The City of Irvine, California, is committed to implementation of a traffic management system utilizing leading edge communication technologies to monitor traffic flow and minimize the impact of traffic-impeding incidents. The core of this system is a network capable of dissemination of comprehensive information, including real-time video, from multiple sites to multiple clients to report on citywide road conditions and enable remote actions which will re-route traffic to maintain maximum flow. The focus of this effort is the Irvine Traffic Research and Control (ITRAC) center, constructed in 1992, which serves as both the live traffic monitoring facility and the developmental lab for future system experimentation. Since 1991, when the first 2 cameras transmitting analog video over 6 miles of fiber were installed, their system has grown to include 60 cameras and 90 miles of fiber cable, using both analog and digital transmission formats, with an 80 x 48 central CCTV video matrix switcher. The ultimate system deployment will include up to 200 cameras providing MPEG 2 multicast video over a fiber optic Gigabit Ethernet network using an IP format, with a PC application-based camera selection and control system accessing individual Web-pages for each camera site. Planned convergence of the traffic control signal system into the Ethernet IP video distribution network will achieve the ultimate goal of a unified system concept.
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