Information model for distributed traffic management applications

Today´s Traffic Management Systems (TMS) are widely used in urban and interurban environments. Due to the rising amount of traffic, TMS were deployed to smooth every day traffic flow. Current TMS follow a strictly centralized and hierarchical approach. This approach as well as the heterogeneous connection of sensors and actuators cause higher installation costs and limit the flexibility of the system. This paper introduces a generic information model for sensors and actuators used in TMS that allows a decentralized approach with autonomously cooperating sensors and actuators at field level. For this purpose, the information modeling scheme of ZigBee, a widely used wireless standard, is used. However, the proposed model can also be applied to wired applications. Finally, practical sample applications are presented, illustrating specific parts of the information model.