method comprises a receiving step of receiving a broadcast message directed to a geographical area associated with a toll road. The broadcast message includes a road identity for

identifying the toll road. The method also comprises a sending step of sending road passing information to a tolling server in response to the broadcast message. The road passing information includes the road identity and a user identity of the mobile terminal.

[0010] According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a control method of a tolling server. The method comprises a requesting step of requesting a broadcast server to broadcast a broadcast message to a first geographical area

associated with a toll road. The broadcast message includes a road identity for identifying the toll road. The method also comprises a receiving step of receiving road passing information from a mobile terminal which received the broadcast message. The road passing information includes the road identity and a user identity of the mobile terminal. The method further comprises a calculating step of calculating a toll for the toll road to be charged to a user of the mobile terminal based on the road passing information.

[0011] By virtue of the above features, it is possible to eliminate the need for dedicated gantries for an electronic road tolling system and reduce the cost of the system.

[0012] Further features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which like reference characters designate the same or similar parts throughout the figures thereof.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0013] Fig. 1 illustrates an overview of a road tolling system according to the first embodiment of the present invention;

[0014] Fig. 2 illustrates a detailed configuration of the road tolling system and a detailed procedure of road tolling according to the first embodiment of the present invention;

[0015] Fig. 3 is a functional block diagram of the road tolling server 202 according to the first

embodiment of the present invention;

[0016] Fig. 4 is a functional block diagram of the mobile terminal 30 according to the first embodiment of the present invention; and

[0017] Fig. 5 illustrates an overview of a road tolling system according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

First Embodiment

[0018] Fig. 1 illustrates an overview of a road tolling system according to the first embodiment of the present invention. In the present embodiment, the road tolling system is implemented using cell broadcast technologies .

[0019] Cell broadcast is a technique used in cellular mobile networks. With cell broadcast, a mobile operator can send data to unspecified

(unidentified) User Equipments residing in one or more cells. The Cell Broadcast Service (CBS) is a variant of the cell broadcast technology which is defined in the 3GPP [2] . The CBS is used to implement a warning system. For instance, Early Earthquake Warning (EEW) is provided by mobile network operators in Japan, and some of them are based on the CBS.

[0020] Moreover, the 3GPP defined a set of system requirements for implementing public warning service in the 3GPP network. This system is called the Public Warning System (PWS) [3] . The 3GPP is now defining a subset of the PWS called the Earthquake and Tsunami Warning System (ETWS) [4] . In the ETWS, several improvements are made such as: 1) shorten latency for delivering the first warning message, and 2) support for roaming users.

[0021] The road tolling system of the present embodiment can be implemented using cell broadcast technologies as desired, but the implementation is not limited to these technologies.

[0022] The overall procedure of road tolling is briefly described with reference to Fig. 1. A vehicle is moving toward a toll road and passes by a vehicle detector embedded in the toll road or in the road close to the toll road. The vehicle detector, which can be implemented with any known technique, detects the presence of the vehicle, the density of vehicles within a given geographical area, the speed of vehicles, and so on. The vehicle detector reports the detected information (traffic information) to a road operator, as indicated by an arrow 101.

[0023] The road operator collects the traffic information and determines the frequency of broadcast based on the traffic information. The determined frequency may represent that the broadcast is not performed at all, depending on the traffic information. The road operator requests a mobile network operator to broadcast the broadcast message at the determined frequency to a geographical area that is close to the beginning point of the toll road, as indicated by arrows 102 and 103. The mobile network operator broadcasts the broadcast message, as indicated by arrows 104 and 105.

[0024] The vehicle carries a mobile terminal that can receive broadcast messages. One example of such a mobile terminal is a cellular phone of the driver of the vehicle. When the vehicle passes by the broadcast area, the mobile terminal receives the broadcast

message, and sends a report to the road operator in response to the broadcast message, as indicated by an arrow 106.

[0025] According to the present embodiment, the broadcast message includes a road identity for

identifying the toll road, and the report includes the same road identity and a user identity of the mobile terminal. Accordingly, the road operator, which

received the report, can detect that the vehicle passes by the toll road, identify the user (i.e. the driver) of the vehicle, and calculate a toll fare for this user.

