Within a few years Europe will witness a broad installment base of On Board Units (OBUs) using the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) and GSM (Global System for Mobile communication) for fully automated open road tolling of comprehensive road networks. While Germany currently has over 700,000 GNSS/GSM OBUs installed, several million OBUs based on these technologies should be deployed by 2012. In the Netherlands alone, it is anticipated that over 8 million such units will be needed. Thus, innovative new OBU technology is needed to meet the increasing demand for compactness, efficiency, and cost effectiveness. The new generation of GNSS OBUs will no longer require complicated installation procedures in the vehicles that are required to use them. This paper will describe the development of a fourthgeneration OBU technology based on a fully integrated chipset which will include GNSS, GSM, and data security functionality.
Abstract