This short paper describes the European Broadcasting Union initiative, known as TPEG (Transport Protocol Experts Group), which was commissioned in late 1997 to develop a new multimedia data protocol, suitable for delivering Traffic and Travel Information via broadcast transmissions. The B/TPEG Project Group is introduced and the specifications, known as Parts, are described to show the modular applications approach that has been used, to make an extensible set suitable for now and the future. In particular, the Road Traffic Message Application - with origins derived from RDS-TMC - is described to show compatibility at a message content level, yet the far greater content richness and filtering capability of TPEG-RTM. Newer work on a Public Transport Information Application - not having such prior compatibility constraints - is described.
Abstract