Telematics coming into its own

Telematics is on the edge of significant changes. A number of markets are emerging due to the strong interest of governments and government organisations or are being pushed by legislation.

The most prominent examples are:

• ecall
• stolen vehicle tracking (SVT)
• intelligent traffic management
• road pricing
• car 2 infrastructure

All these markets require low-cost telematics solutions for aftermarket OBUs and embedded OEM solutions but do not require data rates exceeding GPRS. To achieve minimum system cost, a new architecture with minimal form factors is required (eg, internal antenna, built-in SIM).

ATOP 2.5G is a multi-core turnkey solution for telematics applications combining a GSM/GPRS, GPS, SRAM and flash memory; an ARM7-based vehicle microcontroller offering CAN, USB and multiple serial interprocessor buses; a security controller SmartMX based on banking standards accepted security levels; and an RFID interface based on NFC standards.

The system will include all frequency generators and filters required for stand-alone operation as well as the voltage level generation for its various elements.

In parallel, significant technological changes are taking place in the mobile market. System integration of mobile chipsets is progressing rapidly. The added value for mobile system integration by module makers and Tier1 suppliers in the motor vehicle industry is hence marginalised and will only remain for systems in the early adoption phase (HSP+ or LTE) where multi-chip solutions are used quite often.

Both trends will drive a kind of standardisation in the telematics market, starting at the low end in cost-sensitive markets, but also moving up into higher data rates.

The ability to drive volume across multiple OEM and Tier 1 suppliers will set the framework for economies of scale and for cost reductions.

Aside from the integration of standard features of telematics systems, such as pure GSM and GPS functionality, other system characteristics will become just as or even more important. So as not to limit the system to only one use, multi-service capability will emerge as a critical requirement, allowing multiple applications to be run in parallel.

In addition to this flexibility, open standards for programming services are becoming a key asset to allow different parts of the organisations or partners to program services.

With the implementation of such non-proprietary open standards, challenges for interoperability can also be solved much more easily and foster the implementation of third-party services or applications as well.

A major concern for the telematics end user is privacy or the appropriate level of control over privacy. For many cases, transaction security and security of data and code is a major concern as well.

The Telematics module can be seen as a kind of digital door into the car or application and needs iron-clad protection.

These requirements for a robust security architecture and implemented mechanisms for tamper detection help to create a chain of trust between all parties involved in the telematics value chain: the end user, the car, the telematics onboard unit, operator(s), service providers and so forth.

Architectures addressing this market segment need to offer a common set of functions and flexibility, so that different levels of integration can be met. Under these assumptions, NXP has designed its first-generation automotive onboard unit platform solution called ATOP 2.5G.

It is optimised on cost, form-factor, in-car connectivity and power consumption.

It is supplied with integrated standard software and will guarantee GSM certification, while meeting motor vehicle industry standards and quality requirements in compliance with governmental requirements.

Main application and business logic will be Java based, allowing portability, efficiency in coding complex back-end server communication, a high level of security due to a sand-box concept and adherence to open standards.

Use of Java will also enhance and ease the GSM certification process.

Supplied with standard JSRs with some proprietary extensions, the system allows easy programming, particularly focusing on business logic and back-end communication.

For real-time tasks and low-level system integration, the interface microcontroller, which is based on ARM architecture, provides the flexibility of fully customised software, allowing the user to re-use available tools and resources for implementation.

For the interface microcontroller, a library containing communication functions is available, allowing transparent communication of applications running on the controller with Applets hosted on the Java of the main processor by multiple logical channels via a multiplexed high-speed SPI connection.

The user is in full control of the microcontroller and can make choices on the OS, services and applications.

The Java-based security OS on the SmartMX will allow coexistence of multiple secure Javacard applets, which can be used for securing code, applications or transactions, and can be fully embedded in a trust provisioning environment with industry standard trust centres.

In conjunction with the NFC RFID interface, the system can facilitate secure identification or secure transactions such as payment processes.

By Dirk Reimer, NXP Semiconductors