ITS Architecture for Canada

Under the guidance of a steering committee of public and private sector representatives from the Canadian transportation industry, the development of the ITS Architecture for Canada was initiated in August 1999. In general, the Canadian effort subsumes all of the U.S. National ITS architecture work and extends and modifies it to provide new services and areas of coverage, and to reflect differences between the nations and the existence of new and different stakeholders.

The development included an extensive review of other relevant ITS Architecture and Standards initiatives. Based on the review as well as significant ITS stakeholder input, an initial draft ITS Architecture Framework was developed that defined the User Services, User Sub-Services, and Market Packages applicable to Canada. Following a review by ITS stakeholders, the revised ITS Architecture Framework was used to develop definitions of both the Physical and Logical Architectures of the ITS Architecture for Canada.

The Role of Architecture

The ITS Architecture for Canada provides a unified framework for integration to guide the co-ordinated deployment of ITS programs within the public and private sectors. It offers a starting point from which stakeholders can work together to achieve compatibility among ITS elements to ensure unified ITS deployment for a given region. The Architecture describes interaction among physical components of the transportation systems including travellers, vehicles, roadside devices, and control centres. It also describes the information and communications system requirements, how data should be shared and used, and the standards required to facilitate information sharing. Overall, the ITS Architecture for Canada defines the functionality of ITS components and the information flows among ITS elements to achieve total system goals.

The components of the Logical Architecture required for the Architecture Framework have also been defined, including components such as User Service Requirements, Process Specifications, Data Flows, and Data Flow Diagrams. The Logical Architecture of the ITS Architecture was developed in parallel with the Physical Architecture. This is unlike the U.S. work that developed the Physical Architecture based on the Logical Architecture.

Regional ITS Architectures

Regional ITS Architecture Guidance for Canada: Developing, Using and Maintaining an ITS Architecture for Your Region – Published by Transport Canada

User Service Bundles – Canadian ITS Architecture

The User Services of the ITS Architecture for Canada are organised into 8 User Service Bundles as opposed to the 7 bundles in the U.S. National ITS Architecture. The major difference was that the Travel and Traffic Management User Service Bundle of the U.S. Architecture was separated into two separate bundles: Travel Information Services and Traffic Management Services.

Traveller Information Services
Traffic Management Services
Public Transport Services
Electronic Payment Services
Commercial Vehicle Operations
Emergency Management Services
Vehicle Safety and Control Systems
Information Warehousing Services.

User Services – ITS Architecture for Canada

The ITS Architecture for Canada includes 35 User Services. Of these 35 User Services, 6 User Services were developed specifically for the ITS Architecture for Canada. The remaining 29 User Services are based on the 31 User Services subsumed from the U.S. National Architecture. A number of the U.S. User Services were either combined into single User Services, or divided into separate User Services:

User Sub-Services of the ITS Architecture for Canada

Based on the 35 User Services, 90 User Sub-Services were identified to facilitate the definition of the Physical and Logical Architectures. User Sub-Services provide a level of detail consistent with the Market Package definitions under the U.S. National ITS Architecture.

1 Traveller Information Services

1.1 Traveller Information
1.1.1 Broadcast Traveller Information
1.1.2 Interactive Traveller Information
1.1.3 Real-Time Ridesharing Information

1.2 Route Guidance and Navigation
1.2.1 Autonomous Route Guidance
1.2.2 Dynamic Route Guidance
1.2.3 ISP-Based Route Guidance
1.2.4 Traffic Estimation and Prediction
1.2.5 In-Vehicle Signing

2 Traffic Management Services

2.1 Traffic Control
2.1.1 Traffic Network Flow Monitoring
2.1.2 Surface Street Control
2.1.3 Highway Control
2.1.4 Regional Traffic Control
2.1.5 Traffic Information Dissemination
2.1.6 Virtual TMC
2.1.7 Probe-Based Flow Monitoring
2.1.8 Traffic Estimation and Prediction

2.2 Incident Management
2.2.1 Incident Management Co-ordination
2.2.2 Incident Prediction System Protection

2.3 Travel Demand Management
2.3.1 HOV Lane Management
2.3.2 Reversible Lane Management
2.3.3 Predictive Demand Management

2.4 Environmental Conditions Management
2.4.1 Roadway Environmental Sensing
2.4.2 Emissions Management
2.4.3 Road Weather Information System
2.4.4 Vehicle-Based Sensing

3 Public Transport Services

3.1 Public Transport Management
3.1.1 Transit Vehicle Tracking
3.1.2 Transit Fixed-Route Operations
3.1.3 Passenger and Fare Management
3.1.4 Transit Maintenance
3.1.5 Multi-Modal Co-ordination
3.1.6 Multi-Modal Connection Protection

4 Electronic Payment Services

4.1 Electronic Payment Services
4.1.1 Electronic Toll Collection
4.1.2 Electronic Parking Payment
4.1.3 Transit Services Payment
4.1.4 Traveller Services Payment

5 Commercial Vehicle Operations

5.1 Commercial Vehicle Electronic Clearance
5.1.1 Electronic Clearance
5.1.2 International Border Crossing Clearance
5.1.3 Weigh-In-Motion (WIM)

5.2 Automated Roadside Safety Inspection
5.2.1 Inspection Support Systems
5.2.2 Automated Vehicle Safety Read Out

5.3 On-Board Safety Monitoring
5.3.1 On-Board Safety Monitoring

6 Emergency Management Services

6.1 Emergency Notification and Personal Security
6.1.1 Personal Security
6.1.2 MAYDAY Support

6.2 Hazardous Material Planning, and Incident Response
6.2.1 Hazardous Material Planning and Incident Response

7 Vehicle Safety and Control Systems

7.1 Vehicle-Based Collision Avoidance
7.1.1 Lateral Warning Systems
7.1.2 Lateral Collision Avoidance
7.1.3 Longitudinal Warning Systems
7.1.4 Longitudinal Collision Avoidance

7.2 Infrastructure-Based Collision Avoidance
7.2.1 Intersection Collision Warning
7.2.2 Intersection Collision Avoidance

7.3 Sensor-Based Driving Safety Enhancement
7.3.1 Sensor-based Driving Safety Enhancement

8 Information Warehousing Services

8.1 Weather and Environmental Data Management
8.1.1 Roadway and Weather Data Fusion
8.1.2 Environmental Information Dissemination
8.1.3 Roadway Meso and Micro Prediction

The ITS Architecture for Canada is available on the following Transport Canada web page:

www.tc.gc.ca/innovation/its/eng/architecture.htm.

The architecture is presented in two parts:

Hypertext architecture – Navigate through the ITS Architecture for Canada with your browser

Architecture documents – All ITS Architecture for Canada documentation (e.g., Physical Architecture, Logical Architecture, Traceability Matrix), as well as the development documentation.

If you prefer, a CD is also available by contacting ITS Canada at itscanada@itscanada.ca.

ITS Architecture in the United States

The National ITS Architecture is maintained by the United States Department of Transportation (DOT) and is available on the DOT website at www.its.dot.gov.