Austin, Texas, July 8, 2014 – Wi-Fi Alliance® is pleased to note that the United States Department of Transportation has issued a Request for Applications (RFA) for the next stage of its connected vehicle certification program (http://www.federalgrants.com/Connected-Vehicle-Next-Stage-Certification-Environment-46654.html). This initiative promises to advance the United States towards wide-scale implementation of both vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure capabilities aimed at improving traffic safety and efficiency.
The success of the connected vehicle certification program will hinge on delivering interoperable products and solutions that governments, industry, and consumers can depend on. As the de facto industry organization responsible for certification of products implementing the IEEE 802.11 standard, Wi-Fi Alliance has delivered multiple generations of interoperable Wi-Fi® products, to the benefit of consumers and economies around the world. Wi-Fi Alliance is positioned to play a key role as the U.S. connected vehicle program matures into the certification and deployment phases.
Wi-Fi Alliance processes for developing, launching, and sustaining interoperability certification programs have been developed to a benchmark level of excellence over the past 15 years since the organization’s founding. These processes are based on the experience gained over the course of developing and delivering more than 20 separate certification programs, and certifying more than 20,000 unique Wi-Fi products. A successful connected vehicle program will require the same comprehensive approach to ensure true product interoperability in field deployments.
Wi-Fi Alliance’s success, and indeed the proliferation of Wi-Fi itself, stem from our collaboration framework, in which more than 600 member companies, under the protection of mature policies and procedures, actively participate in the development of specific test requirements, test plans, and test tools. The Wi-Fi Alliance process of developing, commercializing and administering certification programs is facilitated by a staff organization consisting of numerous subject matter experts and program managers, in addition to physical and information technology assets. Ultimately, Wi-Fi Alliance certification programs are available to the industry through a worldwide network of 19 independent authorized test laboratories, each of which supports a quality system, ISO 17025 recommendations, and ISO Guide 65 principles.
The standards for connected vehicles cover a range of protocol layers and functionality. IEEE 802.11 and 1609 reside at the lowest levels – the foundation levels for the full set of functions – and Wi-Fi Alliance experience developing interoperability programs for 802.11-based and higher layer products can be used to advantage within the connected vehicle certification programs, speeding the time to commercialization for these technologies and to lay a solid groundwork for the upper levels. Engaging Wi-Fi Alliance eliminates the need to develop a redundant forum, infrastructure, and process foundation to certify these elements of connected vehicle technology.
We encourage all potential respondents to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s RFA to leverage Wi-Fi Alliance’s certification capabilities in their responses. Additional information about Wi-Fi Alliance can be found at http://www.wi-fi.org/who-we-are.
For further information, contact Wi-Fi Alliance staff via info@wi-fi.org or 512-498-WIFI.