Center-to-Center Communications

A critical component of the system architecture is the communication between the traffic control systems from the cities, Caltrans, and LA County, and the cloud-based ICM system, specifically its Data Hub and Corridor Management System. Data must be received from the various traffic signals, sensors, and other installed equipment, and response plan information sent back out to the traffic management centers and supporting equipment.

This information will be exchanged using center-to-center (C2C) communications. According to the USDOT, "Center-to-center (C2C) communications span the entire ITS domain, covering the exchange of data between computers physically located in different transportation management center facilities. Such facilities include: traffic management centers, transit management centers, public safety, incident management centers, parking management centers, and so forth. C2C standards enable this data exchange, specifying what information is exchanged, how and when it is exchanged, and the underlying transport mechanisms."

C2C communications need to be consistent to ensure smooth integration with the Corridor Management System (purple box in the diagram) and an easier statewide rollout of the ICM system. Industry standard TMDD data formats and communication technologies will be used for all components of the ITS Architecture.

The team has been working with the three vendors who currently provide traffic management software to one or more of the CC stakeholders, to implement C2C connections directly. Pasadena uses Transparity by McCain; Arcadia and Caltrans use  TranSuite by TransCore; and LA County, Monrovia, and Duarte use KITS by Kimley-Horn. All three system vendors are working with stakeholders to understand the detailed requirements and provide an appropriate C2C interface. The challenge for the vendors, and for Connected Corridors, is to completely standardize these interfaces so that vendors participating in the proof of concept can easily interface without custom development.