ISO 24978:2009

INTERNATIONAL ISO
STANDARD 24978
First edition
2009-10-01
Intelligent transport systems —
ITS Safety and emergency messages
using any available wireless media —
Data registry procedures
Systèmes intelligents de transport — Messages de sûreté et d'urgence
pour les SIT utilisant tous les moyens de transmission sans fil
disponibles — Procédures d'enregistrement des données

Reference number
©
ISO 2009
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ii © ISO 2009 – All rights reserved

Contents Page
Foreword .iv
Introduction.v
1 Scope.1
2 Conformance .1
3 Normative references.1
4 Terms and definitions .1
5 Abbreviated terms .2
6 Requirements for "ITS Safety Messages Data Registry" management.3
7 Data-concept meta-attributes.12
8 Data-concept names .15
9 Meta-attribute requirements for ITS safety messages data concepts .15
10 International relationships.16
11 Privacy.16
Annex A (informative) "ITS Safety Messages Data Registry", functional operating procedures.17
Annex B (normative) Contents of the "ITS Safety Messages Data Registry":
meta-attribute definitions .33
Annex C (normative) Contents of the "ITS Safety Messages Data Registry":
Meta-attribute requirements for data concepts.46
Annex D (normative) Data-concept name .54
Annex E (informative) ASN.1 information object specification for an ITS safety messages
data concept .60
Annex F (normative) ASN.1 data-concept specification.75
Annex G (normative) Data representation in an informational model .83
Annex H (informative) International and regional variations.86
Bibliography.88

Foreword
ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) is a worldwide federation of national standards bodies
(ISO member bodies). The work of preparing International Standards is normally carried out through ISO
technical committees. Each member body interested in a subject for which a technical committee has been
established has the right to be represented on that committee. International organizations, governmental and
non-governmental, in liaison with ISO, also take part in the work. ISO collaborates closely with the
International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) on all matters of electrotechnical standardization.
International Standards are drafted in accordance with the rules given in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2.
The main task of technical committees is to prepare International Standards. Draft International Standards
adopted by the technical committees are circulated to the member bodies for voting. Publication as an
International Standard requires approval by at least 75 % of the member bodies casting a vote.
Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of patent
rights. ISO shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.
ISO 24978 was prepared by Technical Committee ISO/TC 204, Intelligent transport systems.
iv © ISO 2009 – All rights reserved

