The transportation operating environment is changing. Traditional barriers between your industry and your neighbors' are disappearing because of technology innovation and driver expectations. How you understand it, adapt to it, and use the technologies meant for it - while preserving your requirements and say - are the essence of OmniAir's Committees.
OmniAir Committees address the needs of OmniAir members. They are forums where members build a shared set of tools, principles and operating rules that advance the deployment of open and interoperable DSRC.
OmniAir Committees:
Advancing DSRC Technology for Operators and Industry
Why is this needed? Because communication technologies are clearly changing how we manage our transportation systems and how our customers live their lives and drive their vehicles. OmniAir Committees were created to contend with these changes, devise ways and means to adapt to them, and influence the technology to benefit the community of users, which includes you. And the term 'user' means more than just the driver - it also comprises the organization deploying the system on behalf of the driver.
The OmniAir Certification Committee addresses the certification of standards-compliance for DSRC hardware. This includes the Onboard Unit (OBU) and Roadside Unit (RSU) - devices used in vehicle-to-roadside and vehicle-to-vehicle communications.
The Committee is currently developing the OmniAir Certification Program which will give DSRC developers, integrators and end-users assurance that the systems they offer and deploy are consensus driven standards-compliant and meet select performance specifications. The goal is market choice and interoperability.
Why is OmniAir Certification important? It will result in greater confidence in DSRC systems in general, which is critical to the timely adoption of the hardware and the deployment of the safety, payment and mobility applications intended for it.
The OmniAir Electronic Payment Services Committee addresses two facts: 1) that you cannot have true interoperability with only hardware standards, and 2) new approaches to mobile electronic payments are emerging and that these strategies are promoted by new actors with sometimes different agendas. The object is to develop a shared agenda, an accessible market for service providers, open systems for operators, and a seamless experience for the driver.
At the heart of the EPS evolution sits the hardware, and by the end of this decade, standards-compliant communication devices for the vehicle will be available. How soon depends a lot on how effectively the ITS, toll, auto sector and government can work together. But an equally important factor in whether the technology is deployed and accepted is how it is deployed in order to be accepted. This sets the stage for the OmniAir EPS Committee.
As automakers, banks and others begin to look at the EPS market as a source of recurring revenue and transaction income, this will eventually lead it to transaction volume growth which is currently about 7 billion payment transactions per year - for traditional ETC. But EPS is more than ETC, and transaction growth doesn't automatically mean interoperability. DSRC networks will foster varieties of payment applications in addition to the potential of universal automatic toll collection. But issues remain, namely, a common service definition and interface specifications required for true interoperability. The EPS Committee concentrates on standardizing the data, message sets and interface standards for the application. Without the parallel standardization of these 'back-office' interfaces, the result could be disjointed systems that do not interoperate - despite standard devices.
Taking the application one step further, the EPS Business Rules committee deals with the need for Operational Interoperability, which is the standardization of the procedures involved in providing Electronic Payment Services in a mobile environment. Next is Contractual Interoperability, which requires creating the legal and contractual instruments that bind participants to provide services in a clear and uniform way that meets the expectations of both consumers and providers. Operational and Contractual standards inevitably require forging better and more comprehensive relationships with relatively distinct business sectors such as automobile manufacturers and financial services firms. With a consistent approach, clear procedures and robust contractual instruments, the EPS market is more likely to meet the expectation of all the stakeholders involved.