Intelligent Transportation System

Using the Southern California Regional ITS Architecture for Project Development and Design

The Southern California Regional ITS Architecture assists in defining high-level requirements in ITS design for specific project development. During project development, stakeholders should incorporate elements of the Architecture, such as roles and responsibilities, standards, and functional requirements in their detailed design documents. This method of defining ITS projects for future deployment is consistent with the National ITS Architecture, it lends credibility to new projects, it limits duplicate efforts by transportation stakeholders, and it supports a uniform regional approach to both the planning and the deployment process.

If an agency wanted to build a transportation management center (TMC) or incorporate ITS elements such as CCTV cameras or changeable message signs in their project, the process for using the Regional ITS Architecture is described as follows:

1. Consult the Southern California Regional ITS Architecture to see if the project has been previously captured in the Project Inventories. The county-level architectures include inventories of existing and planned ITS projects in each county. The ITS Architecture at the multi-county level focuses on center-center integration and regional services such as commuter rail and 511 that functions beyond a county-level architecture. Reviewing the inventory is an initial step in identifying partnerships with neighboring stakeholders that could lead to opportunities for integration and information exchanges.
2. Find related stakeholder roles and responsibilities. The activities of each stakeholder is identified and a description of the responsibilities is described that states what is expected of each party concerning the types of service delivered and the information produced or distributed. The operational concepts in the Southern California Regional ITS Architecture relate the market packages pertinent to the stakeholder and describe their roles and responsibilities. The purpose is to reduce duplication, promote coordination and avoid gaps in service and responsibilities.
3. Find related functional requirements. The needs and desired services and the market packages reflect the high-level goals and objectives for the region provided through the category of ITS project types. The functions described for each project type allow stakeholders to further define their project to ensure that the project lends itself to meeting both specific user needs and advancement towards the needs of the region.
4. Review information flows and interface requirements. Context diagrams in the Southern California Regional ITS Architecture describe how systems are integrated for sharing data. Using this information, the agency decides which connections and data exchanges that the project must accommodate. At this point, the agency can contact the stakeholders referenced in the diagram and coordinate data to be exchanged and the standards to be used.
5. Identify appropriate standards. Using common standards that are agreed upon by the stakeholders help facilitate the exchange of information among ITS deployments. The standards deployed in the Southern California Regional ITS Architecture are focused on supporting center-to-center communications throughout the region. The agency can consult a common data dictionary, to ensure that standard interfaces that are agreed upon are used in the project to allow information to be shared between systems.
6. Determine if agency agreements are needed. Agreements might be needed among the stakeholders to fully integrate the projects at a region-wide level. The agreements help enforce the roles and responsibilities of each stakeholder and are based on the types of existing and planning projects in the county. The architecture describes the data interfaces needed for information exchanges and operational requirements needed to operate and implement those projects.