The goal of the project known as Digital Mobility – Vehicles and Stations (DiMo-FuH), was to develop standardised interfaces and connection standards between different passenger information systems used in public transport, taking into account the importance of the spatial environment and the significance of the vehicle as acentral connection point in a passenger’s intermodal travel sequence.
Under INIT’s direction, the team followed an IoT approach by developing an architecture that features a broker as a central messaging service. The interfaces between the control centre on the one hand and the vehicle infrastructure, station/stop infrastructure and passenger information on the other hand were standardised, drawing on existing standards such as SIRI or NeTEx. The project participants set up a broker based on MQTT (Message Queuing Telemetry Transport) to function as the central communications component. The field test of this new communication standard in Munich was a complete success: after some minor challenges, the INIT on-board computer, COPILOTpc2, used the newly developed standard to communicate with a third party Intermodal Transport Control System (ITCS) essentially at the push of a button, and INIT’s MOBILE-ITCS communicated with the on-board computers from another manufacturer.
Real-Time Passenger Information Systems (RTPI) were also successfully connected to an ITCS from a different IT provider. The new standard makes it possible to use INIT solutions in third-party IT environments – completely without the need for any project-specific interfaces. The reasons to connect IT systems are as varied as they are widespread. Two examples might be to support the operation of a joint control centre with new subcontractors, or to test a step-by-step introduction of MOBILE-ITCS for the growing fleet of electric buses.
One of the results of the project was a draft of a new VDV publication called Internet of Mobility – or IoM for short – which was submitted to the VDV at the end of September. INIT is proud to have led the consortium on this pioneering project.