ECo-AT (European Corridor – Austrian Testbed for Cooperative Systems) is the Austrian project to create harmonised and standardised cooperative ITS applications jointly with partners in Germany and the Netherlands. The project is led by the Austrian motorway operator ASFINAG and the consortium consists of Kapsch TrafficCom AG, Siemens AG Österreich, SWARCO AG, High Tech Marketing, Volvo Technology AB, ITS Vienna Region, FTW (Forschungszentrum Telekommunikation Wien) and BASt (Bundesanstalt für Straßenwesen).

Within the next years C-ITS should be developed for beeing applied in the Cooperative ITS Corridor Rotterdam – Frankfurt/M. – Wien. This happens in close cooperation between the EU-member states Netherlands, Germany and Austria, who have signed a Memorandum of Understanding.

Austria has established itself as constructive implementation pioneer of C-ITS applications within the European Union – not least because of the project Testfeld Telematik. The next steps towards pan-European deployment in the european C-ITS Corridor from the Netherlands via Germany to Austria will be prepared and developed within the project ECo-AT for the Austrian section.

The vision - Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS)

Noticing traffic jams before you see them. Detecting risks before they become a threat. Arriving at your destination safe and sound. This vision of safe and intelligent mobility can be realised by wirelessly connected vehicles and infrastructure. In technical terms, it is achieved with so called Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS – also known as V2X communication for vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication). Cooperative systems enable direct communication between vehicles, roadside infrastructure and traffic control centres. The benefits of V2X communication are numerous. It enables anticipatory and safe driving, as drivers are informed in advance about current traffic situations and danger zones. In addition traffic centres receive precise and comprehensive information from vehicles about the traffic situation. In this way, it is possible to control the traffic flow more minutely, efficiently and quickly, resulting in an improved flow of traffic. The effect: better safety, fewer accidents, improved use of the road network, less congestion and a decrease in CO2 emissions.

Intelligent mobility – beyond national borders

The basis for the pan-European deployment of cooperative ITS is already in place. The Cooperative ITS technology has been developed within research and development projects (R&D) and is evaluated in field operational tests (FOTs). The majority of the enabling technology is already standardised. The non-technical aspects (e.g. organisational structures, safety concept, legal aspects) are currently addressed in public private partnerships in preparation for the market launch. On this basis, road operators in Germany, the Netherlands and Austria will now start joint deployment of cooperative ITS in Europe, with partners from industry.

ECo-AT - the Austrian testbed for C-ITS

The major goal is to finalise technical and organisational harmonisation between industry partners and road operators before deploying C-ITS based services. The project ECo-AT consists of 2 phases: in the first phase cooperative services and systems will be specified and the solutions will be tested by industry, cities and road operators within the framework of a "Living-Lab". In the second phase of ECo-AT cooperative services and systems are realised by deploying them within the framework of a live operation.

ECo-AT is fundamentally designed in two Phases. The result of Phase 1 will be a full systems specification for C-ITS which has been tested and verified by the ECo-AT industry partners and by 3rd parties. In Phase 2 ASFINAG will be the only partner of the ECo-AT project and will perform the tendering of the C-ITS system. Both Phases are funded by the Klima & Energiefonds (climate & energy fund) in Austria.

In ECo-AT Phase 1 all project partners will cooperate on the development of system architecture specifications. These system architecture specifications will be developed in 4 releases and each release will be published for public consultation.

ECo-AT project plan.

3rd parties (industry partners not being project partners of ECo-AT) will have access to the published system specifications. It is the utmost aim of the ECo-AT partners to achieve a short time frame between the detailing of interim results in different releases, and the publishing of further releases, in order to ensure that 3rd parties have the chance to give feedback on the specifications in due time.

Living Lab - Come and test in May and October 2016 in Vienna!

Project partners as well as 3rd parties are invited to test against the system specification in the ECo-AT Living Lab on a voluntary basis. If you are interested please get in contact with us!

In the following ASFINAG will develop the tender specifications and start the tendering procedures for the procurement of the C-ITS system in Phase 2. This work will be based on the published final Phase 1 system specification. ASFINAG will use the Living Lab for acceptance tests of C-ITS systems and components for operational use, based on test procedures and tools agreed and developed in Phase 1.

All use cases deployed in the scope of ECo-AT Phase 2 are called “Day 1 use cases”:

• Road Works Warning (RWW): drivers get information of road works ahead, their relevant parameters and associated obstructions (e.g. closed lanes).
• In-Vehicle Information (IVI): drivers get information about present speed policy/advices and other relevant (hazard) information.
• CAM, DENM Aggregation: the collection of anonymized information from vehicle ITS stations enlarges the information basis for traffic management decisions.
• Intersection Safety (ISS): cooperative Traffic Lights will provide information on their status (SPaT – Signal Phase and Timing).
• Other DENM based applications: DENM messages can be generated by stationary ITS stations.
• Multimodal information (MIF): the provision of multimodal information is an option which will be analysed within a feasibility study.

Testfeld Telematik has been successfully finished after 32 months of intense work in November 2013. Following the follow-up project ECo-AT started by the end of 2013.

The main project tasks of Testfeld Telematik have been the development, operation and demonstration of cooperative services and systems within the framework of a test field for cooperative services in the greater Vienna area. Testfeld Telematik was focused spatial and technical on the high-ranking road network including public transport and lower-ranking road network, especially for urban deployment of cooperative services (e.g. distribution of in-vehicle information of traffic lights).

A special challange has been the selection of cooperative applications, which can be made perceptible for end users by using up-to-date technical possibilities within the framework of the test field. A special challange has been the task of receiving and displaying the distributed applications inside vehicles via integrated vehicle systems as well as refitting platforms and mobile devices and the coordination of up to 64 parties during the ITS World Congress 2012 in Vienna. The joint demonstration of cooperative services in a real traffic situation and in cooperation with car industry during the ITS World Congress 2012 in Vienna has been a first highlight of Testfeld Telematik which had the effect of worldwide visibility of Austrian efforts and competence relating cooperative services and systems.

Within the next years C-ITS should be developed for beeing applied in the Cooperative ITS Corridor Rotterdam – Frankfurt/M. – Wien. This happens in close cooperation between the EU-member states Netherlands, Germany and Austria, who have signed a Memorandum of Understanding.

Head of the project