Organised by ERTICO – ITS Europe and ETSI, the third eCall TESTFEST was held at CTAG (Vigo, Spain) 27 to 31 October 2014. New IVS (In Vehicle System) and PSAP (Public Safety Answering Points) vendors from all over the world joined in the TESTFEST event. Carrying out thousands of tests, participants had the opportunity to test compliancy, interoperability and essential performance of their eCall implementations.
The 3rd TESTFEST event was supported by CETECOM, the European Commission and the HeERO2 project. The event proved to be an important one, not only due to its large attendance, but also because new test tools allowed for instance compliancy and speech quality testing. Representing three continents, from small enterprises to global corporations, research institutes and national ministries, the world of eCall engineering was represented at this TESTFEST. During the five days of the event, hundreds of pairing sessions were organised. Each session, lasting two hours, allowed one IVS unit to test with one PSAP unit or against a test system. This set-up, combined with the collaboration between parties, allowed engineers to understand and improve – if needed – their implementation. After each day of testing, a briefing enabled all participants to share their feedback and discuss the eCall standards with the supporting experts.
Considering the obvious and natural imbalance between IVS and PSAP systems vendors, the event was made possible thanks to the special commitment from PSAP suppliers and operators, directly at the TESTFEST, or remotely by allowing real operators to answer test eCalls, as was the case in Belgium, Bulgaria, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and Spain. Simulators and test systems were also available for the IVS units, providing a broad range of validation scenarios.
All test results were reported using the ETSI test reporting tool. This allowed all participants to receive a report with the results of all test sessions they attended.
The eCall Workshop held at the same premises on 29 October 2014 presented test methodology and procedures applicable for eCall devices. Workshop participants were given the opportunity to attend the TESTFEST sessions and understand first-hand the benefits of the interoperability testing. The workshop was followed by a visit of the CTAG facilities, with particular focus on research and development activities dedicated to state of the art ITS technologies.
About ERTICO – ITS Europe:
ERTICO – ITS Europe is a multi-sector, public/private partnership pursuing the development and deployment of Intelligent Transport Systems and Services (ITS). We connect public authorities, industry players, infrastructure operators, users, national ITS associations and other organisations together and work to bring “Intelligence into Mobility”.
The ERTICO work programme focuses on initiatives to improve transport safety, security and network efficiency whilst taking into account measures to reduce environmental impact. Our vision is of a future transport system working towards zero accidents, zero delays and fully informed people, where services are affordable and seamless, the environment is protected, privacy is respected and security is provided.
For more information, visit the websites: www.ertico.com.
About ETSI:
ETSI, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute, produces globally-applicable standards for Information and Communications Technologies (ICT), including fixed, mobile, radio, converged, aeronautical, broadcast and internet technologies and is officially recognized by the European Union as a European Standards Organization. ETSI is a not-for-profit organization with more than 750 member organizations, drawn from 63 countries across 5 continents worldwide, which determine its work programme and participate directly in its work.
For more information please visit: www.etsi.org.
ETSI Plugtests is a professional unit of ETSI specialising in running interoperability test events for a wide range of telecommunications, Internet, broadcasting and multimedia converging standards.
For more information, please visit: www.etsi.org/plugtests.
About CETECOM:
CETECOM is renowned as a neutral, experienced partner of the telecommunications and information technology industries and offers a unique service portfolio which covers the entire life cycle of a mobile communications product, contributes to the smooth running of products and applications and ensures that they meet international standards. CETECOM’s portfolio includes consulting and training, development of test solutions, validation services, testing in accredited laboratories (LTE, WCDMA, GSM, Application Enabler, Mobile Payment, OTA Performance, and EMC), field trials, battery testing, certification, and approval handling. Being a member of numerous specialist bodies, CETECOM is also actively involved in the development and standardisation of global specifications for future technologies.
For more information, please visit : www.cetecom.com.
About CTAG:
CTAG is a private, non-profit R&D technological automotive centre devoted to support the automotive industry in its research, development and innovation needs.
In the field of electronics, ITS and new advanced technologies, CTAG is formed by an interdisciplinary team of experienced engineers, technicians and specialists, focused on the following areas: Advanced Driver Assistance Systems and technologies, Alternative powertrain, Communication and mobility, Comfort, Human Machine Interface and ergonomics, Electronic Architecture, Telematics, Testing and Validation.
CTAG has a wide experience as part of several European projects dealing with Intelligent Transport Systems, such us AIDE, EuroFOT, FOT-Net Data, interactIVe, OpEneR, DriveC2X or ARTRAC. Related with eCall, CTAG is partner of HeERO 2 project and has full capacity and experience of IVS eCall unit development and testing . Moreover, CTAG has demonstrable experience in the preparation of ITS research prototypes for development, field tests and / or demonstration purposes, through different customer-related projects.
For more information, visit the website: www.ctag.com
About HeERO:
HeERO addresses the pan-European in-vehicle emergency call service “eCall” which is based on 112, the common European Emergency number. Since January 2011, the nine European countries forming the HeERO consortium (Croatia, The Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Romania and Sweden) have carried out a three-year programme leading to the piloting and deployment of eCall.
The second phase of HeERO – HeERO 2 – started on 1st January 2013 and will conclude end of 2014. 6 new countries (namely Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Luxembourg, Spain and Turkey) joined the 9 pilot countries of HeERO 1. The project also welcomed associate partners, both commercial and public, who feel that they will be able to benefit from the expertise of HeERO 1 and 2 (associate status does not provide access to EU funding).
The HeERO consortium is testing and validating, in real-condition pilots, the common European eCall standards defined and approved by the European Standardisation Organisations.
The project is partially funded by the European Union under the CIP | ICT PSP programme.
For more information, please visit www.heero-pilot.eu.
About eCall:
eCall is an electronic road safety system which automatically calls the emergency services in case of a serious accident, even if the driver and passengers are unconscious. As soon as the eCall sensors register a severe impact on the car during an accident, it automatically dials 112 emergency and calls to the nearest emergency centre. The call transmits the exact geographic location of the accident scene and other data. eCalls can also be made manually by car occupants, thus enabling them to provide the call centre with additional details of the accident.
Getting immediate information about an accident and pinpointing the exact location of the crash site cuts emergency services’ response time by 50% in rural and 40% in urban areas. Thanks to this gain in time, eCall is expected to save several hundred lives in the European Union each year, and to mitigate the severity of tens of thousands of injuries. Road accidents cost the EU around €160 billion/ year, but if all cars were equipped with the eCall system, up to €20 billion could be saved annually. eCall will work all over the European Union, plus Iceland, Norway and Switzerland. The Russian Federation is developing a similar accident notification system called ERA GLONASS. It is based on the eCall standards. Both sides, the EU and Russia, are working together in order to make eCall and ERA GLONASS interoperable so that eCall will also work in Russia and ERA GLONASS in the EU.
For more information, please visit http://www.imobilitysupport.eu/about-ecall.
For more information on the ERTICO interoperability interest group, please click here
or contact:
François Fischer
Senior Project Manager
ERTICO – ITS Europe
f.fischer@mail.ertico.com
Maria De Rycke
Communication Manager
ERTICO – ITS Europe
m.derycke@mail.ertico.com
