Applying Systems Engineering Principles to the Development of Transportation Communication Standards

Using traffic control devices and communications equipment to monitor and control arterials and freeways has brought with it new challenges and a demand for new skills to the transportation industry. Some of the challenges include integrating information from disparate and proprietary systems that were not designed to interoperate, designing systems that demonstrate they satisfy public transportation agency needs, and overcoming not-invented-here (NIH) attitudes. To address these issues the US Department of Transportation (USDOT) sponsored the development of interface standards for Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) technology. This paper describes how systems engineering principles were applied and the life-cycle model used to develop ITS communications standards to overcome the challenges introduced with the application of new technology.