Introduction
The scale of death and injury on the roads of the world is recognized as a significant problem. To use a
relatively safe continent, Europe, as an example, the European project Emerge calculated that in the EU, in
1998 (then including 15 countries), there were 43 000 dead and 1,7 million injured on the roads. By 2004,
collated national statistics showed that the toll still exceeded 41 000 dead and 1,5 million injured. The death
and injury toll in North America is at a similar level, and although, pro rata, the death and injury rates in Japan
are at a slightly lower level, they remain unacceptable. Despite an aggressive road-safety policy, the statistics
are slightly worse in Australia. In the emerging countries, the death and injury toll is significantly higher in
almost every country.
As a result, in a series of initiatives around the world, governments have committed themselves to halving this
carnage within a decade. In most of the developed world, where there have already been strenuous efforts to
make the driving experience safer, it is becoming increasingly more difficult to make further improvements
using traditional techniques. Intelligent transport systems (ITS) are therefore seen as being the key to
achieving the ambitious targets that have been set.
Many ITS systems involve the exchange of data in order to provide services, and particularly safety services.
Data is, and increasingly will be, sent from the infrastructure to the vehicle, from vehicle to infrastructure, from
vehicle to vehicle, around the vehicle, and around the infrastructure. Much of this data remains within closed
systems; however, an increasing amount of data can be shared to improve ITS service provision, and in
particular, improve the safety of the driving experience and make a major contribution to the reduction of the
death and injury toll. A number of intelligent transport systems/eSafety initiatives, such as "eCall" and
"Automatic Crash Notification" crash messaging systems, are being developed. The European eCall project
has an ambitious target to automatically provide, across the whole of Europe, a common 'minimum set of data'
(MSD) to public service assistance providers (PSAPs) in the event of a crash.
Some of these data concepts, such as the MSD, are or will be defined and declared in International or
Regional Standards, but much of the available and potentially useful data is not codified, and can be difficult to
codify in standards because of differences between proprietary systems, and the speed at which the rapid
evolution of systems provide data, which is much faster than the standardization process can agree and codify it.
Some of this data can be very useful to relevant third parties in crash, crash avoidance, crash mitigation and
emergency systems. For example, a vehicle manufacturer can generate information about the number of
persons in a vehicle, whether those persons are large or small (to ensure that airbags inflate safely), and they
can monitor tyre pressure, speed of travel, etc. The available information can vary from vehicle model to
vehicle model, can differ according to the manufacturer's market strategies, and will certainly differ and evolve
over time so that the data available in a particular model in 2015 will be enhanced or different to that available
in the same model in 2010. In these circumstances, it will be difficult or impossible to 'standardize' the
available data as this would slow down the speed at which additional safety measures could be introduced,
and interfere with the marketing incentives to provide additional safety services.
However, vehicle manufacturers might be able and willing to share that information with the emergency
services, and might need an easy way to share information in collision avoidance and accident mitigation
systems (such as ice and slippery-road alerts) and indeed might wish to collate data in order to more quickly
identify and rectify design and software faults and reduce their exposure to liabilities. Road authorities might
wish to make national data [such as variable message sign (VMS) information] available to vehicles in
advance of international standardization of VMS messages or to deal with messages peculiar to that country.
While Europe can succeed in defining and codifying the common data concept known as the MSD, and can
succeed in persuading vehicle manufacturers (by encouragement or legislation) to make this data available in
the event of a crash or emergency, this will not pertain around the world. Other global initiatives, such as the
'Global Standards Cooperation' task force on automatic crash notification and emergency messages, can
define additional or different data concepts. As described in the examples given in this introduction, vehicle
manufacturers themselves will define data concepts that can be useful in the event of a crash or emergency,
and to otherwise improve the safety of the driving experience.
As technical capability improves and as more attention is given to safety-related services, it becomes
imperative that transmitted messages can be quickly and clearly understood by the recipient, or by both
parties in interactive safety systems.
There can be a wide variety of message recipients. In the case of emergency crash messages, this can be a
public service answering point (PSAP) which can be highly automated, or it can be a simple human
respondent whose requirement is to get some precise, and accurate, human readable data to support a
telephone call to the emergency services. At the other end of the scale, in respect of automated collision-
avoidance systems, and other automatic safety ITS services, this can be a vehicle-vehicle, infrastructure-
vehicle, or vehicle-infrastructure communication. Throughout the whole range of such messages, it is crucial
that safety-related messages be quickly, clearly and unambiguously understood by the recipient.
This requires that the definition of the data be not only precise, but also freely available, whether available to
system designers at the point of system design/deployment, or immediately available to a PSAP or other
relevant recipient in respect of situations such as emergency crash-notification systems. This requires the
availability of a common data registry as a repository for these safety-related messages and data concepts.
This International Standard provides the framework for the standardized operation and quality of service for
one or more freely available data registries for ITS safety messages and data concepts.
The definitions in this International Standard are consistent with ISO 14817 (ITS Data Registries) and
ISO/IEC 11179 (General principles for data registries).
In respect of automatic safety systems, such messages are normally determined at the point of system
specification. However, in practice, in-vehicle technology is already developing rapidly, and will continue to do
so, and new and additional data can well become available during the life of a system. In case of emergency,
vehicles will have available data on board that can be useful, indeed vital, to PSAPs. For liability reasons, now
that vehicles are data rich, vehicle manufacturers can well equip vehicles with an "Event Data Recorder"
(EVR), the equivalent of the aircraft "Black Box". Such a device can identify factors such as the speed of the
vehicle immediately before the crash, acceleration/deceleration rates, whether anti-lock or traction control
systems were activated, etc. Future vehicles can also carry data from collision-avoidance warnings and
collision-avoidance technology: how many passengers, what gear the car was in, etc. Where these systems
(or other
...