Development of Telematics Software Platform using WIPI for Service-based Applications

Telematics is about delivering electronic services to “connected” devices. This includes more than showing web content in a browser: It should be able to download and upgrade new services in a wireless environment. To this end, auto makers have applied an “open architecture software platform” in a car so that hopefully fast-moving software can be supplied to customers and a new business model can be created after a car release.

WIPI (Wireless Internet Platform for Interoperability) is a set of standard specifications for the mobile platform made by the Mobile Platform Special Subcommittee of the Korea Wireless Internet Standardization Forum (KWISF). These are standardized for providing an environment for mounting and implementing application programs downloaded via the wireless Internet on the mobile communication terminal. These features make it possible for WIPI to be a solution for the telematics software platform. WIPI has already been adapted to more than 14 million handset devices in Korea (as of June 2006) and has verified the stability of the front/back-end system.

This paper reports on the development of a telematics software platform currently being pursued as a collaboration between Hyundai Motor Company and KTF (Korean Telecommunication Company) that has commercialized WIPI in the hand-set environment. As a result, WIPI was adopted as a telematics software platform for the device developed by HMC. In this paper, the features for an open architecture software platform like downloadability, upgradeability, interoperability, security were also verified.