TPEG

The Transport Protocol Experts Group, short TPEG, started as a group of people dedicated to provide better and more comprehensive traffic and traveller information than any system before. Over time, the term TPEG became synonymous to the data protocol suite that these people created and are still developing.

Note: Hereafter, the term “TPEG” will always refer to the data protocol suite.

TPEG is a set of data protocols for carrying traffic & travel related information, comprising a range of different applications as well as basic building blocks to manage the transmission of the applications themselves, such as the handling of different messages belonging to a given application, grouping applications into data frames, or the updating and cancellation of messages. TPEG can be carried over different transmission media (bearers), such as digital broadcast or cellular networks (wireless Internet). TPEG aplications include, among others, information on road conditions, weather, fuel prices, parking or delays of public transport.


History

The Transport Protocol Experts Group was started in 1997 by the European Broadcasting Union(EBU). Work carried on under the auspices of the EBU until 2007, when the group merged with another group working on the Traffic Message Channel (TMC) protocol, hosted by ERTICO – ITS Europe and with the Mobile.Info project, where first prototypes of TPEG technology was tested under realistic driving conditions in various in-car navigation systems by a number of car manufacturers and their suppliers. Today, development work is carried out by the Traveller Information Services Association (TISA), who now also looks after the TMC standards.In the early days of the Transport Protocol Experts Group, the plan was to develop applications that could extend traffic information services far beyond existing technologies, such as RDS-TMC or proprietary protocols. Further, TPEG should include multi-modal traveller information services, facilitating roaming of travellers between different modes of transportation, e.g. between individual transportation (using a car) and public transportation (bus, subway, trains, …). It all started with a Road Traffic Message (RTM) application, which was soon complemented by a Public Transport Information (PTI) application, which both shared a common native TPEG Location Referencing method.TPEG RTM was intended as the “one size fits all” application. However, early implementations soon showed that the RTM structure was too broad to be used in navigation systems as a replacement for TMC. This first generation TPEG applications (TPEG generation 1, or TPEG1) also provided only a binary encoding, having in some cases a separate specification for the mapping to an XML encoding. Consequently, a revision of both the general information modelling style and the design approach was done, moving TPEG towards more clearly defined and separated applications for specific use cases and a top-down data modeling approach. This second generation TPEG applications (TPEG generation 2, or TPEG2) is now specified with an UML model, from which automatically both a binary encoding and XML encoding are derived. A TPEG2 application specification includes both the binary and XML encodings as integral part of the specification.With the first TPEG2 TEC application, a breakthrough was achieved in a sense that both service providers and device manufacturers accepted TPEG2 as THE successor to TMC and deployments were rolled out in many countries.Both TPEG1 and TPEG2 are standardized with the International Organization for Standardization as ISO/TS 18234 (TPEG1) and ISO/TS 21219 (TPEG2). TPEG1 is now considered a legacy system and the implementation of new serivces based on TPEG1 is discouraged.

Technology

TPEG defines specifications for providing highly accurate traffic- and traveller information of many kinds. TPEG allows the transfer of data via different bearers e.g. digital broadcast or internet. In fact, today this is mainly used to inform travellers on roads, train tracks or even pedestrians. Information for a convenient journey e.g. on road conditions, weather, fuel prices, parking or delays of public transport are coded in TPEG.TPEG is a protocol with containers which carry specific content, for each service on a specific content so called ‘applications’ are defined in a separate technical specification. TPEGis designed to be modern and flexible, it is even more future proof, easy to adapt towards new trends, needs and conditions.Selecting the right applications and technical implementation profile, allows provision of safety relevant information to all travellers on time, accurately and precisely. Due to this major benefit is welcomed by regulators and legal authorities too.TPEG based products are already available in the several European and Asian and US markets from different suppliers.

TPEG design philosophy

TPEG is developed in a top-down fashion based on modeling use cases in the Unified Modeling Language (UML). Based on the UML modeling, two version are derived:

  • Extensible Markup Language (XML) encoding – This format is human- and machine-readable and it can be easily rendered in navigation devices by parsing the XML structure. It is further backwards compatible in a way that new XML tags can be included in a given application, which would be simply skipped by older device populations that do not recognize these tags. New device populations can however benefit from the new features.
  • Binary encoding – This format is not human-readable, but much more compact than its XML representation. Binary encoding is therefore frequently used when the available bandwidth is small and a compact encoding of services is of the essence.

