PANORAMA- Personalized Application of Localisation, Comunication, and GIS-Management Systems in the Alps
Stefan Baumann
Telematica
Summary:
Today many applications in the domain of navigation suffer fromthelimited availability of a single (standalone) communication source (e.g. fleet management, LBS and rescue operations in rural and remote areas). This limitation is well known for Satellite Communication (SatCom), which suffers from Line-of-Sight (LoS) obstructions like high buildings or mountains, but also from limitations in coverage of cellular networks (like GSM, UMTS). New developments in communication infrastructure like Bluetooth and Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN) even highlight the vision of a “fragmented communication environment”. The users who need to have permanent access to communication links to support safety or security related applications will have to be equipped with a number of communication devices to make sure that one of those might be usable in case a communication link is needed. Further on the intelligent combination of these different communication links might offer the possibility to use
the cheapest, most secure, etc. data link of those available and support new applications and opportunities. This paper will present a project carried out under ESA contract by the companies Telematica and Oecon titled WICOR (Multifunctional Wireless Communications Router). WICOR has been developed as “Black-Box” with various communication units integrated by dedicated software to handle communication management corresponding to specific user requirements. SatCom, GSM, WLAN, Bluetooth and future cellular systems like UMTS have been considered. The WICOR terminal also incorporates provisions to interface positioning systems e.g. GPS, EGNOS, Galileo, and cellular network based positioning solutions. The main task of the software is to analyse and optimise permanently the situation in the “communication environment” e.g. to identify, whether GSM is available and, if not, switch to SatCom. WLAN and Bluetooth are seen as example for “local area communication”. Both technologies could be used to connect local networks (“spots”), e.g. for high speed data transfer for special applications (e.g. exchange of digital maps). The performance of the WICOR terminal has been validated in different environments by measurement campaigns performed in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Italy. The WICOR demonstrators focus on:
-Patrol services (Demonstrator: City of Berlin), which are haracterisedby medium amounts of data to be transferred and slow changing communication environment under excellent infrastructure conditions
-Large scale operations (Demonstrator: VIP tracking from Munich Airport to the city centre), which are characterised by high amounts of data to be transferred and only minor changing communication environment under multiple infrastructure conditions
-Tracking applications (Demonstrator: Vehicle tracking from Munich to Graz and from Graz to Bolzano), which are characterised by small amounts of data to be transferred and very fast changing communication environment under multiple infrastructure conditions
-Search and Rescue (SAR) applications (Demonstrator: German / Swiss /French border region near Basel) , which are characterised by medium amounts of data to be transferred and slow changing communication environment under complex infrastructure conditions (e.g. fast change of service providers due to roaming)
As the potential user groups for the WICOR system are not only requiring technical solutions to fulfil their tasks, but also dedicated value-added services, prototype services for the field demonstrations have been defined and tested, too. This includes a 3D visualisation tool based on a Digital Terrain Model (DTM) and Earth Observation data, which will be tested in the Bolzano area.