Mark IV reports successful tests of 5.9GHz and Janus 2-mode reader

Mark IV Industries, dominant in North America with their 915MHz E-ZPass toll systems, are announcing a dual-mode reader and claiming success in extensive on-road tests of 5.9GHz equipment. These have been conducted on highways set up with roadside equipment in the western suburbs of Detroit. The tests were part of the Vehicle Infrastructure Integration (VII) program, a joint effort of many leading companies and government entities that has been going on for about five years.

VII involves vehicle to roadside communications at much longer range than current 915MHz systems, with much higher speed and data throughput, greater security, reprogrammability, and even vehicle-to-vehicle transmissions of data. It could be a North American standard for electronic tolling - there are now three separate systems in the south, the northeast-midwest and the west - and other data based communications.

A statement from Mark IV says: "In the tests, toll points were set up in a variety of configurations including all lanes of a highway, a single lane (typical of High Occupancy Vehicle lanes), on an overpass and on ramps."

The system, they note, "works in conjunction with vehicle positioning systems, vehicle human/machine interfaces, security methods and surrogate payment services to conduct real-time, end-to-end, secure transactions with the vehicle."

The tests also demonstrated a parking application, which not only allowed the motorist to pay by bank card but provides a guide to available parking places.

Mark IV say they will report in more detail on the tests in November at a trade show in New York.

Janus 2-faced reader

Mark IV mentions the use in tests of a new dual frequency reader called JANUS to simultaneously read 915MHz and 5.9GHz transponders. JANUS is a play on the Roman two-faced God. With some 25 million 915MHz transponders in use in north America any 5.9GHz system has to also accommodate 915MHz.

Competitor TransCore has offered and sold Encompass 6, a dual mode reader since about 2005.

Applications for the 5.9GHz systems are being demonstrated under what is called the Vehicle Infrastructure Integration (VII) program started by the USDOT earlier in the decade to use a radio frequency allocation but whose support has dwindled in the past year.

COMMENT: Like many government programs, one could quip, 5.9GHz/VII is very big on promise, and on cost, but has little to show by way of product. That comment might eventually prove unfair, of course. Three of five or six big systems suppliers at least -  Raytheon, Kapsch and Mark IV - seem to be wholeheartedly behind 5.9GHz/VII.

The big question is whether the car manufacturers will go with it because it needs to be built into cars and trucks in the factory and hardwired to the vehicle power supply. The US toll industry isn't going to push it. It provides far more bells and whistles than tolling needs.

A major test for 5.9GHz will be whether it has any place in the result of the E-ZPass recompete being conducted by the Inter Agency Group, or whether it lingers out there on the horizon as a possible future system.

http://www.ivhs.com/

TOLLROADSnews 2008-09-03