Preface
Introduction and Background
This Generic Concept of Operations for Integrated Corridor Management (ICM) has been developed as part of Phase 1 (Foundational Research) for the Federal Highway Administration and the Federal Transit Administration (FHWA / FTA) Integrated Corridor Management Initiative. The basic premise behind the ICM initiative is that independent, individual network-based transportation management systems, and their cross-network linkages, can be operated in a more coordinated and integrated manner, thereby increasing overall corridor throughput and enhancing the mobility of the corridor users.
This document is intended as a high-level Concept of Operations (Con Ops) for a "generic" 15-mile corridor (Figure 1) consisting of freeway, arterial, bus and rail networks, and serving a central business district. The purpose of this (and any) Concept of Operations) is to answer the questions of who, what, when, where, why and how for the application of an Integrated Corridor Management System (ICMS) within the corridor. Given that an ICMS is a "system of systems," involving multiple agencies and stakeholders, it is also essential that the Con Ops define the roles and responsibilities of these participating agencies and other involved entities.
Figure 1. Schematic of Generic Corridor
The generic Concept of Operations should be viewed as an example of an ICM Con Ops that can be used by agency and network owners as the basis for developing their own corridor-specific and real-world Concept of Operations. It is emphasized that this generic document is intended as guidance, not as a "template." Moreover, the generic corridor itself should not be construed as the optimum configuration for implementing ICM. It is only a tool to facilitate the development of this Con Ops example.
The generic ICM Concept of Operations identifies important areas, features and issues that must be addressed in any site-specific Concept of Operations for integrated corridor management. Moreover, the process of developing a Concept of Operations — the involvement of all appropriate stakeholders and their continuing interaction to develop an ICM vision, identify goals and objectives, determine corridor needs, specify approaches and strategies, and resolve the various integration issues — is probably more important that the actual document itself.
ICM Implementation Guidance
The development of a Concept of Operations is an important step in the overall process to plan and implement integrated corridor management. This process is documented in a companion ICM document entitled "ICM Implementation Guidance." The Implementation Guidance document identifies and discusses the process steps needed to support the development, implementation, and operation of an ICM system. It is intended as a guide for transportation professionals who will be involved in some stage of the life-cycle for an Integrated Corridor Management System (ICMS).
The ICM Implementation Guidance is based on the principles of "systems engineering," a formal process by which quality is continuously promoted. The systems engineering process is often shown as a "V" (Figure 2) as a way of relating the different stages in the system life cycle to one another.
Figure 2. "V" Diagram
As shown in the diagram, the Concept of Operations is a relatively early activity in the overall process. Specific steps and activities that occur prior to or during the development of the Concept of Operations, all of which provide input to the Con Ops Document itself, are summarized below:
|
CONCEPT EXPLORATION Functions:
Result: Stakeholders, Potential Corridor & Boundaries SYSTEM CONCEPTION Functions: Needs Analysis and ICM System Concept, including:
Result: Concept of Operations |
Concept of Operations
As discussed in the ICM Implementation Guidance, the Concept of Operations is a formal document that provides a user-oriented view of integrated corridor management, the ICM approaches and strategies, and the associated operations. It is developed to help communicate this view to the stakeholders and to solicit their feedback. The Concept of Operations documents the results and findings from the "Concept Exploration" and "System Conception" stages, laying out the ICM concept, explaining how things are expected to work once it is in operation, and identifying the responsibilities of the various stakeholders for making this happen. The Concept of Operations documents answers to the following questions:
- What - the known elements and the high-level capabilities of the system.
- Where - the geographical and physical extents of the system.
- When - the time-sequence of activities that will be performed.
- How - resources needed to design, build, operate, and maintain the system.
- Who - the stakeholders involved with the system, and their respective responsibilities.
- Why - justification for the system, identifying what the corridor currently lacks, and what the system will provide.
The Concept of Operations does not delve into technology or detailed requirements of the ICMS; but it does address the operational scenarios and objectives, information needs, and overall functionality. The Concept of Operations must also address the "institutional" environment in which integrated corridor management must be deployed, operated, and maintained. Paraphrasing the "IEEE Guide for Concept of Operations" document and the FHWA document "Developing and Using a Concept of Operations in Transportation Management Systems," a Concept of Operations provides several benefits, including:
- Providing a means for engaging ICM stakeholders and soliciting their input as to their respective desires, visions, and expectations (without requiring them to provide quantified, testable specifications), as well as their thoughts and concerns on possible solution strategies.
- Providing a means of describing stakeholders' operational needs for ICM, without bogging down in detailed technical issues.
- Identifying the institutional, technical and operational environment in which ICM will function.
- Formulating and documenting high-level definitions and descriptions of integrated corridor management system and any changes to the associated network systems.
Definitions
Definitions are important as they provide the basis for a common understanding, thereby facilitating communication and discussion among ICM stakeholders.
Integrated Corridor Management
Integrated corridor management consists of the operational coordination of multiple transportation networks and cross-network connections comprising a corridor, and the coordination of institutions responsible for corridor mobility. The goal of ICM is to improve mobility, safety, and other transportation objectives for travelers and goods. ICM may encompass several activities, for example:
- Cooperative and integrated policy among stakeholders.
- Concept of operations for corridor management.
- Communications among network operators and stakeholders.
