Toll Interoperability
Last updated
Last updated
Toll interoperability is a political challenge as well as a technical challenge. Blockchain addresses both sides of the coin.
Technically, distributed ledgers in a blockchain network offer a new and novel way to share collective information—like a transponder validation list—amongst a consortium of agencies, while always knowing with certainty where the most recent and correct version of that information is stored.
Blockchain technology gives us a single source of truth for data in a distributed network.
Distributed ledgers also provide for peer-to-peer shared transaction ledgers that allow for real-time reconciliation at the record level, and they remove the step of reconciling between unconnected systems.
To address the political challenges, blockchain technology's smart contracts allow for a more highly customized and personalized business rule model. No longer does a consortium have to agree on every detail of interoperability. Smart contracts are ideal for managing business rules for interactions with groups and independent peers—all in the same network.
Blockchain and toll interoperability is a small, first step in the adoption of a technology that can revolutionize mobility.
For today's systems to be interoperable, they have to maintain connections to every other system they work with, or they have to go through a centralized hub that does much of the work for them. Both of these methods fail when applied to a large mobility ecosystem, the kind that is required for Mobility as a Service, connected vehicles, and smart cities. Traditional peer-to-peer connections aren't scalable, and hubs in networks with diverse operations can’t handle the complex business rules.
Blockchain offers an independent interoperability layer between the toll agency and the mobility ecosystem.
Blockchain simplifies the connection to other systems, makes integration more cost effective, and allows easier growth with new opportunities. The distributed network model makes sharing data in a large group more effective and transparent. Blockchain's ability to scale horizontally creates new level of flexibility for mobility networks.
Adding nodes, or participants, to the network doesn't add computational or storage burdens to any other node. Each network participant only needs to manage their node. The rest of the work is handled by the blockchain platform across the network.
Transponder status updates (adding records and modifying records) are handled in a more simplified manner with blockchain technology. 1) New records and status updates are written to a system's local ledger, 2) those changes are propagated throughout the network using the consensus protocol, and then 3) the updates are available on each node of the network. Every agency's list is always up-to-date and matches every other list on the network. Records on the ledger are never deleted, they are only updated with state changes, and the hash of the update is stored on the blockchain. This ensures an immutable history and an iron-clad audit trail.
This new methodology allows agencies to process message-based updates and avoid having to process and compare large update files. Blockchain technology ensures that the current state of the tag validation list on the network is always the most up-to-date list.
Tolling.Network handles interoperable transactions with peer-to-peer transfers via private data. Toll transactions are only accessible by the agencies where they are created and then received. Private data is not part of the consensus process across the network; the transaction hash is the only data used for consensus throughout the broader blockchain network.
Tolling.Network processes shared license plate data similarly to transponder statuses, in a shared ledger. For any given group of agencies, permissions for license plate information can be set at the ledger level, the record level, or the data field level, depending on the needs of those sharing the data. For example, the license plate and the registered owner's address can be shared in a single ledger across of group of agencies, but more detailed data from the same ledger records can be encrypted and limited to only specific agencies that have broader data sharing agreements.
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