Method of determining the use of at least one toll road section

• US 20050216187A1
• Filed: 03/11/2005
• Published: 09/29/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 09/12/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Siemens AG Osterreich (Siemens AG)
• Original Assignee: Siemens AG Osterreich (Siemens AG)
• Inventors: Hartinger, Horst
• Granted Patent: US 7,532,976 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/207
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0283 Price estimation or determination
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0284 Time or distance, e.g. usage of parking meters or taximeters
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 15/063 using wireless information transmission between the vehicle and a fixed station identification of vehicles G08G

Abstract

A method of, and a toll-collecting system (SYS) for, determining whether at least one toll road section is being used by a vehicle (FAR), wherein the position of the vehicle (FAR) is determined by means of at least one position calculating system (POS) and the determined position is implemented to ascertain whether the road section being used is a toll road section, and wherein the vehicle (FAR) has, in addition to said position calculating system, a transmitter/receiver unit (SEE) that is adapted to exchange data (DAT) with a cellular radio network (FUN), and that to each cell (ZEL) of the radio network (FUN) at least one cell identifier (ZID) is assigned, and when there is at least partial failure of the position calculating system (POS) the at least one cell ID (ZID) is implemented to ascertain whether the road section being used by said vehicle (FAR) is a toll road section.

Claims

1. A method of detecting whether at least one toll road section is being used by a vehicle (FAR), wherein the position of said vehicle (FAR) is determined by means of at least one position calculating system (POS) and the determined position is implemented to ascertain whether the road section being used is a toll road section, and wherein said vehicle (FAR) has a transmitter/receiver unit (SEE) that is adapted to exchange data (DAT) with a cellular radio network (FUN), and to each cell (ZEL) of said radio network (FUN) at least one cell identifier (ZID) is assigned, and when there is at least partial failure of the position calculating system (POS) said at least one cell ID (ZID) is implemented to ascertain whether the road section being used by said vehicle (FAR) is a toll road section characterized in that each cell assigned to a toll road section is weighted by a weight characteristic of the relevance of said cell for recognition of said toll road section.

2. A method as defined in claim 1, characterized in that at least one cell (ZEL) of the network is assigned to a toll road section.

3. A method as defined in claim 1, characterized in that said cell identifier is transmitted to the transmitter/receiver unit (SEE) of said vehicle (FAR).

4. A method as defined in claim 1, characterized in that said radio network is a GSM network.

5. A method as defined in claim 1, characterized in that said position-calculating system is satellite-aided.

6. A method as defined in claim 5, characterized in that said position-calculating system is a GPS system.

8. A method as defined in claim 1, characterized in that for identification of a toll road section the sum of the weights of at least two cells assigned to this road section is formed.

9. A method as defined in claim 8, characterized in that when a predefined threshold value of the sum of the weights is exceeded, the currently used road section is classified as being a toll road section.

10. A method as defined in claim 1, characterized in that the weight of a cell is equal to not more than the maximum number of cells assigned to a toll road section.

11. A method as defined in claim 1, characterized in that the number of currently traversed cells assigned to a toll road section is counted with reference to the cell IDs received by said transmitter/receiver unit (SEE), and the count is checked to ascertain whether a predefined number of traversed cells has been exceeded.

12. A method as defined in claim 1, characterized in that a check is carried out to ascertain whether at least two cell IDs successively received by said transmitter/receiver unit are assigned to the same toll road section.

7. (canceled)

13. A toll-collecting system (SYS) comprising at least one position-calculating system (POS) that is adapted to ascertain the position of a vehicle (FAR), which vehicle (FAR) has a road section identifying unit (FID) that is adapted to check, with reference to at least said detected positions, whether the road section being used is a toll road section, wherein characterized in that said road section identifying unit (FID) has a transmitter/receiver unit (SEE) that is adapted to exchange data (DAT) with a cellular radio network (FUN), and that to each cell (ZEL) of said radio network (FUN) at least one cell identifier (ZID) is assigned, and said road section identifying unit (FID) is adapted to check, when there is at least partial failure of said position calculating system (POS), whether the road section being used by said vehicle (FAR) is a toll road section, implementing at least one cell ID (ZID) for this purpose, characterized in that said road section identifying unit (FID) is adapted to weight each cell assigned to a toll road section by a weight characteristic of the relevance of said cell for recognition of said toll road section.

14. A toll-collecting system as defined in claim 13, characterized in that at least one cell (ZEL) of said radio network (FUN) is assigned a toll road section.

15. A toll-collecting system as defined in claim 13, characterized in that it is adapted to transmit the cell ID to the transmitter/receiver unit (SEE) in said vehicle (FAR).

16. A toll-collecting system as defined in claim 13, characterized in that said radio network is a GSM network.

17. A toll-collecting system as defined in claim 13, characterized in that said position-calculating system (POS) is satellite-aided.

18. A toll-collecting system as defined in claim 13, characterized in that said position-calculating system is a GPS system.

20. A toll-collecting system as defined in claim 13, characterized in that the road-identifying unit (FID) is adapted to form, for the purpose of identifying a toll road section, the sum of the weights of at least two cells assigned to said road section.

21. A toll-collecting system as defined in claim 13, characterized in that said road section identifying unit (FID) is adapted to classify the currently used road section as being a toll road section when a predefined threshold value of the sum of the weights is exceeded.

22. A toll-collecting system as defined in claim 13, characterized in that said road section identifying unit (FID) is adapted to count the number of the currently traversed cells assigned to a toll road section by implementing cell IDs received by the transmitter/receiver unit (SEE) and to check whether a predefined number of traversed cells has been exceeded.

23. A toll-collecting system as defined in claim 13, characterized in that said road section identifying unit is adapted to check whether at least two cell IDs successively received by said transmitter/receiver unit are assigned to the same toll road section.

19. (canceled)