- Improving the efficiency of cross-network junctions and interfaces.
- Mobility opportunities, including shifts to alternate routes and modes.
- Real-time traffic and transit monitoring.
- Real-time information distribution (including alternate networks).
- Congestion management (recurring and non-recurring).
- Incident management.
- Travel demand management.
- Public awareness programs.
- Transportation pricing and payment.
Integrated Corridor Management may result in the deployment of an actual transportation management system (ICMS) connecting the individual network-based transportation management systems (complete with ICMS central hardware and servers, data base, decision support software, joint sharing of command and control activities, etc.); or integrated corridor management may just be a set of operational procedures — agreed to by the network owners — with appropriate linkages between their respective systems. Regardless of the type of "system" deployed, the process steps and associated activities identified herein are directly applicable.
Corridor
From the perspective of the ICM initiative, a "corridor" has been defined as a largely linear geographic band defined by existing and forecasted travel patterns involving both people and goods. The corridor serves a particular travel market or markets that are affected by similar transportation needs and mobility issues. The corridor includes various networks (e.g., limited access facility, surface arterial(s), transit, bicycle, pedestrian pathway, waterway) that provide similar or complementary transportation functions. Additionally, the corridor includes cross-network connections that permit the individual networks to be readily accessible from each other. The term "network" is used in the corridor definition to denote a specific combination of facility type and mode.
Integration
The definition of ICM includes the term "coordination" multiple times. Such coordination, and the associated network interconnection and cross network management, requires "integration," a term defined in the dictionary as "making into a whole by bringing all parts together." In the context of ICM, integration is a bridging function between the various networks that make up a corridor, and involves processes and activities that facilitate a more seamless operation. In order to implement ICM, the transportation networks within a corridor (and their respective ITS systems) need to be "integrated" in several different ways, specifically:
- Operational integration may be viewed as the implementation of multi-agency transportation management strategies, often in real-time, that promote information sharing and cross-network coordination and operations among the various transportation networks in the corridor, and facilitate management of the total capacity and demand of the corridor.
- Institutional integration involves the coordination and collaboration between various agencies and jurisdictions (network owners) in support of ICM, including the distribution of specific operational responsibilities and the sharing of control functions in a manner that transcends institutional boundaries.
- Technical integration provides the means (e.g., communication links between agencies, system interfaces, and the associated standards) by which information and system operations and control functions can be effectively shared and distributed among networks and their respective transportation management systems, and by which the impacts of operational decisions can be immediately viewed and evaluated by the affected agencies.
These various aspects of integration must be addressed within the ICMS Concept of Operations to varying degrees of detail, with most of the emphasis being on operational and institutional integration, and less on technical integration. It is also noted that the various issues associated with operational, institutional and technical integration are closely related and interdependent.
Document Layout and Use
As noted at the beginning of this Preface, the following document is intended as a high-level Concept of Operations (Con Ops) for a generic corridor, providing an example of an ICMS Con Ops that can be used by agency and network owners as the basis for developing their corridor-specific and real-world Concept of Operations. The layout and content is loosely based on the document "Developing and Using a Concept of Operations in Transportation Management Systems"1 as developed for the FHWA Pooled Fund Study (and hereinafter referred to as "PFS Reference"). That document, along with its primary reference, the ANSI/AIAA Concept of Operations Standard, recommends a significant amount of repetition in a Concept of Operations. This generic Concept of Operations has been developed to minimize such repetition, thereby keeping the document relatively brief and easier to use as a guide that focuses more on content rather than form.
Each chapter follows the same basic format: a brief Overview describing the purpose of the chapter (i.e., what it is supposed to accomplish). Each section within a chapter begins with a brief Guidance box identifying the purpose of the section; followed by Con Ops text for the generic corridor.
As previously noted, the generic corridor should be viewed as a tool to facilitate the development of this Con Ops example. Moreover, the generic corridor and the associated Concept of Operations does not attempt to be all-inclusive with respect to the types of networks that might be included within a corridor, the ICM stakeholders, and the operational approaches and strategies to be deployed. Additionally, much of the information made regarding "existing" conditions within the generic corridor (e.g., traffic flow and transit usage, technologies deployed within the individual network systems, proposed functionality of a regional architecture, etc.) has been fabricated, based on the experience and realities of the Project Team's collective experience, thereby providing a basis for describing the ICM operational concepts herein. The Con Ops for a real corridor will likely have more information.
The actual situation for most real-world corridors will undoubtedly be different from this generic corridor in terms of network types and other corridor characteristics, stakeholders, institutional and technical environment and the ICM concept and operational capabilities as discussed herein. Accordingly, the information within each chapter of this generic Con Ops should be utilized to tailor a site-specific ICM Concept of Operations to meet any and all unique corridor conditions. Finally, it is again emphasized that the document format and description of ICM elements provided herein exist as a guideline of things to include in a corridor-specific Con Ops. Just as this generic Con Ops does not follow verbatim the Con Ops layout identified in the PFS reference, it is not necessary for the user to perfectly match the structure of this generic document.
1 Developing and Using a Concept of Operations in Transportation Management System, FHWA TMC Pooled-Fund Study (http://tmcpfs.ops.fhwa.dot.gov/cfprojects/new_detail.cfm?id=38&new=0