 

TPEG core principles

The following principles were assumed to be essential in the development of the TPEG protocol, structure and semantics (Reference ISO/TS 18234-2 followed by TS 21219-5):

  • TPEG is basically unidirectional (exceptions on IP based bearer)
  • TPEG binary is byte-oriented, where a byte is represented by eight bits
  • TPEG provides a protocol structure, which employs asynchronous framing
  • TPEG includes a CRC error detection capability applicable on a variety of different levels
  • TPEG assumes that underlying systems may employ error correction
  • TPEG assumes the use of a transparent data channel
  • TPEG assumes that underlying systems will have an appropriate level of reliability
  • TPEG has a hierarchical data frame structure
  • TPEG is used to transport information from database to database
  • TPEG provides service provider name, service name and network information
  • TPEG permits the use of encryption mechanisms, if required by an application

TPEG additional capabilities

  • TPEG distinguishes two most significant segments in its design concept: Content and Delivery. Within the Content Location and application information is distinguished.
  • TPEG allows services to be free of location database synchronism with clients
  • TPEG extends applications to multimodal services
  • TPEG offers very rich content with language independence
  • TPEG facilitates unprecedented client device filtering options for end-users
  • Designed for “thick” and “thin” devices
  • No need for preloaded location database
  • Scalable message content
  • Adaptation to delivery bearers is simple

 

Features

Before TPEG was conceived, TMC was the commonly used standard to deliver real-time traffic information to mobile devices or into vehicles. Over the years, new requirements emerged, such as the need for more precise location referencing methods that could encode locations on-the-fly (TMC uses pre-defined location tables). Further, new content became available, which could not be encoded by using TMC, but that service providers wanted to offer their clients and that device manufacturers wanted to include in their navigation devices. Besides, mobile broadband and digital broadcasting services provided much more bandwidth to carry such new, information-rich services – compared to the Radio Data System (RDS) used for TMC services, which only has a very limited bandwidth.Information distribution without a location database in client devicesService Providers collect and deliver a wide range of content. TPEG offers various location referencing methods that can deliver rich location information and facilitate dynamic on-the-fly map matching on the encoder (service provider) and decoder (navigation device) side. Devices can choose if they prefer to work with a location database (which has to be maintained) or if they want to work on any map independent geographic data instead. With the dynamic map matching, TPEG can address the entire road network, whereas TMC was restricted mainly to motorways and inter-urban roads due to the limited size of the TMC location tables. Besides, the maintenance and update of the TMC location tables, especially in large terminal populations, is costly and time consuming. With TPEG, having a location database embedded with the device is not mandatory anylonger. However, TPEG may use TMC locations if such a location table is available.Language independenceTPEG applications provide all information in a language independent encoding. Precise, clear and very rich semantic information models allow service providers to assemble informative messages in any language. The decoder then uses the message encoding and transcodes it into the language selected at the receiving device. Thus TPEGtechnology enables end users to receive traffic & traveller information in the language of his choice.Multimodal applicationsTPEG covers many modes of transport. It can serve the motorist in the urban area as well as, the intercity traveller on long distance trips. Different applications are available to cover road traffic events, traffic situation and travel time, information on parking and transport mode interchange (e.g. P&R parking), on electromobility charging points, fuel prices or weather information.Bearer independent TPEG has been designed to be carried over a wide range of carriers, such as wireless broadband (mobile Internet) or digital broadcast channels. Thanks to its bearer independence, it is suitable for point-to-point as well as multicast applications and it can easily be encapsulated into IP.Map independent TPEG supports various methods for location referencing, including map independent location referencing methods. Supported methods are TMC location tables, AGORA-C, Open Location Reference (TPEG2-OLR),  Universal Location Reference (TPEG2-ULR), or Geographic Location Referencing (TPEG-GLR). Further location referencing methods are currently in discussion.

TPEG2 applications

TPEG is a modular toolkit, consisting of the following applications:

