The development and application of smart services within the traffic and transport sector has received sharp stimulus lately, thanks to the latest possibilities offered by information and communication technology (ICT). The emergence of such telematics services initiates a process of interaction and negotiation, whereby the actions of parties involved in traffic and transport become increasingly entwined. Mobile communication is a fundamental prerequisite in this case. Telematics services in traffic and transport will have a direct effect on the use and, therefore, the availability and allocation of the frequency spectrum. The forecast growth of telematics services in traffic and transport, when set against the restricted capacity of the mobile telecommunications systems, raises the following issue: ‘What will be the consequences of telematics services in traffic and transport in terms of occupation of the frequency spectrum and, vice versa, what will be the consequences of occupation of the frequency spectrum with regard to setting up telematics services?’ During the course of this study, a method was developed as a basic means of addressing the aforementioned issue. This method is based on the following premise: The communication needs in traffic and transport are determined by the social development, the manner in which telematics services in traffic and transport are set up, the availability of radio systems and the way in which the communications process is organised. The social development sets the context within which the remaining three aspects might develop. Social development entails a certain demand for mobility and communication, a need for telematics services in traffic and transport and the availability of various radio systems for mobile communications. The manner in which telematics services in traffic and transport are set up is determinative for the messages to be exchanged (in quantity, magnitude, moment of exchange, parties exchanging messages) and therefore for the communication needs. The set-up of a service largely depends on the manner in which the parties involved in traffic and transport wish to interact with one another and align their methods. The availability of radio systems governs the available communication capacity, which can be used to meet the demand. It was a conscious decision not to assume there will be a random extensive range of radio systems available. Social development (partly) determines the way that the systems are made operational in the form of mobile telecommunication services. For instance, there are conceivable social developments that offer no scope whatsoever for mobile telecommunication services specifically for traffic and transport, but only space for generic, commercially viable mobile telecommunication services. The way in which the communications process is organised, for instance, through infomediaries (‘Trusted Third Parties’) or by combining the message flows of various services, largely determines the efficient utilisation of the available communication capacity in the traffic and transport sector. On the basis of this premise, the consequences of telematics services in traffic and transport for the occupation of the frequency spectrum can be assessed by completing twelve steps. During the itemisation of telematics services in traffic and transport and the attendant message flows, use was made of European ITS architectures, such as KAREN and COMETA. The method itself was devised by expanding on the method proposed in the National ITS Reference model. The following lesson can be drawn from the work carried out using the aforementioned architectures and the Reference model: The consequences of the magnitude of the defined message flows only become apparent when the message flows are viewed in relation to the massiveness of the traffic and transport sector, i.e. the colossal numbers of motorists and vehicles. With regard to the National ITS Reference model, this lesson yields the following recommendations: Implement the method as a separate layer of the design phases proposed in the ITS Reference model. Derive statistical indicators that may prove useful in making the connection between traffic and transport on the one hand, and radio systems on the other. This entails indicators for a number of characteristic situations, such as urban or rural areas. For each of these situations, indicators could be derived for a fixed radio system cell size, in order to establish the communication needs (such as the infrastructure, motorist and vehicle densities) and the communication capacity (such as the number of bits per second that could be handled, including the ‘overhead’ and the quality of message handling). (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting