Author: Ryan Hall

OmniAir Consortium®, the leading industry association promoting interoperability and certification for ITS, tolling, and connected vehicles, announces that Battelle has joined OmniAir Consortium as an Associate Level Member.

Battelle, headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, was founded in 1929, and they have been driving innovation for highway, transit, rail, and aviation transportation for the past 50 years.

Battelle is a primary contractor for various United States Department of Transportation contracts within the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), Federal Transit Administration (FTA), Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) offices. They were also sub-consultants for the 2016 NYC Connected Vehicle Pilot Deployment Project. 

“Battelle has been transforming the transportation landscape through the development, testing, and deployment of systems and applications for vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure connectivity, and we are excited to have them as our newest member,” said Jason Conley, Executive Director for OmniAir Consortium.

OmniAir offers independent, third-party testing and certification for tolling and connected vehicles, including DSRC and C-V2X (LTE-V2X PC5) for C-V2X OBUs, RSUs, and modules.

For information about our certification programs and readiness testing events, visit our website at www.omniair.org.

 About OmniAir Consortium

OmniAir Consortium is the leading industry association promoting interoperability and certification for ITS, tolling, and connected vehicles. OmniAir’s membership includes public agencies, private companies, research institutions, and independent test laboratories.

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OmniAir Consortium® and Taiwan Telematics Industry Association (TTIA) have announced plans to host a joint OmniAir®-TTIA Plugfest in Taiwan this November.
 
The OmniAir Taipei Plugfest will take place November 6 through 10, with testing at the state-of-the-art Danhai New Town (D-City) field test facilities for connected and autonomous vehicles.
 
Alex Jeng, Secretary General of TTIA, made the announcement in speaking at last week’s OmniAir Florida Plugfest.
 
OmniAir Members HwaCom and TÜV Rheinland have also signed up as partners in the event.
 
This week-long testing event will include a policy conference and dedicated days for laboratory and field testing in the D-City facility.
 
Attendees will enjoy the hospitality of Taiwan, with accommodations at the Fullon Hotel Tamsui Fisherman’s Wharf, along with technical and cultural tours of Taipei.
 
Last year, OmniAir and TTIA signed an MOU outlining cooperation between the two organizations on advancing C-V2X testing and certification in Taiwan and across the Asia Pacific region. This paved the way for the formal discussions to host the fall 2023 Plugfest in Taipei, Taiwan.
 
“We are excited to host our first OmniAir Plugfest in Asia, in partnership with TTIA” said Jason Conley, Executive Director of OmniAir. “Taipei is a world-class city and a convenient venue for growing segment of our membership in the Asia Pacific region.”
 
Over the next few weeks, an event website will be online with additional information. If you are interested in sponsorship opportunities, you can contact Ryan Hall, Vice President of Business Development.
 

About OmniAir Consortium

OmniAir Consortium is the leading industry association promoting interoperability and certification for ITS, tolling, and connected vehicles. OmniAir’s membership includes public agencies, private companies, research institutions, and independent test laboratories. Learn more about OmniAir at www.omniair.org.

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Last week, OmniAir® members from across Europe, Asia, and North America gathered in sunny Florida for our 11th OmniAir Plugfest.

This Plugfest took place at an important moment for the connected vehicle industry–just one week after Federal Communications Commission’s granting of waivers that will allow initial C-V2X deployments in the United States.

Florida’s Secretary of Transportation Jared Perdue and Kapsch TraffiCom CEO Georg Kapsch offered keynote remarks at the Connected Mobility Workshop, held during Wednesday of the Plugfest.

Florida's Secretary of Transportation Jared Perdue
Kapsch TraffiCom CEO Georg Kapsch

Officials from the U.S. Department of Transportation, Florida Department of Transportation, and other deploying agencies were on hand to witness first-hand the comprehensive testing that C-V2X devices go through as part of the OmniAir Certification process.

Over 20 cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) radios and modules participated in a week of intensive lab, field, and security testing.

Participating C-V2X device manufacturers included:

AutoTalks, Cohda Wireless, Commsignia, Continental, Danlaw, Harman, Hitachi, HwaCom, iTtelecom, Iteris, Kapsch, Spoke, Unex, and Yunex Traffic.

Participating test stations included:

DEKRA, TTA, TÜV Rheinland Taiwan, the University of Florida Transportation Institute, Keysight Technologies/Nordsys, Leidos, Iteris, S.E.A. Datentechnik, NI, Wayties, INTEGRITY Security Services, Microsec, SaeSol Tech, and Blackberry.

Testing took place in laboratory and field test environments at the world-class SunTrax Test Facility, featuring a 2.25-mile oval test track, urban test environments, 18 garage bays, and extensive indoor testing space.

“OmniAir Plugfests are an important part of ensuring readiness of C-V2X radios and modules for deployment,” said Jason Conley, OmniAir’s Executive Director. “Thank you to SunTrax for hosting, and to our event partners at the Florida Department of Transportation, Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise, and the University of Florida’s Transportation Institute for helping to make this the best, most comprehensive connected vehicle testing event yet.”

OmniAir continued to advance testing for Day One V2X safety applications, including: Pedestrian Conflict Warning (PCW) Red Light Violation Warning (RLVW), Transit Signal Priority (TSP), Curve Speed Warning (CSW), Emergency Electronic Brake Light, (EEBL).

