METHOD FOR CHECKING TOLL TRANSACTIONS AND COMPONENTS THEREFOR

• US 20150100394A1
• Filed: 09/19/2014
• Published: 04/09/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/08/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kapsch TrafficCom AG (Datax Handelsgmbh)
• Original Assignee: Kapsch TrafficCom AG (Datax Handelsgmbh)
• Inventors: Povolny, Robert, Nagy, Oliver
• Granted Patent: US 10,055,899 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/13
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 15/063 using wireless information transmission between the vehicle and a fixed station identification of vehicles G08G
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication

Abstract

The subject matter disclosed herein relates to a method for checking toll transactions, produced from position notifications of a mobile phone connected via a mobile network to a transaction server, with the aid of a network of distributed toll beacons, which can communicate via short-range radio with on-board units of passing vehicles and are connected to the transaction server. To this end, a interoperable multi-functional OBU is created that is formed from a GNSS- and NFC-enabled mobile phone on the one hand and an NFC- and DSRC-enabled OBU on the other hand, which exchange data concerning a session identifier (SID) via their common NFC interface, which session identifier forms a link between the infrastructureless and the infrastructure-bound billing functions of the multi-functional OBU. The disclosed subject matter also relates to a toll beacon and a transaction server for same.

Claims

1. A method for checking toll transactions, produced from position notifications of a mobile phone connected via a mobile network to a transaction server, with the aid of a network of distributed toll beacons, which can communicate via short-range radio with on-board units of passing vehicles and are connected to the transaction server, comprising:

carrying a mobile phone and an on-board unit on a vehicle;

generating a session identifier, exchanging the session identifier between the mobile phone and the on-board unit and transmitting the session identifier to the transaction server;

producing position notifications in the mobile phone and sending the position notifications under the session identifier to the transaction server in order to produce toll transactions;

when the on-board unit passes a toll beacon, logging the pass in a beacon log under the session identifier; and

double-checking the toll transactions produced for the session identifier with the beacon log created for the session identifier.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein as a toll beacon is passed a beacon identifier is transmitted from the toll beacon to the on-board unit and is stored in a first beacon log in the on-board unit;

and

wherein the first beacon log is transmitted with the session identifier via the mobile phone to the transaction server in order to be double-checked.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein as a toll beacon is passed the session identifier is transmitted from the on-board unit to the toll beacon and from there is transmitted with a beacon identifier to the transaction server;

and

wherein all beacon identifiers received under the session identifier are stored in the transaction server in a second beacon log.

4. The method according to claim 2,

wherein as a toll beacon is passed the session identifier is transmitted from the on-board unit to the toll beacon and from there is transmitted with a beacon identifier to the transaction server;

wherein all beacon identifiers received under the session identifier are stored in the transaction server in a second beacon log; and

wherein the second beacon log is also double-checked against the first beacon log during the double check.

5. The method according to claim 1, comprising:

when passing the toll beacon;

recording a vehicle feature using a detector of the toll beacon and storing the vehicle feature under the session identifier in the toll beacon; and

when the double check in the transaction server indicates a mismatch, transmitting the stored vehicle feature from the toll beacon to the transaction server.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the vehicle feature is stored in an encrypted manner with the aid of the session identifier.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the double check is performed by means of map matching between geographical positions of toll beacons stored in the beacon log on the basis of the beacon identifiers thereof and the position notifications.

8. The method according to claim 2, wherein the generation of the session identifier and the transmission of the first beacon log is initiated in each case by a temporary near-range or NFC (near field communication) connection between the mobile phone and on-board unit.

9. The method according to claim 2, wherein the first beacon log is encrypted cryptographically in the on-board unit and is transmitted in this form to the mobile phone.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein an on-board unit identifier of the on-board unit is in each case also transmitted with the session identifier.

11. A vehicle-based arrangement, comprising:

a mobile phone with a satellite receiver for position determination and a mobile communications module for position notification via a mobile network to a transaction server; and

an on-board unit with a short-range transceiver for radio communication with a toll beacon,

wherein the mobile phone and the on-board unit are configured to exchange a session identifier via a common radio interface, which session identifier is used by the mobile phone in a position notification via the mobile network and is used by the on-board unit in a radio communication with a toll beacon.

12. The vehicle-based arrangement according to claim 11, wherein the radio interface is an NFC interface for temporary NFC connections.

13. The vehicle-based arrangement according to claim 11, wherein the on-board unit is configured to receive a beacon identifier from a toll beacon and to store said beacon identifier in a first beacon log.

14. The vehicle-based arrangement according to claim 13, wherein the on-board unit is configured to transmit the first beacon log via the common radio interface to the mobile phone, and wherein the mobile phone is designed to transmit a received first beacon log via the mobile network to the transaction server.

15. A toll beacon, comprising a short-range transceiver for radio communication with a passing on-board unit of a vehicle, an interface to a transaction server, and a processor with memory for controlling the transceiver and the interface, wherein the processor is configured to receive a session identifier from a passing on-board unit and to transmit said session identifier together with a beacon identifier to the transaction server.

16. The toll beacon according to claim 15, wherein the processor is also configured to transmit the beacon identifier from the toll beacon to the on-board unit.

17. The toll beacon according to claim 15, further comprising a detector for recording a feature of the vehicle, wherein the processor is configured to record a vehicle feature using the detector and to store the vehicle feature under the session identifier in the toll beacon and, upon a request received from the transaction server, to transmit the stored vehicle feature to the transaction server.

18. The toll beacon according to claim 17, wherein the detector is a camera and the vehicle feature is a feature of an external appearance of the vehicle.

19. A transaction server, comprising a first interface to a mobile network and a second interface to a network of geographically distributed toll beacons, wherein the transaction server is configured to double-check position notifications of a mobile phone received via the first interface with beacon logs received via at least one of the first interface or the second interface, wherein toll beacons passed by the mobile phone are specified in said beacon logs.

20. The transaction server according to claim 19, wherein the transaction server is configured to request via the second interface a vehicle feature stored in a toll beacon in the case of a mismatch occurring during the double check.