Introduction to ITS and NTCIP

Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) combines high technology and improvements in information systems, communication, sensors, and relevant mathematical methods with the conventional world of surface transportation infrastructure to increase the capacity of transportation systems and to improve the level of services. There are four major goals of ITS, including safety, environmental protection, efficiency, and economy. NTCIP (NTCIP Standard 9001, 2002; DISA et al., 1997) is a set of communications protocols and data definition standards designed for various needs of ITS services and applications. The key goals of the NTCIP open-standards effort are interoperability and interchangeability. Interoperability refers to the ability for multiple devices to work together as a single system and interchangeability refers to the ability to use multiple brands of a device on the same communications channel. Accompanying the social and economic development, traffic congestion and delay have become major issues in most areas around the world. How to use readily available technologies to increase the capacity of transportation systems and to improve the level of service has become one of major solutions to solve transportation problems that people are facing. This is the motivation of Intelligent Transportation Systems development. NTCIP is a set of communications protocols and data definition standards designed for various needs of ITS services and applications. These standards are intended to handle these needs in the two areas: Center-to-Field (C2F) and Center-to-Center (C2C) communications. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60566-840-6.ch003