Transportation Management Center Concepts of Operations

At some point in the process, the responsible organization (or organizationalunit) must be defined for each function, and the resources necessary to performeach process should be identified.Initial Concept of OperationsThe concept of operations contains many components which impact thesystems used to achieve the TMC's functions. The concept begins bydetermining the level of automation necessary for the operators to perform theirduties. There is typically a direct correlation between the degree of automation,and the amounts of computing and communications equipment, and thecommunications network (layout, interconnection, and bandwidth) which arerequired. In related areas, the interconnection of the internal network(s) withthe external network(s) will need to be considered, as will specific power andheating/ventilation/air conditioning requirements. Facilities must also beprovided for systems administration and network management personnel andassets.Initial Development of Requirements DocumentsThe initial systems requirements documents are typically developed based uponthe user services identified in the regional ITS system architecture. They areexpressed using the operational techniques that reflect the constraints andpreferences of the relevant participants. Using the system architecture,requirements can be detailed down to a data flow level, and data elements canbe identified using the relevant data dictionary standards. This level of detail istypically inappropriate in initial requirements documents, which should focus onfunctions that the systems perform.Level and Type of AutomationSome of the most critical decisions in the concept of operations are the level andtype of automation provided to the operations staff to perform their functions.As in any process and information driven system, the degree of effectiveautomation governs the number, workload and qualifications of the staff, andthus determines the volume of transactions which they can reliably support.Furthermore, the degree of automation greatly influences the quality and/orconsistency of the actions by the staff under both recurring and non-recurringconditions.It may be appropriate to review the types of automation applicable to the TMC'sprocesses at this point. Certain constraints may be introduced if pre-existingtechnology selections have been made, e.g., vehicle speed can only beestimated from single loops; double loops or other technologies are necessaryfor true speed measurement.Using incident management as an example, several key automation decisionsare critical to the TMC's success. Although incident detection by observation ofscrolling video images has been used in some locations historically, most systems4-5