In recent years, developments in the ITS industry suggest that it is an industry on the verge of explosive growth. In support of this, relatively complex telecommunications network infrastructures must be deployed to realize the vast majority of ITS services. The quality and manageability of these communications networks will play a pivotal role in determining whether or not ITS succeeds over the long term. Unfortunately, communications Network Management Systems (NMS) have been largely ignored to date as a fundamental component of both the design and deployment of ITS communications networks. A similar oversight in building the public telephone network many years ago proved to be a costly error that has taken years and billions of dollars to correct. It would be tragic for the ITS community not to absorb the lessons learned in deploying the public telephone network as it strives to deploy seamless and manageable communications networks of its own. This paper illustrates the importance of Network Management in deploying large ITS networks based on the lessons learned from the public telecommunications industry. Within this framework, the paper presents guidelines for Network Management System deployment as it pertains to ITS. (A*)
Abstract