[0026] Fig. 2 illustrates a detailed configuration of the road tolling system and a detailed procedure of road tolling according to the first embodiment of the present invention. The road tolling system includes a road operator 10, a mobile network operator 20, and a mobile terminal 30.

[0027] The road operator 10 manages a vehicle detector 201, a road tolling server 202, and a Cell Broadcast Entity (CBE) 203. The mobile network operator 20 manages a Cell Broadcast Centre (CBC) 204, a Radio Network Controller (RNC) 205, and NodeB:s 206. The mobile terminal 30 is used as an OBU for the road tolling system, and comprises a User Equipment (UE) 207 and an application 208.

[0028] Among the components of the road tolling system shown in Fig. 2, the CBE 203, the CBC 204, the RNC 205, the NodeBrs 206, and the UE 207 are those defined in the 3GPP standards. It should be noted that the present embodiment is described in the context of the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) network, but the road tolling system of the present embodiment may be implemented with any other networks that have a broadcast mechanism for a specified area.

[0029] Fig. 3 is a functional block diagram of the road tolling server 202 according to the first

embodiment of the present invention. The road tolling server 202 comprises a requesting unit 301, a receiving unit 302, a calculating unit 303, a collecting unit 304, and a determining unit 305.

[0030] The road tolling server 202 further

comprises a central processing unit (CPU) 310, a read only memory (ROM) 311, and a random access memory (RAM) 312. The functionality of the units 301-305 of the road tolling server 202 may be implemented by the CPU 310 which executes software stored in the ROM 311 with using the RAM 312 as a work area. Alternatively, the functionality of some or all of the units 301-305 may be implemented using dedicated hardware, or by the combination of software and hardware. The detailed operations of the units 301-305 of the road tolling server 202 will be described later with reference to Fig. 2.

[0031] Fig. 4 is a functional block diagram of the mobile terminal 30 according to the first embodiment of the present invention. The mobile terminal 30

comprises a receiving unit 401, a sending unit 402, and a detecting unit 403.

[0032] The mobile terminal 30 further comprises a central processing unit (CPU) 410, a read only memory

(ROM) 411, and a random access memory (RAM) 412. The functionality of the units 401-403 of the mobile terminal 30 may be implemented by the CPU 410 which executes software stored in the ROM 411 with using the RAM 412 as a work area. Alternatively, the

functionality of some or all of the units 401-403 may be implemented using dedicated hardware, or by the combination of software and hardware. For example, the functionality of the receiving unit 401 may be

implemented by the UE 207 (Fig. 2) which conforms to the 3GPP standards, and the functionality of the sending unit 402 may be implemented by the application 208 (Fig. 2) executed by the CPU 410. The detailed operations of the units 401-403 of the mobile terminal 30 will be described later with reference to Fig. 2.

[0033] Now, the detailed procedure of road tolling according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to Fig. 2.

[0034] In step S201, one or more vehicles pass by the vehicle detector 201, which is embedded in the road that is associated with the broadcast area. The

collecting unit 304 of the road tolling server 202 collects the traffic information of the geographical area corresponding to the vehicle detector 201 by receiving the sensed results of the vehicle detector 201. The sensed results may include, for example, an identity of the vehicle detector 201, the number of detected vehicles in a given time, and so on. It should be noted that the process of step S201 is

performed continuously by the vehicle detector 201 and the road tolling server 202.

[0035] In steps S202 and S203, the requesting unit

301 of the road tolling server 202 requests, through the CBE 203, the CBC 204 to broadcast a broadcast message to a specific geographical area associated with the toll road corresponding to the vehicle detector 201. For example, in step S202, the requesting unit 301 of the road tolling server 202 sends a request for

triggering a road tolling event to the CBE 203, and in step S203, the CBE 203 sends a signaling message to the CBC 204 in accordance with the 3GPP standards [2] . [0036] The signaling message sent from the CBE 203 to the CBC 204 includes an identity of the target road. If the toll fare is determined on the segment basis of the toll road, the signaling message may further include an identity of the target road segment.

However, it is not essential to distinguish the

identity of the road segment from the identity of the road. For example, if the identity of the road is defined or designed so that it identifies a road segment when a toll fare is determined on the segment basis, only the identity of the road is required.

