Pricing Methods

In order to consider the range of pricing methods available, it is first necessary to choose a definition for road pricing. The term "road pricing" has been criticised as an inaccurate description of systems which is applied to (Thompson, 1990) and there is some inconsistency regarding the extent of charging policies which are considered to be included. A liberal definition could cover any fiscal form of traffic restraint, affecting the mode, time, route, destination of frequency of journeys. In this case road pricing already exists worldwide through taxes imposed upon the purchase and licensing of vehicles and through fuel taxation. The extension of conventional taxation arrangements has been used as part of road pricing strategies in both Hong Kong and Singapore (Dawson and Brown, 1985; LPAC, 1991). However, the essence of most road pricing work has been to replace and supplement these existing charges, which do not discriminate by time, location or amount of vehicle use, with charging structures which are directly related to these issues. For this reason the descriptions road-use pricing, congestion pricing and road user charging are sometimes preferred, and some recent texts have attempted to impose a narrower definition for road pricing, in which only charging systems relating directly to the time and distance travelled are included (CIT, 1992). For the purposes of this review it is best to retain the conventional term of road pricing and apply the broadest definition

Location estimation in a 3D environment using radio frequency identification tags

RFID tag location estimation in a 3D environment is investigated. The location of the tag with unknown coordinates can be estimated with certain accuracy. However, accuracy can be improved using the knowledge based on measurement of additional reference tags with known location. This thesis studies the mathematical formulation and practical realization of location sensing using RFID tags. Deviating from the standard use of RFID technology which employs one tag reader to identify the presence of tag, here multiple tag readers with known location are used to estimate the physical location of an individual tag, with/without the help of few reference tags with known locations. Mathematical model of this concept has been developed based on distance variations in terms of signal strength. Experimental approach with limited range passive tags has been carried out. Since the range of the RFID system was limited only to a few inches, signal strength variations were insignificant. Instead, time domain measurements with the help of an external antenna were conducted. The composite signal width including of the wake up signal of the interrogator, travel time between the interrogator and tag, and the tag\u27s response was measured and quantified. It was observed that the width of the signal was proportional to the distance between the tag reader and the tag. It was noticed that the use of four RFID tag readers yielded fairly accurate results to identify the location the tag based on the mathematical formulation developed here. Additionally, concept of trilateration has also been extended for tracking the tag of unknown location without the use of reference tags. Archival data set corresponding to all tag location due to four different tag readers was compiled. The unknown tag was probed with four tag readers and matching the data to the archival data set yielded unique and accurate results for its unknown location. It was demonstrated that both approaches were proved to be cost-effective techniques and estimation of the location of a specific tag has been achieved with sufficient accuracy

A Framework for Electronic Toll Collection in Smart and Connected Communities

Abstract—The number of vehicles plying the highways keeps growing at a steady pace, leading to high maintenance costs. Toll collection was introduced as a means of raising funds for road maintenance, but the traditional method is usually slow and is prone to cause vehicular traffic congestion on the highways. In this paper, a framework was proposed for Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) in smart and connected communities. The main components of the intelligent system architecture are the wireless sensor nodes, web and mobile applications, and a cloud platform. The Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) enables vehicle detection and classification, and establishes a communication link to the back-end of the system. The central database and the web server are hosted in the Cloud while a mobile application is used for electronic transactions, subscription renewal, notification of toll payments, and for tracking toll payment history. In addition, a web dash board is provided for efficient toll administration. The implementation of this system will improve the toll collection efficiency in terms of speed and flexibility. Overall, the contribution of this work extends the frontier of WSNs to the domain of Intelligent Transportation System (ITS)

TRIAD - Preliminary design of an operational earth resources survey system Final report

Design of operational earth resources survey syste

Technology requirements for communication satellites in the 1980's

The key technology requirements are defined for meeting the forecasted demands for communication satellite services in the 1985 to 1995 time frame. Evaluation is made of needs for services and technical and functional requirements for providing services. The future growth capabilities of the terrestrial telephone network, cable television, and satellite networks are forecasted. The impact of spacecraft technology and booster performance and costs upon communication satellite costs are analyzed. Systems analysis techniques are used to determine functional requirements and the sensitivities of technology improvements for reducing the costs of meeting requirements. Recommended development plans and funding levels are presented, as well as the possible cost saving for communications satellites in the post 1985 era

Useful applications of earth-oriented satellites - Systems for remote-sensing information and distribution, panel 8

Problems and potential use of data gathered by remote sensing from satellites or aircraf

Aeronautics and space report of the President, 1980 activities

The year's achievements in the areas of communication, Earth resources, environment, space sciences, transportation, and space energy are summarized and current and planned activities in these areas at the various departments and agencies of the Federal Government are summarized. Tables show U.S. and world spacecraft records, spacecraft launchings for 1980, and scientific payload anf probes launched 1975-1980. Budget data are included

Campus Telecommunications Systems: Managing Change

The purpose of this book is to provide a broadbased understanding of the rapidly changing environment of campus telecommunications. The anticipated audience for this material is the non-technical university administrator who may not have direct responsibility for telecommunications, but has a need to understand the general environment in which his telecommunications manager functions and the basic concepts of the technology. Five topic areas were selected that best cover the preponderance of issues. No attempt has been made to associate or closely coordinate materials from one chapter\u27s subject to that of any other. Each chapter generally stands alone. In total, however, the five chapters address the topics and issues that most often generate inquiries from university administrators outside the telecommunications department. Introduction 1 The Changing Telecommunications Environment 2 Telecommunications Technology and the Campus 3 Student Services 4 Financing a New Telecommunications System . 5 Selecting a Consultant Glossary Inde

LASER Tech Briefs, September 1993

This edition of LASER Tech briefs contains a feature on photonics. The other topics include: Electronic Components and Circuits. Electronic Systems, Physical Sciences, Materials, Computer Programs, Mechanics, Machinery, Fabrication Technology, Mathematics and Information Sciences, Life Sciences and books and reports

Adoption of vehicular ad hoc networking protocols by networked robots

This paper focuses on the utilization of wireless networking in the robotics domain. Many researchers have already equipped their robots with wireless communication capabilities, stimulated by the observation that multi-robot systems tend to have several advantages over their single-robot counterparts. Typically, this integration of wireless communication is tackled in a quite pragmatic manner, only a few authors presented novel Robotic Ad Hoc Network (RANET) protocols that were designed specifically with robotic use cases in mind. This is in sharp contrast with the domain of vehicular ad hoc networks (VANET). This observation is the starting point of this paper. If the results of previous efforts focusing on VANET protocols could be reused in the RANET domain, this could lead to rapid progress in the field of networked robots. To investigate this possibility, this paper provides a thorough overview of the related work in the domain of robotic and vehicular ad hoc networks. Based on this information, an exhaustive list of requirements is defined for both types. It is concluded that the most significant difference lies in the fact that VANET protocols are oriented towards low throughput messaging, while RANET protocols have to support high throughput media streaming as well. Although not always with equal importance, all other defined requirements are valid for both protocols. This leads to the conclusion that cross-fertilization between them is an appealing approach for future RANET research. To support such developments, this paper concludes with the definition of an appropriate working plan