Design and implementation of a J2EE platform to handle standardized telematics emergency calls originated from vehicles

Given the large number of motor vehicles travelling within and between European countries, and the fact that more than 45,000 people die on Europe´s roads each year, there has clearly arisen a urgent need for a Europe-wide, in-vehicle emergency call solution that can secure that a manually or automatic E-Call originated from a vehicle can reach the nearest public service answering point (PSAP) and the private service provider (SP), in case the driver has subscribed such an added value service, in a fast and reliable way and that the proper actions will be taken thereafter to assure that the most appropriate assistance is dispatched to the vehicle with the minimum delay. The project (http://www.e-merge.org) therefore describes the first standardised, technical, functional and organisational solution of a pan-European handling of a telematics based emergency call from the vehicle, involving all the stakeholders of the rescue service chain. This paper covers a common system specification and communication protocol definition together with operational procedures and the architecture of the vehicle E-Call system, describes the compliant solution developed by the Spanish partners of the project (RACC Automobile Club, playing the role of the SP and Seat, as the vehicle manufacturer) and focuses on the PSAP/SP receiving platform, which has been developed based on Java 2 (J2EE) technology.