Cellular Networking Technologies in ITS Solutions: Opportunities and Challenges

The Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) domain is already today the leading vertical industry sector for the adoption of cellular connectivity. In-built and brought-in access to mobile telecommunication networks is a key enabler for advanced safety, navigation and infotainment services.

The growing complexity of the industry ecosystem as well as the diverse service requirements put on the underlying connectivity and service enablement infrastructure demand for open, flexible and scalable end-to-end ITS solutions.

In this paper we present scenarios, solution requirements, service enablers and an end-to-end ITS system architecture, covering in-vehicle and backend components, connectivity solutions and service life-cycle management. While we put specific emphasis on presenting opportunities and challenges relating to cellular ITS solutions, we also point out aspects relating to the required marriage with Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC) systems.

Complemented by experiences from projects with industry partners and the research community and by reflections on ongoing efforts in ITS standardization, we conclude that only by a combination of cellular and DSRC networking technologies the full range of consumer and business needs will be addressed.