ITS Transportation and Public Safety Information Exchange Project
Overview
Emergencies demand effective communication of information between public safety and transportation agencies responding to any situation, but the absence of a uniform approach for data sharing remains a barrier. To fill this void, the Intelligent Transportation Systems and Public Safety Information Exchange Project established a standards-based approach to critical information exchange.
The benefits to agencies implementing these exchanges include:
- Faster exchange of information between agencies
- Increased accuracy of information exchanged between agencies
- Savings in costs by using the same exchanges with a variety of agencies
- Better personnel utilization and efficiency
- Shortened response times
- Faster clearance of events
- Improved responder safety through better information
- Enhancing the public's mobility through reduced congestion and faster clearance
By facilitating faster and better communications, this project will enhance daily operations and help ensure more immediate, safe, and effective response to routine incidents, natural disasters, terrorist acts, and other major incidents. Public safety and transportation agencies will have more accurate and timely information to perform their role, and the public will be better served in times of emergency.
Initiated in 2005, the Intelligent Transportation Systems and Public Safety Information Exchange Project is a collaborative effort between the transportation and public safety communities. The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) co-sponsor the project with management support provided by the IJIS Institute .
Both the transportation and public safety communities have been developing information exchange standards unique to their own needs and systems. Transportation incident management utilizes standards developed in conjunction with IEEE. In contrast, the public safety community has developed the Global Justice XML Data Model (GJXDM), supported by the Global Justice Information Sharing Initiative (Global) operating under the auspices of the Office of Justice Programs of DOJ.
Led by a steering committee comprised of both practitioners and industry representatives, and supported by technical working teams and subject-matter experts, the project is engaged in the development of standardized Information Exchange Packages (IEPs) incorporating both GJXDM and IEEE standards. This project does not seek to supplant those existing intra-community standards, but instead the project focus is on identifying the common information interests of the two communities and developing exchange methods for data sharing where their interests intersect. These GJXDM/IEEE exchanges provide a flexible method for the transfer of essential information now and in the future.
Standards Compatability
One objective of the ITS/PS Information Exchange Project was to understand the issues and complexities in defining eXtensible Markup Language (XML) information exchanges using two sets of standards - the Global Justice XML Data Model (GJXDM) used by public safety and the IEEE 1512 specification used by transportation.
The project team arrived at the following summary findings:
- While both standards define data structures and elements using XML schema, the IEEE 1512 provides a more complete set of messages for traffic-related incident management exchanges, while the GJXDM provides a more flexible set of content, leaving it up to the implementer to define the messages appropriate for each exchange.
- There is significant overlap in the content of the two standards due to the reuse of several large GJXDM data structures in the IEEE 1512 specification.
- Due to the focus of the specification on traffic-related incident management, the IEEE 1512 specification mapped to a much higher percentage of properties in the data model for the 12 information exchanges than the GJXDM.
- The eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformation (XSLT) language is a feasible option for implementing transformations to convert between GJXDM and IEEE 1512 representations of the same exchange.
See the "GJXDM/IEEE Compatibility Analysis Report" in the download section for additional information. This report was a deliverable of this project.
Project Deliverables
The ITS/PS Information Exchange Project has numerous deliverables, each with associated timelines as enumerated below.
Deliverable |
Notes |
Status / Timeline |
Detailed Project Plan |
Created by the IJIS Institute and approved by BJA |
Completed – Feb 2006 |
GJXDM/IEEE 1512 Compatibility Analysis Report |
Document available in downloads section. |
Completed – Mar 2007 |
National Information Sharing Standards (NISS) Help Desk readiness for the ITS/PS exchanges |
This includes relevant reference articles, information, and technical escalation capabilities at the NISS Help Desk to assist implementers with the ITS/PS exchanges. See the Further Resources section. |
Completed – Mar 2007 |
Information Exchange Package Documentation (IEPD) |
This is a single IEPD containing artifacts for all 12 developed exchanges. |
Completed – Apr 2008 |
Project Brochure & Website |
A project brochure and this website was created to promote the ITS/PS project and exchanges. The brochure is available on the download section. |
Completed – Jun 2008 |
Industry Validation / Laboratory Testing |
This is a test of the 12 exchanges in a laboratory environment. |
In progress – Jul 2008 (target completion) |
Field Operational Test |
This is a pilot implementation of the exchanges. The site selected was Houston TranStar in Texas. |
In progress – Jul 2008 (target completion) |
Reports and Success Stories |
The reports include: FOT Summary Report, Success Stories, and the Project Summary report. |
In Progress – Dec 2008 (target completion) |
Outreach Activities |
Several transportation and public safety conferences were targeted for outreach activities. |
Ongoing effort |
Information Exchanges
The 12 traffic-related incident management information exchanges modeled in the ITS/PS project included the following:
1) |
Incident Notification |
Notification and details of non-planned incidents |
2) |
Incident Status Update |
Status updates regarding non-planned incidents |
3) |
Incident Summary |
Summary information about non-planned incidents |
4) |
Request Incident List |
Request for list of current incidents |
5) |
Event Information |
Notification and details of planned events |
6) |
Event List |
List of planned events |
7) |
Request for Specific Event Information |
Request for details of a planned event |
8) |
Request Event List |
Request for a list of planned events |
9) |
Request for Service |
Request for assistance |
10) |
Decision Response |
Response to a request for assistance |
11) |
Request Road Conditions |
Request for a conditions of a specific road |
12) |
Road Conditions |
Response to a request for specific road conditions |
The following seven traffic-related incident management information exchanges were identified by the ITS/PS Project committee but not modeled. These exchanges could be created in the future.
