Towards a Converged Telematics Services Architecture Opportunities & Challenges

Telematics is the gradual fusion of mobile wireless, vehicular communications, and computing technologies to improve transportation safety, mobility, efficiency, and to make driving more comfortable and enjoyable. The driving forces for telematics are the increasing congestion and dangers of the roads and highways, the ubiquity of mobile wireless communication, and the intense competition in the automotive industry. This paper envisions an open, flexible, and wireless access technology-agnostic Telematics Services Architecture that supports telematics applications in diverse and dynamic business environments in a cost effective manner. It first presents a framework of such an architecture and identifies its fundamental functional elements. It then reasons that the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) can serve as a sound baseline platform for the envisioned telematic services architecture, provides an example of message flow among components using an Intelligent Accident Assistance Service scenario, and highlights key challenges in a gradual successful realization of the envisioned architecture.