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Speaking V2X – the language of mobility

Published February 21, 2022

If anything, we at Commsignia speak V2X – the language of mobility.

“Language is the road map of a culture. It tells you where its people come from and where they are going.”

Rita Mae Brown

It’s easy to take a popular quote out of context and use them in wide variety of topics. These words by Rita Mae Brown have a very different meaning in the business of vehicle communications. We literally use V2X messages to tell where people and their vehicles come from, and where they are going.

How is V2X a language?

Now let’s get to the point. V2X has it’s own mother language defined by international standards, so every single vehicle understands each other. Although we don’t use linguistic prefixes or suffixes, the messages are well structured. Would you like to see one? Fasten your seat belt because we are going fast and very deep.

Take a look below at the beautiful structure of the standard V2X “sentence”, a Traveler Information Message (TIM) that typically contains information about actual traffic situations.

{
  "dtype": "TIM",
  "decodedMessageData": {
    "travelerInformation": {
      "msgCnt": 1,
      "timeStamp": 381239,
      "dataFrames": [
        {
          "sspTimRights": 0,
          "frameType": "advisory",
          "msgId": {
            "choiceID": 1,
            "roadSignID": {
              "position": {
                "lat": 474751745,
                "long_": 190578618
              },
              "viewAngle": {
                "bytes": "//8=",
                "unusedBits": "0",
                "from292_5to315_0degrees": true,
                "from315_0to337_5degrees": true,
                "from112_5to135_0degrees": true,
                "from135_0to157_5degrees": true,
                "from157_5to180_0degrees": true,
                "from202_5to225_0degrees": true,
                "from225_0to247_5degrees": true,
                "from022_5to045_0degrees": true,
                "from045_0to067_5degrees": true,
                "from090_0to112_5degrees": true,
                "from270_0to292_5degrees": true,
                "from247_5to270_0degrees": true,
                "from337_5to360_0degrees": true,
                "from067_5to090_0degrees": true,
                "from180_0to202_5degrees": true,
                "from000_0to022_5degrees": true,
                "bitSize": 16
              }
            }
          },
          "startTime": 73440,
          "duratonTime": 480,
          "priority": 3,
          "sspLocationRights": 0,
          "regions": [
            {
              "anchor": {
                "lat": 474753846,
                "long_": 190575238
              },
              "description": {
                "path": {
                  "offset": {
                    "xy": {
                      "nodes": [
                        {
                          "delta": {
                            "choiceID": 6,
                            "node_LatLon": {
                              "lat": 474753846,
                              "lon": 190575238
                            }
                          }
                        },
                        {
                          "delta": {
                            "choiceID": 6,
                            "node_LatLon": {
                              "lat": 474754975,
                              "lon": 190577181
                            }
                          }
                        },
                        {
                          "delta": {
                            "choiceID": 6,
                            "node_LatLon": {
                              "lat": 474751456,
                              "lon": 190582348
                            }
                          }
                        },
                        {
                          "delta": {
                            "choiceID": 6,
                            "node_LatLon": {
                              "lat": 474749460,
                              "lon": 190578308
                            }
                          }
                        },
                        {
                          "delta": {
                            "choiceID": 6,
                            "node_LatLon": {
                              "lat": 474753872,
                              "lon": 190575160
                            }
                          }
                        }
                      ]
                    }
                  }
                }
              }
            }
          ],
          "sspMsgRights1": 0,
          "sspMsgRights2": 0,
          "content": {
            "choiceID": 1,
            "workZone": [
              {
                "item": {
                  "choiceID": 0,
                  "itis": 6952
                }
              }
            ]
          }
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}

Let’s take a look at the details! Geographical coordinates are easily recognizable, they describe our engineering office in Budapest, Hungary. The start time is from the beginning of the year, from 0:00 a.m. on January 1, 2022, and is, at least officially, 8 hours a day. These values we have to input in minutes.

You can also see the “workZone” expression in the text. It usually describes an event on the road, but we are also proud to work on those roads: using our software to make them safer. Our free interpretation is not a problem at all. The ITIS code 6952 of the event only states: look-out-for-workers.

We could call ITIS codes the words and syllables of the V2X language. The codes are issued by an international body, the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE). SAE plays a key role in V2X standardization, without which communication between vehicles would hardly work.

Here at Commsignia we speak V2X on a native level and are happy to translate your everyday traffic problem into the language of mobility. Get in touch!