Registers – Systems controlled by data bearing records – Transportation
Reexamination Certificate
1998-10-26
2001-04-10
Le, Thien M. (Department: 3661)
Registers
Systems controlled by data bearing records
Transportation
C235S380000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06213396
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to a method of data transfer between a on board unit (OBU) and external devices such as integrated circuit card (ICC). The present invention relates further to a system for data transfer by means of radio communication using a transponder. In particular it relates to data transfer for application such as automatic fee collection (AFC) or automatic vehicle identification (AVI).
FR 2 708 764 discloses a vehicle equipment auto-configurable with integrated circuit card comprising an integrated circuit card reader and a memory in which a fixed microprogram is stored designed to process remote-transaction objects. Such an equipment is normally used for performing applications such as automatic fee collection on motorways. The document discloses a microprogram in the on board unit (OBU) which autonomously configures the equipment and adapts it to the special parameters of different applications. For this a fixed routine, which is initiated in response to a detection of an insertion of an ICC into the card reader, retrieves from the ICC parameters defining the specific values of the attributes of remote-transaction objects.
From for example U.S. Pat. No. 4,309,904 (Chasek) a system is known for collecting road toll charges by remote communication by means of microwaves between a stationary installation and communication units in passing vehicles.
Systems known up to now have been designed so that all components have a predetermined connectivity, the equipment of the check point being arranged for a certain type of operation and the computer of the vehicle equipment being constructed and programmed for executing exactly this type of operation and having the ICC adapted to the specific operation and for co-operation with the computer of the vehicle equipment. It means that one obtains a strong locking to the system to which the adaptation has been made, and then a considered vehicle equipment cannot be used within another system, for example a differing system within another territorial area.
Of course it is a great disadvantage; road vehicles can move between different territorial areas and then need to pass check points having systems different from those to which the built-in equipment is adapted. For security reasons the vehicle equipment is usually stationary installed in the vehicle and cannot easily be exchanged or modified.
In general, the communication between ICC and OBU is based on a Master-Slave relationship. The OBU acts as the Master and the ICC acts as the Slave. The active application controls the communication and issues commands to the ICC using an ICC Driver. The Driver is configured according to the capabilities and type of ICC.
There is a family of ISO standards (7816-x) defining the various layers of the protocol between ICC and OBU. However, these standards do not cover the applications, i.e., the organisation and access methods of the data stored on the ICC. Therefore, it is necessary for the specific application and the driver of the OBU to ‘know’ these structures. Issuing a new ICC requires a re-configuration of the OBU. Usually, this is done by means of a central computing system and a communication network.
As long as the ICC and the OBU is issued by one organisation there is no problem with issuing new cards and re-configuration of OBUs. Examples are: Phone-Cards, Toll-Cards or Personal Identity Cards issued by companies.
For the future it is expected, that the issuer of an ICC is not necessarily responsible for the OBUs (with the exception aspects concerning security, i.e., loading of secret keys into the OBUs, etc.). Furthermore, there will be multi-application ICCs where additional applications are brought onto an already issued ICC card. The OBUs will have to handle a large number of different types of ICCs where the required application is stored on the ICC in a way the OBU does not know a priori.
In one area of use to which the present invention is directed, thus the collecting of vehicle charges by means of wireless communication, a stationary equipment is provided in a number of check points, which are arranged at the entrances to some roads, in particular motor highways, bridges and tunnels which are subject to charges. When passing the check point then a question signal is issued therefrom and is received by a transponder of the passing vehicle, giving rise to response, which is transmitted from the transponder to the check point by means of modulating a signal from the check point. In such more developed systems which are considered here a full series of such question and response messages can be exchanged enabling an entire payment operation, the final result thereof being that money which has been programmed into the ICC inserted in the reader of the vehicle equipment is reduced by the charged amount at the same time as the check points register that the corresponding amount of “electronic money” has been received.
The execution of such a complicated operation requires that the transponder both will be able to provide response messages adapted to several different questions and will be able to accomplish said deduction in the smart card. Then it is not sufficient that the transponder is designed only as a communication unit but the vehicle equipment must also be provided with a computer for processing and producing encoded data including memory equipment for storing programs and results of operations.
In order to achieve it two extreme paths can be chosen: either the vehicle equipment is supplemented with a computer between the transponder and the card reader or the transponder is made to only have the function of a communication unit and all of the computing power is placed inside the ICC. However, the latter alternative is not possible in the case where, in a road toll, a free flow is to be allowed past the check point, also for high velocities, since the communication between the ICC and the transponder through the card reader requires a time period that is too long that a payment operation will have time to be performed for a high velocity of the vehicle. The transmitter of the check point must have a relatively short range both for enabling a selection between different vehicles and because of demands from authorities that the signals must have a limited range. Therefore, in free flow systems it has appeared to be necessary to transfer, before the communication, necessary data from the ICC to a computer coupled directly to the transponder.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The primary objective of the present invention is to provide a method which allows for more flexible relation between an OBU and an external entity, such as a ICC, as well as for flexible configuration of the OBU.
A method according to this objective is claimed in claim
1
. Further preferable embodiments are claimed in the respective subclaims. The general principle is to exchange macros and to provide a macro-interpreter inside the OBU (OBU, card reader) which is able to read the macros and to execute them. This mechanism can be used to perform three different main groups of tasks:
Application specific actions can be performed by the OBU, without previously knowing the structuring of the data for example inside the ICC as well as the access conditions to be fulfilled in order to access the data. This information is provided for example by the ICC implicitly inside the macro. For example the OBU only has to know the location of storage of the macro inside the ICC, and, the ‘meaning’ of the macro, i.e., the purpose it was designed for. Such application specific actions can be executed upon pressing of buttons of the OBU, or, the execution is triggered by some external events (e.g. commands received from other interfaces of the OBU) or the OBU recognises a specific situation, such as low battery, end of communication etc.
Creation/Initialisation of application specific data held inside the OBU. The values of these data can be created and/or modified autonomously on insertion of a card, by executing a special ‘auto-configuration’ macro
Blomoqvist Kenneth
Bueno Serge
Engdahl Jesper
Hertle Jochen
Hjaemare Anders
Le Thien M.
Robert & Bosch GmbH
Striker Michael J.
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