Who has not experienced irritations coming from the way the information and communication systems are organised? The systems in themselves still meet their requirements. However, the compilation of systems is difficult, if not impossible to master. This is the situation in a lot of traffic control centres. The system manager has no control over the wide variety of systems and their components. The traffic operator has to work with individual systems, all having their individual characteristics. Therefore, the traffic operator cannot restrict himself to managing the traffic by activating traffic management scenarios and not having to worry about the roadside systems and their control. To solve this problem, it is necessary to bring order into the technical infrastructure and the applications, and separate the traffic management functions from the control commands of the technical systems. These are activities which usually are applied in the development of an Architecture for Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS). A Traffic Control Centre (TCC) is a part of the complete ITS Architecture. This means that the architecture of a TCC can be seen in direct relationship with other parts of the ITS architecture. A major disadvantage is that developing an ITS Architecture takes time, due to the complexity and perceived required completeness of the ITS-field. In the meanwhile, the gap between the 'ideal situation' as described by the ITS Architecture and the jumble of technical systems in a TCC, widens further and further. A solution can be found in the development of partial architectures in parallel. A partial architecture focussed on a specific topic in the ITS Architecture. A top-down approach for the specific area of interest, starting with tasks and services to be delivered by the TCC, finally ends with a (technical) architecture for that specific area of interest. By starting with tasks and services, the required integrity is guaranteed with respect to the remaining areas. This paper describes such a partial architecture for Traffic Control Centres. (A*)
Abstract