XML, SOAP AND WEB SERVICE : A NEW OPTION FOR ITS C2C COMMUNICATION AND INTEROPERABILITY
Qingyan Yang, Heng Wei, Jeffrey R Manring, Preeti Agarwal · Transportation Research Board 82nd Annual MeetingTransportation Research Board · 2003
As more and more Traffic Operation Centers (TMCs) have been built up issues associated with Center-To-Center (C2C) communication and interoperability have caught higher attention and led to the development of NTCIP C2C standards. The NTCIP C2C standards define the Information Level protocols, Traffic Management Data Directory (TMDD) and Message Set for External TMC Communication (MS-ETMCC). Two Application Level technologies, DATEX and CORBA, have been developed to minimize ITS systems integration complexity. On the other hand, an emerging Internet-based technology has been recently developed as a new optional solution to maximizing inter-systems compatibility via the Internet. It is noticeable that this emerging technology would not only be able to enhance the system expanding scalability, but also would significantly reduce the cost for building and migrating ITS system. This paper will focus on how this technology could benefit the ITS C2C communication and interoperability solutions. Based on analyses of enhancement requirements for the existing ITS software systems, and the steps to implement C2C standards, the authors propose in the paper a new method to achieve ITS C2C data exchanging and interoperation by combining TMDD and MS-ETMCC standards with Web Service technology. The advantages of this option include its low development cost, good compatibility with existing DATEX and CORBA technologies, and its flexible deployment and migration (e.g., not requiring significant changes of existing ITS system software). Especially, it could provide a cost-effective ITS system solution for medium and small communities with limited funding and information infrastructure