This article overviews the development of standards in the field of digital short-range communication (DSRC) for intelligent transport systems (ITS). In the 1990s, a modern wireless communication standard was used to cover seamless applications of the technology with a passive reflective tag. An active intelligent tag was also developed; a further development incorporated a smart debit card; and the next design included a tag reader able to interrogate and track vehicles. Competitors used different radio bandwidths for communication and even when one bandwidth was agreed the transition to it presented design challenges with interference. The wireless Ethernet standard was approved in 1997 and has evolved into two additional standards. Also developed were HyperLAN/2, a European-supported wire line standard, and Bluetooth. It seems likely that one wireless Ethernet standard will dominate one end of the market and Bluetooth the other. The IEEE 802.11a standard was selected in 2001 for DSRC and modified to add a further frequency band: the Bluetooth standards group probably would not agree to add this. The new DSRC standard for ITS is seen as superior to the old one. For the covering abstract see ITRD E118381.
Abstract