TPEG

The Transport Protocol Experts Group or TPEG, for short (pronounced T-Peg) is a European organization which developed the TPEG specifications for transmission of language independent multi-modal traffic and travel information. Founded in 1997 by the European Broadcasting Union the members are led by the Traveller Information Services Association come from all areas of the traffic and travel information businesses, as well as broadcasting. Validation of the initial work was undertaken by the part-funded European Commission TPEG project which had a three-year duration.

The TPEG work was partly based on the work done with RDS-TMC, but TPEG data are human understandable as well as machine readable. In particular TPEG does not assume any large scale location or pre-coded phrase databases in any client receiving device.

Flavours of TPEG

TPEG currently comes in two "flavours". The TPEG binary data format is designed for transmission over DAB and DMB. TpegML is the XML implementation designed for use in editing systems and delivery via the Internet and DVB.

TPEG applications

TPEG is a modular toolkit, standardised through CEN and ISO and consisting of the following applications:

• RTM - Road Traffic Message, a full application that can encode a wide range of road traffic information, from accidents, obstructions to congestion and delays. This application is currently specified in ISO TS 18234-4.
• PTI - Public Transport Information, dealing with public transport from rail, bus to air traffic and ferry services. This application is currently specified in ISO TS 18234-5.
• Loc - Location referencing, used in conjunction with applications

Under development are also:

• PKI - Parking Information, which will allow information about parking facilities to be transmitted. This application is currently at ISO TS 24530-5 draft-for-comments stage.
• CTT - Congestion and Travel-Time, providing information to drivers on congestion levels and journey times. This application is currently in the late design phase.
• TEC - Traffic Event Compact, aimed primarily at dynamic route guidance navigation devices. This application is currently in the early design phase.
• WEA - Weather information for travelers

TPEG solution providers

Commercial off-the-shelf software platform to implement TPEG information systems for digital broadcast services, connected services, for exchanging TPEG data with other service providers or systems, and for testing of TPEG navigation systems are available from solution providers such as GEWI.

Countries using TPEG

Germany

In 2013 the first German national traffic and travel service on DAB+ digital radio, using the TPEG protocol is broadcast live by Mediamobile, part of the TDF Group  : Traffic alerts (TEC) inform drivers of events such as accidents, road closures and road works, and traffic flow information (TFP) provides precise travel speed information, with updates on congestion across 190,000 km of the national road network. Services can be accessed via compatible in-car digital radios or infotainment systems, as well as personal navigation devices PNDs.

TPEG location referencing

TPEG's main renown comes from its native location referencing approach, TPEG-Loc. Based to some degree on the ILOC approach, tpeg-locML or TPEG-Loc for the binary service, has been further developed and has added a large amount of sophistication to its ability to describe locations within networks. It principally is used by tpegML and TPEG applications, but has also been adopted by OTAP and Datex.

Design approach

In the early days of the TPEG development applications were designed in two halves. On the one hand there were coding experts and on the other designers. At that time the primary focus was on a binary delivery using DAB.

With the XML becoming more mainstream it was very quickly adopted by the TPEG developers who unified the two separate approaches. At the same time it was clear that XML provided another channel to deliver traffic and travel information.

More recently TPEG developers have turned to UML to hold the conceptual content and to build new applications. Current work programmes include building UML extracts that will automatically generate the XML and binary specifications.

Events

• 10-12 September 2012: 1st TPEG Testfest held in Munich.

See also

• Intermodal Journey Planner
• Transport standards organisations

External links

• http://www.tisa.org New Official Website of the TMC and TPEG Forum successor the Traveller Information Services Association (TISA)
• http://www.tpeg.org Official Website (being rebuilt - now links to http://www.tisa.org/)
• http://tech.ebu.ch/tpeg TPEG Draft Specifications
• http://www.itsregistry.org.uk UK ITS Registry - TPEG is registered here
• http://www.WEcanTPEG.com TOOLS for analysis and broadcsating