Selecting telecommunications technologies for intelligent transport system services in Helsinki Municipality

Abstract

Unified vision of Helsinki metropolitan area council [YTV (YTV changed its name in 2010 to HSL http://www.hsl.fi/EN/Pages/default.aspx)] aims to systematically develop intelligent transport systems (ITS) services and associated networking technologies to follow the very latest global ITS trends. In this study, ITS telecommunication technology, service and economical scenarios for YTV area are inspected up to 2014. The authors goal set by YTV is to research and validate YTV-suggested ITS services and to investigate viable telecommunication networking alternatives in an evolution timeline. At the moment, most ITS services of YTV do not require broadband connection or real-time operation. However, there are emerging broadband networking needs as supplying Internet connection to passengers, providing traffic light priority for busses and having real-time ITS operation and management systems. Generally, quality of service (QoS) requirements of ITS services form a base in the authors evaluation. The authors results, compressed to technology-service scenarios, indicate that YTV has several options for successful ITS development: (i) Buying networking services/technologies from a telecommunication operator; (ii) Building their own network or (iii) Realising a hybrid solution. The authors results in telecommunication networking alternatives are compressed into timeline diagram and investment sensitivity estimations that can be used to support decision making.