In addition to testing, attendees had the opportunity to tour SunTrax facilities and to view demonstrations:

  1. V2X for Bicycle safety – Spoke and Audi
  2. Ghost BSMs and field application testing – Keysight 
  3. V2X for Emergency Vehicle Safety (CMV) – FHWA Saxton Labs
  4. V2X for Pedestrian Safety – University of Florida Transportation Institute

Since 2017, OmniAir Consortium® has hosted connected vehicle Plugfest testing events twice a year, to help vendors to prepare for certification and deployment.  Participating device manufacturers, test laboratories, test equipment providers, engineering firms, OEMs, and research institutions to test and learn in an open and cooperative environment. 

OmniAir will present aggregated and anonymized test results from the OmniAir Florida Plugfest during our next monthly membership meeting scheduled for Thursday, May 25.  

If you are interested in attending, please contact Berkenda Cantlo for an invitation.

About OmniAir Consortium

OmniAir Consortium is the leading industry association promoting interoperability and certification for ITS, tolling, and connected vehicles. OmniAir’s membership includes public agencies, private companies, research institutions, and independent test laboratories. Learn more about OmniAir at www.omniair.org

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OmniAir Consortium®, the leading industry association promoting interoperability and certification for ITS, tolling, and connected vehicles, announces that DEKRA is authorized to conduct tolling field testing as part of the OmniAir Authorized Field Test Site (OAFTS) program.

The Summit Point Motorsports Park, located in Summit Point, WV, is now available for tolling vendors to conduct field testing as part of OmniAir’s certification program for single and multi-protocol RFID devices.   

“DEKRA is a proven leader in providing RFID-based toll testing for laboratory and field environments,” said Jason Conley, Executive Director for OmniAir. “We are excited to partner with DEKRA to help meet the certification testing needs of the tolling industry.”

The test track, located in West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle, is DEKRA’s second field test site authorized by OmniAir. DEKRA’s facility in Málaga, Spain, was the first field test site approved by OmniAir for C-V2X connected vehicle testing.

 “Adding field testing for RFID devices in North America is part of DEKRA’s commitment to furthering the quality and accessibility of testing and certification for future mobility,” said Fernando Rodriguez, Vice President of Product Testing for DEKRA North America. “We are proud to be a trusted partner of OmniAir and the only organization to achieve accreditations for all OmniAir programs.” 

OmniAir Authorized Test Laboratories, tolling vendors, and device makers may apply to have their test site audited by OmniAir and be added to our list of authorized sites to conduct official certification testing.

All OmniAir Authorized Field Test Sites and Authorized Test Laboratories can be found and verified by visiting our authorized test laboratory and field site directory.

For information about OmniAir testing and certification programs, visit our website at www.omniair.org.  

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We are all familiar with the phrase: “Think globally, act locally.” This popular expression reflects the notion that while we should be aware of global concerns—preserving the environment, maintaining peace, or addressing hunger—we should try to act locally by helping our neighbors or improving our town. In many instances, this is sage advice. 

Sometimes, however, we are allowed to both think and act globally. Developing technologies that contribute meaningfully to reducing the staggeringly high roadway fatalities worldwide is that opportunity.  

The World Health Organization estimates that 1.35 million lives were lost last year in traffic accidents, many of which could have been avoided if connected vehicle technologies were in play. The widescale deployment of connected vehicle and infrastructure technologies promises to reduce these fatalities by nearly 80%.

 

Making this a reality requires global cooperation by engineers and experts to develop, test, and deploy these potentially lifesaving technologies. We can only address problems of this scale and complexity by working together across borders and cultures.

The production of connected vehicle technologies is itself a microcosm of globalization. Thankfully, the ITS industry is well-positioned to take up this challenge. In one single C-V2X roadside unit (RSU), one might find a chipset designed in Israel, with a software stack developed in India, on a module fabricated in Taiwan, integrated into a radio built in Korea, with security certificates developed in Canada, tested at a lab in Spain, and installed at an intersection in the United States.

OmniAir Consortium’s diverse membership, in many ways, reflects these globalized supply chains and the growing demand for advanced transportation safety technologies around the world. 

Engineers and transportation professionals from every corner of the globe actively contribute to developing OmniAir’s third-party testing and certification programs. We rely on this diverse membership—drawn from different backgrounds, often from different continents—to work together to analyze standards, write program scopes, and define test cases.

The great strides we have made in advancing testing and certification programs are a direct result of the contributions of OmniAir’s global membership. This cooperation has allowed OmniAir to develop the world’s only full-stack, independent, third-party testing and certification program for C-V2X radios, just as we did for DSRC-V2X several years ago.

We are continuing to push the envelope—developing tests for V2X safety applications, new programs for modules, and even programs for V2X-based payments and road usage charge (RUC) technologies.

In less than two weeks, engineers and transportation technology experts from across Europe, Asia, and the Americas will gather at Florida’s SunTrax for our OmniAir Florida Plugfest, in cooperation with the Florida Department of Transportation, Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise, and the University of Florida Transportation Institute, for a week-long testing event, that will help to ensure V2X radios are ready for deployment, and certification. 

In our current time, where we are divided and external forces are pushing us apart, with international tension at an all-time high, it is refreshing to consider what we can accomplish together to improve transportation safety.

If we succeed in this endeavor, think about what other challenges we might overcome and leave a legacy we will leave behind by simply working together.   

Jason M. Conley, Executive Director  

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