DSRC 5GHz: Dedicated Short Range Communication at 5.9 GHz Standards Group (Standard* Activities Group)

Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) is a general purpose RF communications link between the vehicle and the roadside, or between two vehicles. The set of standards developed to support this interface provide a short to medium range communications service for a variety of applications, including public safety (obstacle detection, collision avoidance), commercial vehicle applications (weigh-in-motion/inspection clearances, border crossing), electronic toll collection, parking lot payment, and many others.

There are two groups of standards supporting DSRC applications, each operating in a different frequency band: 915 MHz and 5.9 GHz. A set of 915 MHz DSRC standards was completed several years ago, recently renewed, and is primarily used in commercial vehicle applications, electronic toll collection, and other applications. The set of 5.9 GHz DSRC standards, the majority of which have been approved in 2006 or have been voted on and are undergoing revision for approval, are designed to support a larger variety of applications, including collision avoidance, advanced vehicle control, traveler information, increased freight/cargo transport support, transit, parking, and traffic management as well as supporting other private applications (this DSRC 5GHz Standards Group).

The DSRC 5GHz Standards Group includes standards covering the protocols for communicating between in-vehicle ITS systems and roadside equipment. The standard that describes the vocabulary (called data elements and messages) is under development by SAE and is entitled "SAE J2735: Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) Message Set Dictionary". Since it is specific to certain architecture flows, it will only be mapped to the relevant flows.

The standards within the DSRC 5GHz Standards Group offer a significantly higher information capacity than DSRC in the 915 MHz band, and have a longer range. Although envisioned primarily for public safety applications, the possible ITS uses for this spectrum vary widely including vehicle-to-vehicle communications, automated vehicle maintenance record downloads to ITS systems in transit garages, work zone or highway-rail intersection warnings to drivers, road condition warnings, electronic toll collection, and so forth. The equipment required to support 5.9 GHz DSRC is different from that required for 915 MHz DSRC, and therefore early deployment and migration decisions should be made. Many of the ITS standards in this group are already published or well under development since they are based on IEEE’s wireless LAN industry standard 802.11.

• ASTM E2213-03: Standard Specification for Telecommunications and Information Exchange Between Roadside and Vehicle Systems - 5 GHz Band Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) Medium Access Control (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY) Specifications
• IEEE P802.11p: Standard for Information Technology - Telecommunications and Information Exchange Between Systems - Local and Metropolitan Area Networks - Specific Requirements - Part II: Wireless LAN Medium Access Control (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY) Specifications
• IEEE 1609.4-2006: Standard for Wireless Access in Vehicular Environments (WAVE) - Multi-Channel Operation
• IEEE P1609.3: Standard for Wireless Access in Vehicular Environments (WAVE) - Networking Services
• IEEE 1609.2-2006: Standard for Wireless Access in Vehicular Environments (WAVE) - Security Services for Applications and Management Messages
• IEEE 1609.1-2006: Standard for Wireless Access in Vehicular Environments (WAVE) - Resource Manager