Overview
ISO 24102-6:2018 - "Intelligent transport systems - Communications access for land mobiles (CALM) - ITS station management - Part 6: Path and flow management" specifies the parameters and procedures an ITS station management entity uses to manage data flows and routing paths within an ITS station. The standard defines how the ITS station collects information (capabilities, neighbor capabilities, network conditions, existing flows and their requirements, and available routing paths) and how it maps identifiable ITS-S flows to selected routing paths and communication profiles (protocol stacks and access technologies).
Key topics and requirements
- Flow management: Parameters, monitoring and lifecycle operations for identifiable ITS-S flows (registration, release, statistics).
- Communication profile selection: Mapping application communication requirements to a parameterized ITS-S communication profile (protocol stack across layers: facilities, transport, network, access).
- Path management: Definition and management of ITS-S paths and anchor nodes, topological/geographic descriptors, path monitoring and availability checks.
- Path selection and routing policies: Criteria and notifications for choosing routing paths and applying routing policies.
- Capabilities management: Discovery, maintenance and activation/suspension of ITS-S capabilities (internal and neighbour capability information).
- Distributed ITS-S management model: Functions run as a distributed process (no central supervisory entity).
- Interfaces and information tables: Specification of management information tables, commands, requests and error codes to support path/flow operations.
Practical applications and users
ISO 24102-6 is intended for any ITS station implementation that needs robust multi-access communication and flexible routing of application traffic. Typical uses include:
- Vehicle OEMs and telematics suppliers implementing multi-protocol V2X (vehicle-to-everything) connectivity.
- ITS software architects and system integrators designing flow-aware routing and profile selection logic.
- Communication module vendors (cellular, ITS-G5/802.11p, DSRC) ensuring interoperability of access technologies.
- Road operators and traffic management centres coordinating cooperative systems and real-time services.
- Test laboratories and certification bodies validating ITS station management behavior against CALM requirements.
Related standards
ISO 24102-6:2018 is part of the CALM series and complements these documents by standardizing how flows and paths are described, monitored and mapped to communication resources - enabling resilient, multi-technology ITS communications and interoperable V2X services.