Abstract
The volume of traffic is increasing steadily due to the need of mobility. The number of journeys in private cars has increased by almost 100% in the last 30 years and the distances by even more than 200% [1] . Consequently, the driver is spending more and more time in the vehicle and there is a need for new in-car communication and information systems. The dramatic advances in telecommunications, electronics and software processing will permit the deployment of new in-car multimedia concepts, which are emerging as one of the most important and strategic fields in the automotive sector.
As an important contribution in this direction, the Multimedia Car Platform (MCP) project included in the 5th framework of the European Community's
Information Society Technologies Programme, started in January 2000 with a duration of 24 months. It is a common initiative of car and receiver manufacturers, network providers and technical institutes that aims at integrating in an open multimedia car platform the broadcast and radio communications technologies in order to offer new communication, navigation and entertainment services for car drivers and passengers. Service integration and interoperability between broadcasting (DAB, DVB-T) and mobile communication (GSM, GPRS, UMTS) networks will add a whole dimension for multimedia in the car.