YoGoKo: juggling communications to stay connected

In the age of the connected vehicle, how can we ensure that nomadic equipment communicates at all times, whatever its nature, the networks available and the access technologies used? Start-up YoGoKo is already marketing the solution: a multi-purpose communications box featuring multiple access technologies, combined with an intelligent communications management and services platform. The idea is to use several communication standards, either simultaneously or according to their availability, in a transparent and optimized way.

The box, which can be installed in vehicles or on traffic signs and freeway bollards, is capable of communicating via Wifi (standard and vehicular), 3G, 4G, sensor networks (wireless sensors, under-pavement induction loops, video sensors, etc.), and even the wired network in the case of infrastructures. Thanks to this multiple, multi-standard connectivity, the terminal can juggle access technologies according to network availability, while ensuring continuity of communications. The management platform guarantees not only the authenticity of messages, but also the security and confidentiality of communications, as well as the user's location and identity. The solution developed by YoGoKo is also scalable: it anticipates the transition from IPv4 to IPv6 to remain compatible with future equipment, as well as with standards currently under development. In practice, this can be used to manage road traffic, ensure road safety, and even, very soon, to control fleets of autonomous vehicles.

Télécom Bretagne's RSM (Networks, Security, Multimedia) department has developed internet-like connectivity for YoGoKo solutions. Specializing in Internet for mobiles, with a focus on IPv6 technology, its researchers are interested in multiple and multi-standard connectivity. Working on ISO and ETSI standards, Jean-Marie Bonnin and his team have developed a communication architecture that defines the multi-standard mobile router to be used in vehicles. This involves fine-tuned management of the decisions made to route on a given communication interface (wifi, 3G, 4G...). To further improve the technology, researchers are currently developing interaction between the vehicle and the city, as well as information gathering. In particular, they are working on interactivity with the home via Zigbee* to control the charging of electric cars, and on securing Internet connectivity.

YoGoKo is still in the development phase, in order to have a mature technology when the market emerges due to the massive deployment of vehicles and communicating infrastructures. However, it is already proposing "experimental offers": in particular, it has a contract with the VEDECOM institute (Véhicule Décarboné Communicant et sa Mobilité) to supply the communication tools for demonstration vehicles, which will be presented in October 2015 at the ITS World Congress in Bordeaux.

* Zigbee is a high-level protocol for communicating small radios, with low power consumption, and for personal-scale networks.

The company

YoGoKo was co-founded in June 2014 by two research engineers: Emmanuel Thierry and Thierry Ernst. Its solutions stem from research work by Mines ParisTech(CAOR), Télécom Bretagne(RSM) and Inria Rocquencourt(RITS), initiated as part of national and European projects. Since 2006, these three laboratories have been working together to develop innovative communication solutions for mobile equipment, within the context of cooperative intelligent transport systems (ITS). They are heavily involved in defining standards for communication architectures and exchanges between vehicles and between vehicles and infrastructure. In 2012, they embarked on the development of a joint demonstrator: a communication system combining a service platform hosted by Télécom Bretagne, a fleet of conventional vehicles (Mines ParisTech), a fleet of autonomous vehicles (Inria) and road infrastructure (Inria).