Toll Collection System Soundness Determination
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Solution Overview
Problem
In free flow type electronic toll collection systems, delays in detecting abnormalities can lead to numerous vehicles passing without undergoing regular toll collection processing, causing operational disadvantages due to the inability to immediately determine if information acquisition issues are related to vehicle passage or system abnormalities.
Innovation Solution
A toll collection system that includes roadside antennas for wireless communication with on-board devices, a communication processing unit, a communication control unit, and a toll collection processing unit, utilizing confirmation and response signals to detect component normalcy and automatically restart or notify of abnormalities, along with a system soundness determination unit to assess processing frequencies and radio wave reception strength for accurate detection.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If free flow type electronic toll collection system is implemented to allow vehicles to pass without deceleration or stopping, then convenience and traffic flow are improved, but the ability to detect system abnormalities immediately deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by continuously transmitting confirmation signals to communication partners before actual toll collection processing occurs. This allows the system to proactively detect communication abnormalities before they affect toll collection operations, resolving the contradiction between maintaining smooth traffic flow and ensuring reliable abnormality detection.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback mechanisms where communication partners respond to confirmation signals with response signals. By monitoring whether response signals are received within expected timeframes, the system can detect communication abnormalities immediately, thus maintaining both the convenience of free-flow toll collection and the reliability of system monitoring.
2Reliability
If continuous monitoring of communication status is implemented to detect abnormalities immediately, then reliability is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system employs self-service monitoring where each communication unit independently transmits confirmation signals and evaluates responses from its communication partners. This distributed self-monitoring approach achieves reliable abnormality detection without requiring a complex centralized monitoring system, as each component performs its own health checks using simple signal exchange protocols.
Solution Approach 2:
The confirmation signal mechanism serves multiple functions simultaneously: it maintains communication links, detects abnormalities, and provides basic toll collection functionality. This multi-functionality allows the system to achieve reliable monitoring without adding separate dedicated monitoring hardware, thus improving reliability while minimizing increases in system complexity.
3Loss of time
If confirmation signals are transmitted frequently to ensure immediate abnormality detection, then detection speed is improved, but communication load increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system transmits confirmation signals periodically at optimized intervals rather than continuously. This periodic transmission achieves timely abnormality detection while significantly reducing communication load and energy consumption compared to continuous monitoring, as the system only needs to detect abnormalities within reasonable timeframes rather than providing real-time continuous monitoring.
Data Source
AI summary
A toll collection system includes a roadside antenna wirelessly communicating with an on-board device mounted in a vehicle; a communication processing unit for carrying out predetermined communication processing with the on-board device via the roadside antenna; a communication control unit for acquiring the results of communication processing from the communication processing unit and creating information for toll collection; and a toll collection processing unit for accepting the input of the information for toll collection from the communication control unit and carrying out toll collection processing based on this information. When a first component, being one part configuring any communication pair, accepts the input of a confirmation signal, the first component outputs a response signal, and a second component, being the other part, outputs the confirmation signal to the first component and determines whether the first component is operating normally based on whether the input of the response signal is accepted.