A COMMON AND MINIMUM LEVEL OF FUNCTIONALITY TO ENABLE INTEROPERABILITY OF EUROPEAN ELECTRONIC FEE COLLECTION (EFC) SYSTEMS

The requirements of the operators of European EFC systems and the requirements of the users will vary to a large extent. Hence, the EFC systems will imply different levels of functionality according to the different requirements. As an On-Board Unit (OBU) from one EFC system enters another EFC system there will be problems in case the functionality of the OBU does not align/comply with the functionality of the 'foreign' EFC system. In this paper, the author proposes a possible solution to the problems described above, which would be to introduce a minimum level of 'European' functionality for the OBU and the Roadside Equipment/Central system. Any OBU used in a European EFC system should cover the minimum level of functionality and any Roadside Equipment and Central system should provide the corresponding minimum level of functionality. Of course, any system should also be able to implement enhanced functionality according to the specific operator and user requirements. For the covering abstract, see IRRD 490001.