1) |
Request for Asset Inventory List |
Request for a list of available assets |
2) |
Asset Inventory |
Inventory of available assets |
3) |
Request for Specific Asset Status |
Request for the status of a specific asset |
4) |
Specific Asset Status |
Response to a request for status of a specific asset |
5) |
Request for Usage of a Specific Asset |
Request for a specific asset's use |
6) |
Request for Route Information |
Request for route information to/from a specific location |
7) |
Route Information |
Response to a request for route information |
Proof of Concept Project
A Proof of Concept project, or Pilot, is currently underway in Houston, Texas. The project includes the implementation of two of the ITS/PS exchanges: “Incident Notification” and Incident Status Update”. These exchanges will be implemented bi-directionally between TranStar (Houston area transportation operations center) and the Harris County Toll Road Authority (HCTRA).
This section will be updated eventually to include outcome/evaluation of the project.
Sponsors
About ITS Joint Program Office
The ITS Joint Program Office is administratively located in Federal Highway Administration and, under the policy direction of the Research Innovative Technology Administration, coordinates the Intelligent Transportation Systems program and initiatives across the U.S. Department of Transportation. The ITS Public Safety Program encourages transportation and public safety agencies to better integrate their on-scene incident response, clearance and recovery operations. The Program fosters new partnerships between transportation and public safety agencies to develop more interoperable communications systems and incident management procedures. Visit the JPO website at http://www.its.dot.gov.
About Bureau of Justice Assistance
 The Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) is a component of the Office of Justice Programs of the U.S. Department of Justice. The mission of the BJA is to provide leadership and services in grant administration and criminal justice policy development to support local, state, and tribal justice strategies to achieve safer communities. One of the BJA's goals is to improve the functioning of the criminal justice system. To achieve these goals, BJA programs emphasize enhanced coordination and cooperation of federal, state, and local efforts. Visit the BJA website at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/BJA .
About IJIS Institute
 The IJIS Institute is a non-profit organization whose mission is to contribute to the successful implementation of integrated justice and public safety systems nationwide. The IJIS Institute membership consists of almost 200 companies that supply IT solutions and services to the justice, public safety, and homeland security sectors. IJIS brings together the expertise, knowledge, and experience of the information technology industry and government in a way that benefits private industry, the public sector, and society as whole. Funding for the IJIS Institute comes from combination of industry contributions and grants from multiple federal agencies through the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA). Currently the IJIS Institute offers education and training, technology assistance, and program management services to local, state, tribal and federal organizations to help them fully realize the power of information sharing. Visit the IJIS website at http://www.ijis.org .
Participants
Further Resources
The following links provide additional information on related topics:
Downloads
- Project Brochure, 2007 ( HTML, PDF 365KB)
- GJXDM/IEEE 1512 Compatibility Analysis Report, 2007 ( HTML, PDF 303KB)
- Information Exchange Package Documentation (IEPD), 2008 ( ZIP 1.6MB) – this single IEPD contains information for twelve (12) ITS/PS exchanges
Contact
Linda Dodge
Public Safety Coordinator
ITS Joint Program Office
U.S. Department of Transportation
Linda.dodge@dot.gov
202-366-8034
Christopher Traver
Senior Policy Advisor
Bureau of Justice Assistance
U.S. Department of Justice
Christopher.traver@usdoj.gov
202-307-2963
Scott Parker
Project Manager, Technical Services
IJIS Institute
Scott.parker@ijis.org
703-726-4213
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