Survey Paper On Automated Electronic Tolling Systems Using Radio Frequency Identification Technology

Purpose: In this paper we carry out a review on Automated e-tolling systems using RFID technology that has already been proposed by other researchers. Analysed and synthesised the researchers' solutions and identifying their advantages and disadvantages, and also the gap they left that needs further research. Methodology: the approach used to conduct this review was to collect extensive peer reviewed literature on how solutions by several authors' RFID technology implementation for Automated e-tolling systems helped collect road tax automatically and efficiently around the world with the effect of eliminating vehicle congestion around toll plazas. A prototype was developed to test the effectiveness of our proposed solution. Findings: This study found out that the use of RFID technology in Automated E-tolling systems is the cheapest and most effective way of collecting road tax revenue without delaying motor vehicles. Furthermore, enables vehicles to pay road tax while moving. This study also revealed that for the Automated E-tolling system to be secure and efficient the communication between RFID tag and reader has to be secured. Due to limitations in resources in cheap passive RFID tags, text steganography using Unicode zero width characters is most appropriate due to its high embedding capacity and very low processing needed. Unique contribution to theory, practice and policy: The review was able to bring out the importance of securing the communication between tag and reader thus building a system with security from design not as an afterthought. It also reveals the use of text steganography as a way of preserving tag privacy. Vehicle congestion at toll collection points has a domino effect of causing pollution to the environment, loss of productive time while waiting in the queue at toll plazas to be saved and also loss of fuel while the vehicle is idling waiting for its turn to be saved. Automated e-tolling systems using RFID technology also reduces the cost of collecting road taxes by significantly reducing the manpower needed at various toll plazas thereby making the system more efficient than the current manual or semi-automated toll collection systems currently available in Zimbabwe.