Part 1: Introduction, numbering and versions This Technical Specification provides an introduction and index to the complete set of TPEG Generation 2 toolkit components and applications. It allows the indexing of new applications as they are added to the TPEG applications family, by defining their Application Identification (AID).
Part 2: UML modelling rules Rules to define the semantics of a TPEG application by a suitable model, independent from its physical data format and transmission issues. These rules ease TPEG implementation process.
Part 3: UML to binary conversion rules TPEG applications are modelled in UML to provide an application description that is independent of a physical format representation. By separating semantics from application description, applications can easily be developed at a functional level. Different physical format representations can be generated following a well defined set of rules on how to convert UML classes to different physical formats.
Part 4: UML to XML conversion rules Rules for converting TPEG application UML models to the tpegML format description.
Part 5: Service framework TPEG2 can provide a multiplex of TPEG Services and applications. Both the binary and XML formats are specified to compose a multiplex of TPEG services, each potentially having multiple TPEG applications.
Part 6: Message management container The Message Management Container is used by all TPEG applications to provide information about the handling of messages on the TPEG client side
Part 7: Location referencing container The TPEG2-Location Referencing Container is used to signal which specific location referencing method is in use for a particular TPEG Message. It is able to handle Location Referencing methods that are external to the present ISO series and the internal location referencing methods defined as parts of this series.
Part 9: Service and network information The TPEG-SNI application is designed to allow the efficient and language independent delivery of information about the availability of the same service on another bearer channel or similar service data from another service provider, directly from service provider to end-users. In all TPEG streams it is mandatory to deliver to so-called GST. Additionally it is possible to signal linkage of content between different bearers and services.
Part 10: Conditional access information Function applied on service frame or service component level. Thanks to it, some service components may be encrypted using the same “encryption key”, while other remain unencrypted or use different “encryption keys”.
Part 11: Universal location referencing TPEG Applications and toolkits are developed using UML models via two alternative representations: Byte-binary for usage in on-air interface and TPEG-ML for application on the sender infrastructure. These models provide representation of the applications that is independent of any physical format.
Part 14: Parking information application Designed to deliver parking informaiont (textually, voiced or graphically) to a variety of receivers via digital broadcasting and Internet technologies.
Part 15: Traffic event compact application TEC Compact application for traffic event / incident information. TPEG2-TEC is optimized to support dynamic route guidance navigation devices. This application is currently in the phase of being rolled out by more and more providers to replace TMC
Part 16: Fuel price information application This application has been designed to support information of fuel stations, their location, fuel types offered, and fuel pricing and availability information.
Part 18: Traffic flow and prediction application TFP Compact application providing precise travel speed / travel time and forecast information. Many premium dynamic navigation devices use this application as a basis to use current and expected traffic to be displayed to the user and for dynamic route calculation
Part 19: Weather information application Weather forecast for travellers, over multiple time periods and geographical areas.
Part 20: Extended TMC location referencing This application establishes additional fields for coding closed exit and entries. This is primarily aimed at devices which can only decode TEC with TMC-Location-Container.

Furthermore, the possibility is added to “Extend” a TMC location to include the Internal road segments of the secundary location, and to exclude optionally the internal road segments of the primary location.

Part 21: Geographic location referencing Method for signaling geographic location references (points, poly-lines, and geographical areas), which can be transported inside a TPEG-Location Referencing Container (TPEG-LRC) for those TPEG applications wishing to relay primarily geographical locations (e.g. Weather).
Part 22: OpenLR location referencing Designed to transfer traffic information (e.g. current traffic situation at a certain point, special alerts) from a centre to in-vehicle systems, built-in or used as an add-on (PND, Smart Phone).
Part 23: Road and multimodal routes application This application enables the provision of precise information and guidance from a central knowledge base to a traveller’s mobile device. It encompasses road routes as well as multi-modal routes and parking.

 

TPEG Services worldwide

Many TPEG services are operated world-wide. The tables below provide a snapshot of the situation in early 2015. For up-to-date information, plese refer to the TPEG coverage maps provided by TISA.

Broadcast Services

Country Company Status Product/Service Short Description
Germany ARD (9 regional services) Trial / alive in some regions Free to Air TEC / TFP / PKI (in some regions)
Germany HERE Alive Premium TEC / TFP
Germany Mediamobile Alive v-traffic TEC / TFP
Netherlands Be-Mobile Alive Premium TEC / TFP
Belgium Be-Mobile Alive Premium TEC / TFP
Luxembourg Be-Mobile Alive Premium TEC / TFP
Norway Mediamobile Alive v-traffic TEC / TFP
United Kingdom Inrix Alive Premium TEC / TFP
United Kingdom Trafficmaster Alive Premium TEC
Italy Infoblu Trial Premium TEC / TFP
Poland Mediamobile Trial v-traffic TEC / TFP
Sweden Mediamobile Trial v-traffic TEC / TFP
France Mediamobile Trial in some cities v-traffic TEC / TFP