[0037] Moreover, in step S202, the determining unit 305 of the road tolling server 202 may determine a frequency of broadcast based on the traffic information collected in step S201. In this case, the requesting unit 301 of the road tolling server 202 requests the CBC 204 to broadcast the broadcast message at the determined frequency. The signaling message sent from the CBE 203 to the CBC 204 may include the information (frequency information) representing the determined frequency.

[0038] It should be noted that the process of steps S202 and S203 may be performed asynchronously from the process of step S201.

[0039] In step S204, the CBC 204 extracts the identity of the target road and the identity of the target road segment from the signaling message, and identifies one or more NodeB:s 206 that should be contacted. The CBC 204 then constructs the "cell list" for the cells in which the information is to be broadcasted in accordance with the 3GPP standards [2] . The CBC 204 sends a Write-Replace message to the RNC

205 which is associated with the identified NodeB(s)

206. The Write-Replace message includes the road identity received from the CBE 203. Moreover, in the case that the signaling message sent from the CBE 203 to the CBC 204 includes the frequency information, the CBC 204 may extract the frequency information and create the Write-Replace message based on this

information. For example, the CBC 204 may set the Repetition-Period parameter and the No-of-Broadcasts- Requested parameter of the Write-Replace message so that the broadcast is performed at the frequency represented by the frequency information.

[0040] In step S205, the RNC 205 uses the "Service

Area ID list" information to identify which NodeB(s)

206 the RNC 205 needs to reach. The RNC 205 relays the message to the target NodeB(s) 206.

[0041] In step S206, the NodeB 206 broadcasts the broadcast message, and the receiving unit 401 of the mobile terminal 30, which may be implemented by the UE

207, receives the broadcast message. The broadcast message includes the road identity and a trigger

(predetermined indicator) for a road tolling event. The trigger may be a specific Message ID defined for road tolling.

[0042] In step S207, the receiving unit 401 of the mobile terminal 30 detects the specific Message ID in the broadcast message, and upon the detection, it triggers the sending unit 402 of the mobile terminal 30, which may be implemented by the application 208, to send a road tolling event report (road passing

information) to the road tolling server 202.

[0043] In step S208, the sending unit 402 of the mobile terminal 30 sends, over the packet-switched (PS) connectivity provided by the mobile network operator 20, the road tolling event report to the road tolling server 202. In some embodiments, the broadcast message received in step S206 includes address information of the road tolling server 202, and the sending unit 402 of the mobile terminal 30 sends the road tolling event report to the road tolling server 202 based on this address information. In this case, the signaling message sent from the CBE 203 to the CBC 204 may also include the address information so that the mobile network operator 20 can broadcast the broadcast message that includes the address information. Alternatively, the address information of the road tolling server may be preconfigured in the sending unit 402 of the mobile terminal 30.

[0044] The road tolling event report includes the road identity and a user identity of the mobile

terminal 30. The road tolling event report may also include location information representing a

geographical location of the mobile terminal 30 and time information representing reception time of the broadcast message. The geographical location of the mobile terminal 30 may be detected by the detecting unit 403 of the mobile terminal 30. The detecting unit 403 may be implemented with the Global Positioning System (GPS) .

[0045] The receiving unit 302 of the road tolling server 202 receives the road tolling event report.

Then, the calculating unit 303 of the road tolling server 202 calculates a toll for the toll road to be charged to the user of the mobile terminal 30 based on the road identity and the user identity included in the road tolling event report.

[0046] As described above, according to the first embodiment, the mobile terminal 30 is used as an onboard unit (OBU) of the road tolling system instead of a dedicated DSRC OBU, and it is triggered to send the road tolling event report by the broadcast message. The broadcast message may be broadcasted through an existing NodeB.

[0047] Accordingly, it is possible to eliminate the need for dedicated gantries for an electronic road tolling system and reduce the cost of the system. Second Embodiment

[0048] The first embodiment was described with reference to the road tolling system in which one broadcast area is associated with one toll road (see Fig. 1), although the concept of the first embodiment is also applicable to the system in which two or more broadcast areas are associated with one toll road and the mobile terminal receives two or more broadcast messages .

