Initiating the Systems Engineering Process for Rural Connected Vehicle Corridors

The National Connected Vehicle Field Infrastructure Footprint Analysis is a starting point for agencies that are looking ahead to a connected and automated vehicle environment. Given the fast-paced evolution of connected vehicle technologies, agencies need a vision now for long-term planning regarding deployments. To date, most connected vehicle research has focused on applications in urban areas, but agencies need to also plan for the responsibilities and resources required for deploying, operating, and maintaining infrastructure on rural freeways. Rural freeways often include long stretches of highway with limited power and communications. Similarly, there are often long distances between cities or services for travelers and long distances of roadway infrastructure to be maintained and operated. A series of questions needs to be answered related to rural deployments of connected vehicle applications, including: (1) What applications will be most relevant on rural freeway corridors? (2) How should an agency prioritize when and where infrastructure should be deployed? (3) How do these policies and the placement of other ITS deployments translate to the needs, prioritization, placement, and spacing for deploying equipment to support connected vehicles? (4) What scale of deployments should agencies anticipate on rural freeway corridors within 5, 10, and 20 years, respectively? Specifically, what density and types of equipment should an agency expect for rural freeway corridors? (5) What level of multistate coordination may be required for connected vehicle applications on rural freeway corridors, given relatively high percentages of long-distance recreational and freight travelers? (6) How will connected vehicle deployments in rural areas change agency operations? What activities will be needed to support operations and maintenance, and what activities will no longer be needed? When could legacy ITS assets be decommissioned? (7) Will connected vehicle deployments on rural freeways create efficiencies or increase demands on agencies and transportation management centers (TMCs), as related to data needs, data processing and archiving capabilities, communications, staffing considerations, and software requirements? How will the agencies’ technical resource requirements evolve? (8) How can rural data backhaul challenges be addressed? Past studies of connected vehicle technology have focused primarily on hardware and communication protocols used for vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure connectivity. Studies of vehicle-to-infrastructure connectivity have concentrated on urban applications, such as traffic signals. No study has examined the strategic deployment of vehicle-to-infrastructure in rural freeway environments, with long distances and relatively sparse communications infrastructure to support backhaul. The objective of this research is to help agencies anticipate the needs of connected vehicles on rural freeway corridors, including the anticipated roles and responsibilities of agencies in deploying, operating, and maintaining equipment and the associated needs related to staffing and resources. Recognizing the value of the systems engineering process, this project will develop a model Concept of Operations and Requirements document to serve as a starting point for agencies responsible for rural highways to use as they begin to document their needs, operational concepts, scenarios, and requirements.

• Record URL:
  http://apps.trb.org/cmsfeed/TRBNetProjectDisplay.asp?ProjectID=4557
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Contract to a Performing Organization has not yet been awarded.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Proposed
• Funding: $350000
• Contract Numbers:

  Project 08-120

• Sponsor Organizations:

  National Cooperative Highway Research Program

  Transportation Research Board
  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001

  Federal Highway Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590

  American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO)

  444 North Capitol Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Project Managers:

  Crichton-Sumners, Camille

• Start Date: 20180618
• Expected Completion Date: 0
• Actual Completion Date: 0

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Connected vehicles; Coordination; Freeways; Impacts; Implementation; Infrastructure; Needs assessment; Rural highways; Systems engineering; Transportation planning
• Subject Areas: Highways; Planning and Forecasting; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01672244
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Transportation Research Board
• Contract Numbers: Project 08-120
• Files: TRB, RiP
• Created Date: Jun 18 2018 3:02PM