Roadside-Center(s) Component

This component of the architecture is often referred to as the backhaul communications system. The national deployment of the backhaul communications system for VII may involve the participation of the telecommunications industry which would provide the necessary bandwidth and technology as part of a public/private partnership arrangement. The VII California testbed will be designed to offer opportunities for testing of various technological and institutional arrangements.

The initial VII California architecture deployed for the World Congress will enable data that has been sent by participating vehicles to the roadside units to be communicated to various destinations, including the 511/TravInfo® TIC and participating OEM processing centers, and enable travel time and incident data from the 511/TravInfo® system to be communicated to the roadside units. Because relatively few vehicles will be participating, and for expediency reasons, an existing GPRS communications system will likely be the primary medium to be used to provide for the two-way transmission of data among the 511/TravInfo® TIC, OEMs and the roadside units. Demonstration of a high bandwidth solution at a select RSU site will be investigated for the World Congress. Remote monitoring (center-based) of roadside units and the supporting network will not be an element of the World Congress demo but will be included in the subsequent testbed infrastructure.

This is an MTC-led activity. The requirements for the backhaul communications for the initial VII California architecture to be implemented for the World Congress will be developed by PB Farradyne with the participation of PATH. PB Farradyne will investigate the suitability of the existing GPRS communications system, and explore alternatives should the existing GPRS system not be suitable. PB Farradyne will make the necessary arrangements to ensure that the selected communications system is available in sufficient time prior to the World Congress for testing activities. The maintenance of the GPRS network will be administered by PB Farradyne. If another communications solution is implemented, maintenance will be accounted for in the procurement.