GEWI’s TIC software offers multiple solutions to address many requirements across different markets and client types, for example, Government road agencies, commercial and public road operators, automotive manufacturers and more. This presents challenges when meeting the demands of integrating many differing systems and disparate types of data. GEWI’s aim has always been to develop TIC as an ‘Off the Shelf’ solution, whilst maintaining a highly configurable and flexible architecture.
We are fortunate in that the industries we serve have adopted and continue to develop standards which allow the company to ensure a smoother route to designing a solution for a client.
Well-developed and widely adopted standards ensure the quality, and efficiency of products, services and systems. Such standards should reflect real-world conditions. But as with all standards, they are only approximations of the real-world and its interpretation, and the implementation of these standards requires careful thought in any system design.
GEWI has been involved in the development of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) and road traffic standards for many years. With fast changing and developing industries such as ITS, highly automated driving (automotive), advances in digital maps etc., the close coupling and involvement in both the development of standards and their use within the TIC platform remains a key part of GEWI’s philosophy.
To solve the problem of exchanging data between different sets of standards, GEWI created a model used in the TIC Software to allow conversions between the different data standards.
One example of this this trade-off, would be the event codes used to describe road and traffic conditions. There have been multiple different standards created such as Alert-C, DATEX II, TPEG-TEC and more. Each has their own set of event codes, but none reflect the real world to the fullest extent.
The ALERT-C series;ISO 14819 standards, were created following early developments and implementations of traffic data broadcasting trials, followed by worldwide adoption. Again, this would not have been possible without initially creating specifications, their conversion to European standards followed by international adoption under ISO.
Other standards such as DATEX II have been developed very broadly which make them challenging to understand and have led to broad interpretation in many different ways. Broadly defined standards can be difficult to test and implement, and impossible to support to the full extent.
The flexibility of the TIC system allowed GEWI to overcome these event code (and other) differences in a long term project which involved collecting, harmonizing and exchanging data between 22 countries in 7 different languages.
With the world of technology, including ITS, moving very rapidly, standards are typically well behind changes in the real world. With TIC Software having its own data model, GEWI can quickly adapt to the needs of the customers and once a final standard is agreed, it can be incorporated into the TIC Product, or by adapting the internal model to reflect the new standard.
As an active member of TISA, GEWI will continue to support and participate in the development of new and future standards. GEWI is also a member of ITS America, ITS Canada, ITS UK, ITS Australia and is always available to contribute our 28 years of experience in standardization efforts.
TIC is compatible with the new WZDX standard for Work Zones in the United States, and is hopeful that many existing standards which have already been accepted worldwide, such as DATEX II BIS profile, will be incorporated as the WZDX format continues to evolve.
The various standard and methods of referencing locations are another challenge to overcome when dealing with data for ITS projects. Location referencing will be discussed as the focus of the next GEWI newsletter to be released for Jan/Feb 2021.
If you have any questions or comments regarding the topic of standardization, contact info@gewi.com
