Architectures of Transportation Cyber-Physical Systems

Abstract Architecture is the fundamental structure of a system. That structure is based on the relationships among the modules that provide the behaviour of the system. These structures appear, with variations, in many systems that address related problems. Because software is so malleable, much of this variation is implemented in the software portion of the product. These different architectures have different performance characteristics such as different levels of reliability and safety. In this chapter we will survey some of the popular architectures for cyber-physical systems, the quality attributes enhanced and degraded by each architecture and analysis techniques that are used to evaluate these qualities in the context of actual applications. Our intent is to provide the type of knowledge needed for the transportation engineer to participate in developing or acquiring software for smart transportation systems.