Marius Minea

Efficiency of multimodal real-time travel and traffic information services employing mobile communications

The paper presents preliminary results of a European project, with the goal to design an integrated system for delivering real-time travel and traffic information on mobile navigation devices. The service matches together multiple data formats and operates via a Common Agreed Interface (CAI) to achieve data fusion from different information sources. The updated information is used to create specific messages, to dynamically re-route the users in case of road bottlenecking. GPRS and Wi-Fi communication are employed to obtain a high degree of availability on the mobile devices. Results of some tests carried on in Bucharest pilot city are also presented.

Vehicle to infrastructure communications — Technologies and EMC problems in public transport management systems

The paper presents some of the problems that a mobile communication system for data transmission in a public transport management system has to work with. The mobile WiFi communication operating in a busy urban area, problems in connection with the EMC of the other vehicles equipment and the management of the data transmission are taken into account.

EMC and Related Problems in Detection of Road and Rail Vehicles

The intelligent transport systems are today a well known concept in all modern transport networks. The European Union has already developed specific standards and recommendations for implementation in all member or accessing states (TEN-T - Trans European Networks - Transport). Several ITS subsystems require specific infrastructures with detection of vehicles function. This process of data capture is in some cases difficult, due to specific EM environmental conditions of the transport mode. This paper presents some specific case studies made by the author within some international and national research projects, and also recommends the best solutions resulted. Rail vehicles detection in strong EM environment, along with detection process for urban transport vehicles experimented in Bucuresti and Suceava cities is emphasized in the paper.

Reliable Integrated Communications for Urban Intelligent Transport Systems

Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) developed lately in the urban traffic in the form of Urban Traffic Control (UTC) and Public Transport Management (PTM) systems. As every system related to transports, these are wide area systems and need both fixed and mobile communications with a high level of reliability and security. The paper analyses the main design and exploitation problems for urban transports oriented communications systems, from the reliability point of view. The communication networks are analysed from their topological and architectural points of view. Groups of UTC outstations sharing a communications sub-network are all dependant on the reliability of the communication networks for central signal coordination. PTM communications are generally classified as long range reporting communications and short range preemption communications for prioritisation of vehicles at stop signals. Particular aspects for the mobile communications are analysed, as this type of communication has to use a reliable short range communication in an intense EM environment.

Energy-efficient solution for vehicle prioritisation employing ZigBee V2I communications

The paper presents a start-up study and tests regarding the possibility of employing ZigBee communications for vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communications. Such communications require less energy consumption, compared to other technologies and are recommended for dense urban areas, where the density of infrastructure equipment reaches higher levels and involves significant power consumption. A prototype for vehicle identification using ZigBee protocol is presented as a solution to test V2I communications in laboratory conditions.

Combined opportunistic vehicular/cellular networking for cooperative driving assistance in highway scenarios

In this paper a solution for improving connectivity and quality of service in vehicular communications is described. It is designed mainly for highway vehicular communications, where radio disconnections between moving vehicles occurs more frequently. The solution also improves networking by including in the cooperative driving vehicles that are not yet equipped with dedicated short range communication (DSRC) onboard units. An analysis on the impact on connectivity probability is provided along with a description of a specific communication algorithm designed to improve the road safety via cooperative driving.

Cooperative V2V clustering algorithm for improving road traffic safety information

The paper presents solutions for improving traffic safety by providing on-board information regarding traffic behaviour of al local cluster of neighbouring vehicles. The proposed solution also may contribute to reducing accidents on major motorways by issuing early warning regarding speed. The solution is based on a local clustering algorithm to ensure information provision between neighbouring groups of vehicles. Advantages and weaknesses of the solution are also analysed.

Challenges in developing WiFi wide coverage access for River Information Services on the Danube River

In this paper the authors present the state of the art regarding wireless communications for River Information Services (RIS), developed or in development on the Danube River, taking also into account signal propagation issues. WiFi technologies and equipment are investigated along with the technological challenges such as standards employed, coverage and antenna positioning.

Bluetooth latency analysis for vehicular communications in a Wi-Fi noisy environment

Vehicular communications represent the novelty in road safety and improvement of traffic conditions, as they allow the exchange of appropriate data between vehicles or between vehicles and infrastructure (road side units). However, in such dynamic environment, a safe and reliable communication is very difficult to obtain. The most tested and appropriate technologies appear to be, in 2.4 GHz: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and ZigBee, while in 5.8/5.9 GHz the FCC has allocated typical Dedicated Short Range Communication frequency band. However, for typical non-critical applications there is no need for expensive communications. There are several cheaper options, like ZigBee, Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. In this paper we have performed a series of analysis on Bluetooth technology, as the most common short distance communication and we have tested the possibility of transferring data in noisy Wi-Fi environment. The results obtained (in terms of handshake time) were assessed and conclusions regarding the possibility of implementing Bluetooth communications in vehicular environments have been formulated.

Cellular — Sensorless V2I — based traffic information and communications infrastructure: Case study for high class motorways

The paper proposes a simplified communication solution, employed in a traffic information management system with road side units acting as distributed processing nodes. Vehicles moving on a highway, in the so-called “floating car” technique, are used as moving sensors. Unlike classic applications, no infrastructure sensors are employed. Information is collected by road side units (RSUs) at established locations, via vehicle to infrastructure communications (V2I). Weather info, traffic management, warnings, recommended optimal speed etc. are parameters collected without the support of any infrastructure sensor. Local information processing ensures independency of road sectors and high reliability. The paper focuses on the communication process, which is analyzed from different points of view.