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| GeoCommunity Mailing List |
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| Mailing List Archives |
| Subject: | Re: [gislist] realtime vehicle tracking |
| Date: |
07/06/2005 11:05:01 PM |
| From: |
Simmonds, Ashley (DTEI) |
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thanks for your help with this. basically I don't need all of the crap that comes with commercial AVL systems... all I want to do is get the X/Y coordinates of a vehicle a couple times a day, anywhere in the country (australia).
I understand this makes it somewhat difficult as you can basically assume (with oz's wide expanses) that this should be trackable planet-wide. as long as I can get those X/Y coords ANYWHERE that I can access them, that would be sufficient as I have the ability to deal with anything from that point on.
downloading the data afterwards is useless to my venture, to clarify this is for a car fleet of a rental car company, and they don't care where they've been, but when one of their cars goes missing for several days they become very anxious as to where they ARE. if we could get the coords xmitted a couple times a day, they can send 'the boys' out to deal with it.
cheers, ash
-----Original Message----- From: Bill Diaz [mailto:william.diaz@comcast.net] Sent: Tuesday, 5 July 2005 10:26 PM To: 'Simmonds, Ashley (DTEI)': gislist@lists.thinkburst.com Subject: RE: [gislist] realtime vehicle tracking
Ash, See below:
>-----Original Message----- >From: gislist-bounces@lists.geocomm.com >[mailto:gislist-bounces@lists.geocomm.com] On Behalf Of Simmonds, >Ashley (DTEI) >Sent: Tuesday, July 05, 2005 03:58 >To: gislist@lists.thinkburst.com >Subject: [gislist] realtime vehicle tracking >
>sure this has been discussed before. could someone point some fingers >at where some step-by-steps in this arena might be located... > >i've been researching APRS a bit, and am already good with GIS and >stuff, but i need to get a good handle on how to transmit a GPS signal >from a fleet of cars, and recieve that signal into my application.
Step by step information for commercial AVL system design is hard to come by, since many companies use proprietary systems and methods. Methods of transmitting and receiving a signal from a fleet can vary considerably. An APRS like system may not be suitable for commerical application for a variety of reasons.
APRS (Amateur Position Reporting System) is used by Radio Amateurs World-Wide to report postions of various mobile and fixed assets. However, it has some serious drawbacks. Position reports do not require or expect an ack. There is no way of knowing if the position information reached the desired destination. Often, a position report collides with a postion report from another station, and both position reports are lost since there is no retry mechanism for position reports.
Commercial AVL systems generally have robust protocols to ensure information is delivered to the intended destination or is stored locally for later transmission or download.
The key to a successful AVL systems is a dependable communications system which covers the intended market area. If the market area is small, a single base station may suffice and costs can be somewhat reasonable. If the market area is larger than can be covered by a single base station, costs can quickly escalate. Many AVL systems in the US utilize existing cellular networks to carry information since the captial costs are mimimal compared to a dedicated system. Most networks claim 95% coverage in the US. Microburst and Cellemetry offer data services which utilitze the control channel of cellular systems to allow subscribers to relay limited amounts of data. Other commercial services are available as well.
Several AVL systems do not use radio at all. They simply log position information into an onboard computer for later download to an AVL system. Some are hybrid systems. They store location information until they come in range of the AVL radio system and then send the stored information.
Asset position information can be sent or stored at regular intervals or when specific events occur. If the interval is too short, the amount of data can be quite large, especially when traveling long distances. Very often the data is somewhat redundant when the vehicle is stationairy. Smart beaconing or logging can reduce the amount of data considerably. This may include suspension of transmissions or logging when an asset is stopped for N minutes, and resumption when it begins to move again. It may also include "corner pegging", or sending position information when the vehicle heading changes N degrees. This can smooth out a vehicle track considerably.
The design of an AVL system is usually very industry specific. Over the road transportation AVL system requirements are quite different than AVL systems designed for Taxi-Cabs or police departments. Over the years, I have seen many "Generic" AVL vendors go out of business because they could not compete with industry specific AVL systems.
Delivery of required AVL information within an organizaton varies. Operat
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