ISO 17438-2:2024

Overview - ISO 17438-2:2024 (Indoor maps for ITS stations)

ISO 17438-2:2024 is an international standard within intelligent transport systems (ITS) that specifies requirements and the schema/encoding format for indoor maps used by personal and vehicle ITS stations (P/V ITS-S). The standard defines the composition of indoor mapping data (background maps, route networks, space maps and POIs) and provides a baseline data model and encoding guidance (Annex A contains an ASN.1 schema). It is intended to enable interoperable indoor navigation and positioning references while leaving implementation-dependent topics such as security, payments and low-level communication protocols out of scope.

Key topics and technical requirements

• Indoor map components: background map (vector/raster), route network map, semantic space map and set of POIs.
• Indoor positioning references: data structures to reference indoor positioning infrastructure (e.g., Wi‑Fi, Bluetooth) used for indoor positioning.
• Schema and encoding: canonical data types and encoding guidance are provided; Annex A supplies an ASN.1 schema. Implementations may adapt specific encodings (WKT/WKB and coordinate reference system considerations are noted terminology-wise).
• Data requirements & conformance: fields within data types are classified as mandatory, optional or conditional; conformance requires observing multiplicity and conditional rules described in the standard.
• Use cases addressed: searching for indoor maps (UC 2.1) and retrieving/downloading indoor maps to a P/V ITS station (UC 2.2).
• Interoperability focus: aims to allow developers and service providers to use indoor navigation data from multiple sources in a consistent way.

Practical applications and users

ISO 17438-2 is primarily targeted at:

• Indoor navigation service designers and developers who build client-side positioning and routing for smartphones, nomadic devices and vehicle infotainment systems.
• Map data providers and integrators creating indoor map datasets aligned to ITS use.
• Vehicle OEMs and ITS platform vendors integrating indoor navigation into P/V ITS stations.
• Infrastructure operators and C-ITS-S providers that serve indoor map data to roadside/central ITS stations.

Typical applications include indoor wayfinding in transit hubs, shopping malls, parking facilities and multimodal terminals where vehicle or personal ITS stations need standardized indoor map and positioning reference data.

Related standards

• ISO 17438-1: General information and use-case definitions for indoor navigation (series context).
• ISO 13184-2 and other ITS guidance documents referenced for related messaging and protocol conventions.

By defining a common indoor map model and encoding approach, ISO 17438-2:2024 supports interoperable indoor navigation within intelligent transport systems and helps developers deliver consistent indoor positioning and routing experiences across devices and venues.