Migration to Open 6C Protocol: The Future Is Today Not Tomorrow

Neology recognizes that Tolling Authorities are consistently looking for opportunities to improve service to their customers while also improving the financial performance of their toll facilities.  With the expansion of Interoperability and the expanded roll-out of multiprotocol readers (MPR) across the country, Tolling Authorities are in a position now to consider the benefits of the passive RFID 6C tags over the limits and costs of legacy active-tag technology. The goal of this article is to assist Tolling Operation executives with understanding the full scope of benefits and considerations for 6C migration.

The primary driver among agencies for migrating to 6C protocol is focused on reducing cost to their customers. Agencies have reported that windshield sticker tag costs reduced their per unit transponder cost from over $9 to under $1 per unit. This type of savings have a positive ripple effect for agencies. First, it affords agencies the opportunity to offer tags at no cost, which increases new customer account creation and tag penetration, improves revenue collection, and reduces operating costs per transaction. Lower upfront customer costs can also lead to greater overall consumer support for the use of toll facilities in their communities.

Reinvesting in savings from migrating to 6C can be achieved by reallocating money to improve toll facilities, toll roads, and investment in community-based projects. This would provide safer roads and facilities for drivers and access to special consumer programs.

With multiple exterior installation options, such as bumper mount and headlight/motorcycle tags, agencies can enable tag adoption across a wider range of customer vehicles, offering more customers the ability to establish lower cost accounts and improving revenue for the agency. For interior installation tags, smaller form factors for 6C tags provides less windshield obstruction and safer driving from tags with larger form factors.

But the benefits of smaller form factors doesn’t stop there. Due to the obvious size advantage of the much smaller 6C windshield sticker tags, agencies now have the flexibility of using smaller storage space for securely maintaining their tag inventory. Also, 6C tags are much cheaper to ship to customers than the bulkier, heavier non-6C tags. This provides a substantial annual savings to toll agencies. Tag fulfillment contractors can also save on the size of the packaging required to mail smaller, lighter 6C tags. Besides saving on postage, agencies would also use smaller shipping material providing an eco-friendly benefit to agencies.

The average life expectancy of a legacy battery-powered transponder is up to 8.6 years while 6C life expectancy of passive tags is well over 10 years. When tags finally reach end of their life, 6C tags eliminate the fear and reality of dead batteries ending up in landfills, thereby supporting their sustainability goals for themselves and  their communities.

There are obviously technical advantages for migrating to 6C. Today’s modern tag design provides higher sensitivity than legacy passive tags and leads to improved range and/or lower operating RF power. Higher speed communications between the reader and tags allows transfer of more data, larger number of tag access operations, or reduced transaction time. The migration to 6C technology nationwide allows toll agencies to modernize their system, acquire less expensive but more reliable 6C tags, and achieve interoperability. By doing so, consumers are more motivated to use their tags across neighboring states or regions of the country.

Aging legacy roadside systems and tags reaching their end-of-life in the field makes today an ideal time for Tolling Authorities to update their systems to include multiprotocol readers while moving to 6C tags to replace aging hardcase transponders. Our ICD streamlines the integration with legacy lane controller to make conversion to the Neology MPR is a straightforward activity.  It is very possible that agencies could realize a return on their investment within the first year of implementation.

Neology has proudly taken a leadership role in shepherding in 6C protocol and technology to the tolling industry. As a longtime member of the 6C Coalition, we have provided 6C tags and 6C readers since 2006. According to Bobby Leanio, our Director of Manufacturing: “Neology is the only certified, trusted vendor which manufactures our transponders in a state-of-the-art facility in the United States. With over 90% market share in the U.S. 6C tag market, we see the industry’s interest in 6C continue to grow”.

We have delivered over 130 million 6C transponders worldwide including windshield sticker, headlamp, hardcase, 2-position, 3-position and license plate transponders. We also offer a portfolio of IAG-certified tags for E-ZPass Group members. 100% of our tags are passive eliminating the need for batteries or the disposal of end-of-life transponders with batteries, thereby supporting the sustainability goals of our customers. Bobby adds: “Neology uses the best quality materials in the construction of our tags and readers which leads to a longer life span, as well as higher and more consistent performance”.

Our proven experience, reliability, and consistent performance are due to our design, quality control, and rigorous internal testing at our manufacturing facility in San Marcos, CA. Due to our high quality manufacturing standards our repair and replenishment rate for our tags is only .0005%. During the 6C tag certification process, over 11,000 vehicle transits were performed across several tag types without a single 6C tag miss, demonstrating the high reliability of our tags. At 85 MPH with a single tag in the vehicle, we averaged eight handshakes.

But Neology’s commitment to 6C does not stop with our tags. According to Dave Missimer, our Director of RFID Lab: “Interest in our multiprotocol reader with the capability to read and write 6C and other national interoperability protocols has been tremendous. As we develop new AVI products in our lab in North Carolina and test them at our Transportation Research Center test facility in Texas, it is clear that the future for 6C migration is bright and gaining momentum everyday”.

Our readers support eight different UHF RFID protocols with the ability to configure the application specific set of protocols including ISO 18000-63 (6C), ISOB-80K (SeGo), PS111 (IAG/TDM), ASTMv6, ISO10374 (ATA), CalTrans Title-21 (T21), ISO 18000-62 (6B), and FLEX. However, Our OmniAir and E-ZPass Interagency Group certified reader, configured for multi-protocol mode, is the only reader in the US with read and write capabilities concurrently for all three protocols, including 6C, SeGo and TDM, allowing E-ZPass agencies to achieve true interoperability.

During the tri-protocol reader certification, vehicle transits were performed with three tags in each vehicle (one of each of the three protocols) without a single tag miss during plaza and final ORT testing.  Dave Missimer continues: “At 85 MPH, we average 5 handshakes or better across the three protocols. This level of performance was accomplished while using laterally aligned antennas and performing read/write on each of the three protocols showing the superior level of performance needed to meet the most demanding applications”. In the AVI world, consistency and reliability are paramount. Due to our high quality manufacturing standards  our repair and replenishment rate for our reader is only .002% – virtually non-existent.

 

Today, we continue to participate in industry working groups and initiatives, including participation in OmniAir’s Tolling and Emerging Payments Working Group and the Certification Working Group, in the E-ZPass Group-sponsored multi-vendor discussions on multi-protocol certification for tolling, and in direct participation with the E-ZPass Group Technical Committee. In addition, Neology has provided for years technical representation to the 6C Toll Operators Coalition (6C TOC), a collection of toll agencies in North America which have deployed the 6C technology.

It is important that all agencies and the tolling industry as a whole embrace the migration to 6C and begin to eliminate the barriers to full deployment. The excuse that ‘it is on our roadmap for future consideration’ no longer carries water. The future for 6C migration is today not tomorrow.

For more information about Neology’s family of 6C transponders and readers please contact Mike Pellegrino, Director of Business Development, at mpellegrino@neology.net.