NZ601864A - Method of tolling vehicles in an open-road toll system - Google Patents

Abstract

A method of tolling vehicles in an open-road toll system with vehicle-based on-board units that are able to communicate with roadside radio beacons via short-range radio interfaces is disclosed. The on-board units comprises a first memory for an electronic toll credit account, a second memory for a transaction information concerning a last debit to the toll credit account, and a third memory for a variable factor, and the radio beacons sending requests for debiting a debit amount to the toll credit account to passing on-board units. The method comprises the following steps that are carried out as an on-board unit passes a toll beacon: reading out the transaction information from the second memory and the factor from the third memory of the on-board unit via the radio interface into the toll beacon; updating the factor as a function of the read-out- transaction information and calculating a debit amount as a function of the updated factor in the toll beacon; sending a debit request with the calculated debit amount and the updated factor from the toll beacon via the radio interface to the on-board unit; and debiting the received debit amount to the toll credit account in the first memory and writing a new transaction information concerning this new debit transaction into the second memory and the received updated factor into the third memory of the on-board unit. Also disclosed is a method of tolling vehicles in an open-road toll system with vehicle-based on-board units that are able to communicate with roadside radio beacons via short-range radio interfaces. The on-board units comprises a first memory for an electronic toll credit account, a second memory for a transaction information concerning a last debit to the toll credit account, and a third memory for a variable factor, and the radio beacons sending requests for debiting a debit amount to the toll credit account to passing on-board units. The method comprises the following steps that are carried out as an on-board unit passes a toll beacon: reading out the toll credit account from the first memory, the transaction information from the second memory and the factor from the third memory of the on-board unit via the radio interface into the toll beacon; updating the factor as a function of the read-out transaction information and calculating a debit amount as a function of the updated factor and debiting the debit amount to the read-out toll credit account in the toll beacon; sending the thus updated toll credit account and the updated factor from the toll beacon via the radio interface to the on-board unit; and writing the received updated toll credit account into the first memory, a new transaction information concerning this new debit transaction into the second memory and the received updated factor into the third memory of the on-board unit.