A Platform for Interactive Location-Based Services

The rapid expansion of wireless technologies and their interactions with wired networks together with wide spread of Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) infrastructures allow today the development of location-based services (LBS). Furthermore, the evolution of service oriented infrastructures enables information sharing between applications over the network. In this paper, a distributed interactive platform, called TransportML, for LBS interaction and cooperation is presented. It is an extended XML platform based on Services Oriented Architecture (SOA) principles to recognize, to monitor, and to collect service information and description over the network. A prototype is developed, in the context of intelligent transportation systems (ITS), to allow sharing information collected by each service and then acquiring more information about the driving context. This information helps drivers making appropriate decisions and, therefore, increases and improves road safety. The prototype is tested in urban and highway areas and results are reported to show the benefit of using this platform for sharing road information as well as services interaction.