Mobile broadband (IP based) Services

Country Company Status Product/Service Short Description
Andorra Tomtom Alive Premium TEC / TFP / WEA
Argentina HERE Alive Premium TEC / TFP
Australia HERE Alive Premium TEC / TFP
Australia Tomtom Alive Premium TEC / TFP /WEA
Austria HERE Alive Premium TEC / TFP
Austria Tomtom Alive Premium TEC / TFP /WEA
Belgium HERE Alive Premium TEC / TFP
Belgium Tomtom Alive Premium TEC / TFP /WEA
Brazil HERE Alive Premium TEC / TFP
Brazil Tomtom Alive Premium TEC / TFP /WEA
Canada HERE Alive Premium TEC / TFP
Canada Tomtom Alive Premium TEC / TFP /WEA
Chile Tomtom Alive Premium TEC / TFP /WEA
China Tomtom Alive Premium TEC / TFP /WEA
Czech Republic HERE Alive Premium TEC / TFP
Czech Republic Tomtom Alive Premium TEC / TFP /WEA
Croatia HERE Alive Premium TEC / TFP
Denmark HERE Alive Premium TEC / TFP
Denmark Tomtom Alive Premium TEC / TFP /WEA
Finland HERE Alive Premium TEC / TFP
Finland Tomtom Alive Premium TEC / TFP /WEA
France HERE Alive Premium TEC / TFP
France Tomtom Alive Premium TEC / TFP /WEA
Germany Tomtom Alive Premium TEC / TFP /WEA
Germany HERE Alive Premium TEC / TFP
Germany Inrix Alive Premium TEC / TFP
Gibraltar Tomtom Alive Premium TEC / TFP /WEA
Greece HERE Alive Premium TEC / TFP
Hungary HERE Alive Premium TEC / TFP
India HERE Alive Premium TEC / TFP
Indonesia HERE Alive Premium TEC / TFP
Ireland HERE Alive Premium TEC / TFP
Ireland Tomtom Alive Premium TEC / TFP /WEA
Italy HERE Alive Premium TEC / TFP
Italy Tomtom Alive Premium TEC / TFP /WEA
Lesotho Tomtom Alive Premium TEC / TFP /WEA
Liechtenstein Tomtom Alive Premium TEC / TFP /WEA
Luxembourg HERE Alive Premium TEC / TFP
Luxembourg Tomtom Alive Premium TEC / TFP /WEA
Malaysia HERE Alive Premium TEC / TFP
Malaysia Tomtom Alive Premium TEC / TFP /WEA
Malta Tomtom Alive Premium TEC / TFP /WEA
Mexico HERE Alive Premium TEC / TFP
Mexico Tomtom Alive Premium TEC / TFP /WEA
Monaco Tomtom Alive Premium TEC / TFP /WEA
Netherlands HERE Alive Premium TEC / TFP
Netherlands Tomtom Alive Premium TEC / TFP /WEA
New Zealand HERE Alive Premium TEC / TFP
New Zealand Tomtom Alive Premium TEC / TFP /WEA
Norway HERE Alive Premium TEC / TFP
Norway Tomtom Alive Premium TEC / TFP /WEA
Poland HERE Alive Premium TEC / TFP
Poland Tomtom Alive Premium TEC / TFP /WEA
Portugal HERE Alive Premium TEC / TFP
Portugal Tomtom Alive Premium TEC / TFP /WEA
Puerto Rico HERE Alive Premium TEC / TFP
Russia HERE Alive Premium TEC / TFP
Russia Tomtom Alive Premium TEC / TFP /WEA
San Marino Tomtom Alive Premium TEC / TFP /WEA
Saudi Arabia HERE Alive Premium TEC / TFP
Saudi Arabia Tomtom Alive Premium TEC / TFP /WEA
Singapore HERE Alive Premium TEC / TFP
Singapore Tomtom Alive Premium TEC / TFP /WEA
Slovakia HERE Alive Premium TEC / TFP
Slovenia HERE Alive Premium TEC / TFP
South Africa HERE Alive Premium TEC / TFP
South Africa Tomtom Alive Premium TEC / TFP /WEA
South Korea HERE Alive Premium TEC / TFP
Spain HERE Alive Premium TEC / TFP
Spain Tomtom Alive Premium TEC / TFP /WEA
Sweden HERE Alive Premium TEC / TFP
Sweden Tomtom Alive Premium TEC / TFP /WEA
Switzerland HERE Alive Premium TEC / TFP
Switzerland Tomtom Alive Premium TEC / TFP /WEA
Taiwan HERE Alive Premium TEC / TFP
Taiwan Tomtom Alive Premium TEC / TFP /WEA
Thailand HERE Alive Premium TEC / TFP
Thailand Tomtom Alive Premium TEC / TFP /WEA
Turkey HERE Alive Premium TEC / TFP
Turkey Tomtom Alive Premium TEC / TFP /WEA
Ukraine HERE Alive Premium TEC / TFP
United Arab Emirates HERE Alive Premium TEC / TFP
United Arab Emirates Tomtom Alive Premium TEC / TFP /WEA
United Kingdom HERE Alive Premium TEC / TFP
United Kingdom Tomtom Alive Premium TEC / TFP /WEA
United States HERE Alive Premium TEC / TFP
United States Tomtom Alive Premium TEC / TFP /WEA
Vatican City Tomtom Alive Premium TEC / TFP /WEA

 

Hybrid Services, using both broadcast and IP

Country Company Status Product Short Description
United States Total Traffic and Weather Network Alive TTN HD-Hybrid TEC / TFP / FPI

See also (DE)

External links

References 

  1. “Successful TPEG™ Testfest held in Munich”. 2 October 2012. Retrieved 17 February 2013.
  2. http://telematicsnews.info/2014/09/09/garmin-says-it-is-expanding-use-of-tpeg-traffic-data-tech_s583/