[0049] In the second embodiment, a road tolling system in which two or more broadcast areas are associated with one toll road and the mobile terminal receives two or more broadcast messages is described.

[0050] Fig. 5 illustrates an overview of a road tolling system according to the second embodiment of the present invention. The system of Fig. 5 differs from the system of Fig. 1 in that there are two broadcast areas served by different NodeB:s. Although the second embodiment is described under the assumption that two broadcast areas are associated with one toll road, the concept of the second embodiment is also applicable to the system in which three or more broadcast areas are associated with one toll road and the mobile terminal receives three or more broadcast messages .

[0051] Differences from the first embodiment will be described with reference to Figs. 2-5. In Fig. 5, the vehicle is moving from left to right, and two broadcast areas are placed so that the mobile terminal 30 receives two broadcast messages from the NodeB-1 and the NodeB-2 in sequence within a certain period of time. More specifically, the mobile terminal 30 receives the first broadcast message from NodeB-1 at time ti, and shortly afterwards, the mobile terminal 30 receives the second broadcast message from NodeB-2 at time t∑ (see step S206 of Fig. 2) . In order to allow the mobile terminal 30 to receive the first and second broadcast messages, in steps S202 and S203 (Fig. 2), the

requesting unit 301 of the road tolling server 202 requests, through the CBE 203, the CBC 204 to broadcast the first and second broadcast messages to the specific first and second geographical area associated with the toll road corresponding to the vehicle detector 201.

[0052] The first and second broadcast messages include identification information for distinguishing the first and second broadcast messages. For example, the identification information may be a Serial Number defined in the 3GPP standards [2] . Therefore, the mobile terminal 30 can distinguish two broadcast

messages even though they have the same Message ID.

[0053] According to the present embodiment, even when the mobile terminal 30 receives two broadcast messages, the mobile terminal 30 sends the road tolling event report in response to only one of them in order to reduce the network traffic.

[0054] For example, when the mobile terminal 30 receives the first broadcast message directed to the first broadcast area associated with the toll road and subsequently receives the second broadcast message directed to the second broadcast area associated with the same toll road within a certain period of time, the mobile terminal 30 sends the road tolling event report to the road tolling server 202 in response to the first broadcast message (see step S208 of Fig. 2) but does not send the report in response to the second broadcast message .

[0055] Alternatively, the mobile terminal 30 may not send the report in response to the first broadcast message and may send the repot in response to the second broadcast message. In this case, the road tolling event report may include the Serial Number of the first broadcast message, the timestamp representing the reception time of the first broadcast message, the Serial Number of the second broadcast message, and the timestamp representing the reception time of the second broadcast message. From these pieces of information, the road tolling server 202 can determine the travel direction and speed of the mobile terminal 30 (i.e. the vehicle) . Therefore, the second embodiment is

advantageous in that the road tolling server 202 can calculate a toll fare taking the travel direction etc. into account .

[0056] The second embodiment is also advantageous in that the reliability of the system increases.

Specifically, although the mobile terminal 30 may fail to receive a broadcast message directed to a certain broadcast area particularly when the vehicle travels at high speed, it is expected that the mobile terminal 30 receives at least one broadcast message if there are a plurality of broadcast areas.

[0057] In the present embodiment, the mobile terminal 30 may receive two or more broadcast messages. Nevertheless, an increase of the network traffic will be suppressed because only one report is sent from the mobile terminal 30 to the road tolling server 202.

[0058] The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and various changes and modifications can be made within the spirit and scope of the present invention. Therefore, to apprise the public of the scope of the present invention, the following claims are made.

[0059] REFERENCES

[1] ETC portal site, http://www.go- etc. p/english/ index. html

[2] 3GPP TS 23.041: "Technical realization of Cell Broadcast Service"

[3] 3GPP TS 22.268: "Public Warning System (PWS) Requirements"

[4] 3GPP TR 23.828: "Earthquake and Tsunami Warning System (ETWS)"

Claims

1. A mobile terminal (30) comprising:

a receiving unit (401) configured to receive a broadcast message directed to a geographical area associated with a toll road, the broadcast message including a road identity for identifying the toll road; and

a sending unit (402) configured to send road passing information to a tolling server in response to the broadcast message, the road passing information including the road identity and a user identity of the mobile terminal.

