Freight telematics architecture

The feasibility study of the telematics project is a part of the horizontal project area the prerequisites of traffic telematics services, which in turn is part of the FITS-programme. The project is a continuation of the projects 7 (traffic information system for all modes of traffic), 8 (development of the traffic telematics services) and 9 (Architecture and standardization work) of the TETRA-programme. Architecture is defined as an agreement between several organizations to implement the interoperability of various systems in a specific way. Freight telematics is defined as the producing, handling and transmitting of the information needed in dispatch, transportation and receiving and for the planning and management of these processes using information and communications technologies. Freight telematics spans all modes of traffic, including road, rail, sea and air freight. The objective of this study was to determine the necessity and feasibility of a telematics architecture. The result is an action plan which outlines the areas that will be included in the telematics architecture, the architecture on a rough level and the scope of future development. The need for developing a telematics architecture focuses on seven project areas and the action plan constists of two phases. In the first phase the projects main processes and concepts of freight and data bank of recommendations should be started. The projects of the first phase are the basis for the development of the entire architecture and for the projects of the second phase. These are: interface for control system of road freight, interface for air freight, PortNet Plus, tracking message and intfrastructure status reports. The deployment of a telematics architecture is worthwile only in the case that the players in the field commit themselves to using the architecture in developing systems and to maintaining the architecture. It is specifically required that the large players commit themselves to the architecture. To achieve this the advantages of the projects have to be addressed. Today organizations have to adapt to using several parallell standards instead of only one. Especially the transportation sector has to be able to adapt to general and sector specific standards and frameworks. Because of the rapid advances in international standards and harmonization development there are several standards and frameworks available. These should be utilized in Finland more actively than at present. The study has been granted European Community financial aid in the field of Trans-European Networks - Transport. This report is available at http://www.vtt.fi/rte/projects/fits/ or http://www.mintc.fi