The announcement earlier this week that ITSO (the organisation responsible for the UK national specification for smart ticketing) and the OSPT Alliance (Open Standard for Public Transport) have agreed to participate as members in each other’s organisations was welcome news to everyone at Ecebs. The two organisations plan to explore ways they can work together to promote the use of open standards in public transit for smart ticketing and electronic fare collection systems. This has to be a very positive move for both organisations and follows on from the OSPT announcement on 2 May of the release of the OSPT ‘CIPURSE Mobile’ Guidelines. This is also good news for Ecebs, as we already have mobile solutions that align with the OSPT mobile vision.
The OPST Alliance is a membership organisation responsible for global open standards in transport smart ticketing and fare collection, having developed the CIPURSE Standard, to which Rambus Ecebs, as firm supporters of open standards have paid close attention to. The organisation which was founded by leading technology companies is headquartered in Germany, and encourages membership from organisations across the globe.
Although we share similar views on the furtherance of open standards for transport and all areas of smart technology, we felt it right to wait until the transport open specification (known as Cipurse) was suitably mature before we become more actively involved. In 2012 Rambus Ecebs became full members of the OPST Alliance and since that time our contributions are not limited to the development of OSPT products but include participation in the CIPURSE Key Management System Working Group and Chair of the CIPURSE Secure Access Module (SAM) Working Group. These particular working groups were of relevance due to our wide experience in the area of IT security which has included the specification and development similar technology for ITSO in the UK. We helped create the end-to-end security of ITSO through the development and delivery of the software and hardware of the ISAMs (ITSO Secure Access Modules), HSAMs (HOPS Secure Access Module) and the ITSO key management system known as the ISMS (ITSO Security Management System, which we still operate together with ITSO today).
It is a great compliment to be invited to play such a leading role in the development of the Cipurse SAM specification, with approval pending for our specification submission.
ITSO, is the UK Government mandated organisation responsible for the UK national specification for smart transport ticketing. It was formed to ensure that Government backed smart transport technology implemented across the UK would be fully interoperable. One notable exception in the UK is the Oyster system in London, which is operated by Transport for London, however the UK Department for Transport has also mandated that this system be upgraded to accept ITSO based technology. Ecebs are delighted to be involved in this project.
We are, as a company, strong believers in open standards and see this as very positive news for us since we are members of both the OSPT Alliance and ITSO. Open standards mean ‘open for all to participate’ and bring benefits to all players in the smart media industry, meaning the delivery of a better end customer experience delivered in conjunction with enhanced security, increased interoperability and increased availability of products.
The momentum of development and interest for the Cipurse open standard continues to grow along with new Members, Associate Members and Evaluators. What is particularly good news is that the interest is not just European, but global with potential clients in major cities on every continent.
The OSPT Alliance and its members are actively promoting the use of the Cipurse open specification to a global audience. This brings exciting new opportunities for Ecebs as we can bring our experience and technology to numerous international transport schemes.