2. The mobile terminal according to claim 1, wherein:

the broadcast message includes a predetermined indicator; and

the receiving unit triggers the sending unit to send the road passing information upon detection of said predetermined indicator.

3. The mobile terminal according to claim 1 or 2, wherein:

the broadcast message includes address

information of the tolling server; and

the sending unit sends the road passing

information based on the address information.

4. The mobile terminal according to any one of claims 1-3, further comprising a detecting unit (403) configured to detect a geographical location of the mobile terminal,

wherein the road passing information includes location information representing the geographical location of the mobile terminal.

5. The mobile terminal according to any one of claims 1-4, wherein the road passing information includes time information representing reception time of the broadcast message.

6. The mobile terminal according to any one of claims 1-5, wherein if the receiving unit receives a first broadcast message directed to a first

geographical area associated with the toll road and subsequently receives a second broadcast message directed to a second geographical area associated with the same toll road, the sending unit sends the road passing information in response to only one of the first and second broadcast messages.

7. The mobile terminal according to claim 6, wherein if the receiving unit receives the first broadcast message and subsequently receives the second broadcast message, the sending unit sends the road passing information in response to the first broadcast message and does not send the road passing information in response to the second broadcast message.

8. The mobile terminal according to claim 6, wherein if the receiving unit receives the first broadcast message and subsequently receives the second broadcast message, the sending unit does not send the road passing information in response to the first broadcast message and sends the road passing information in response to the second broadcast message.

9. The mobile terminal according to claim 8,

wherein:

the first and second broadcast messages include identification information for distinguishing the first and second broadcast messages; and

the road passing information includes the

identification information of the first broadcast message, time information representing reception time of the first broadcast message in association with the identification information of the first broadcast message, the identification information of the second broadcast message, and time information representing reception time of the second broadcast message in association with the identification information of the second broadcast message.

10. A tolling server (202) comprising:

a requesting unit (301) configured to request a broadcast server to broadcast a broadcast message to a first geographical area associated with a toll road, the broadcast message including a road identity for identifying the toll road;

a receiving unit (302) configured to receive road passing information from a mobile terminal which received the broadcast message, the road passing information including the road identity and a user identity of the mobile terminal; and

a calculating unit (303) configured to calculate a toll for the toll road to be charged to a user of the mobile terminal based on the road passing information.

11. The tolling server according to claim 10, further comprising:

a collecting unit (304) configured to collect traffic information of a second geographical area associated with the first geographical area; and

a determining unit (305) configured to determine a frequency of broadcast based on the traffic

information,

wherein the requesting unit requests the

broadcast server to broadcast the broadcast message at the determined frequency.

12. The tolling server according to claim 10 or 11, wherein the broadcast message includes a predetermined indicator for triggering the mobile terminal to send the road passing information to the tolling server.

13. The tolling server according to any one of claims 10-12, wherein the broadcast message includes address information of the tolling server.

14. The tolling server according to any one of claims 10-13, wherein the requesting unit requests the

broadcast server to broadcast a first broadcast message to the first geographical area associated with the toll road and a second broadcast message to a third

geographical area associated with the same toll road.

15. The tolling server according to claim 14, wherein the first and second broadcast messages include

identification information for distinguishing the first and second broadcast messages.

16. A control method of a mobile terminal,

comprising:

a receiving step (S206) of receiving a broadcast message directed to a geographical area associated with a toll road, the broadcast message including a road identity for identifying the toll road; and

a sending step (S208) of sending road passing information to a tolling server in response to the broadcast message, the road passing information

including the road identity and a user identity of the mobile terminal.

17. A control method of a tolling server, comprising: a requesting step (S202, S203) of requesting a broadcast server to broadcast a broadcast message to a first geographical area associated with a toll road, the broadcast message including a road identity for identifying the toll road;

a receiving step (S208) of receiving road passing information from a mobile terminal which received the broadcast message, the road passing information

including the road identity and a user identity of the mobile terminal; and

a calculating step (S208) of calculating a toll for the toll road to be charged to a user of the mobile terminal based on the road passing information.