The following is a listing of recent news items relating to the NTCIP.

Posted March 2, 2010
NTCIP ASC WG Starts New 1214 Document. In a teleconference on 2/26, the NTCIP Actuated Signal Control WG kicked-off their work on a new NTCIP 1214 data dictionary for remote control of conflict monitors. The generic term for these devices will probably be "signal monitoring units," or SMU.

By 3/11/2010 COB, consultants are invited to submit emails of interest to NEMA at bru_schopp@nema.org, to perform on the work item WI-1214 v01, for the scope and subtasks listed in the Word file available below.

In the Word file, interested consultants should respond to the five questions on page 3.

Return the Q&A file by email to NTCIP Coordinator Bruce Schopp, at bru_schopp@nema.org.

Also attach a current quals-style resume.

The submitted quals and Q&A will be summarized and used by the ASC WG to help select and recommend consultants IAW NTCIP 8006 Annex A, steps 10 and 13.

The ASC WG will next teleconference on 3/12 at 2:00 PM EST, and will consider the interested consultants.

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Click here to get the Q&A document

Posted January 20, 2010
Brazil Federal Road Agency Regulates To Use NTCIP. December 2009. As published in their Federal Official Regulations (DOU DEC 29, 2009), the Brazil Federal Roads have new regulations for the use of the NTCIP Standards.

The announcement from the Agência Nacional de Transportes Terrestres (ANTT) is published at http://appeantt.antt.gov.br/resolucoes/05000/resolucao3323a_2009.htm.

A Portuguese excerpt of the regulation reads ...

"RESOLUÇÃO Nº 3.323-A, DE 18 DE NOVEMBRO DE 2009;
DOU de 29 DE DEZEMBRO DE 2009

"...

"Art. 2º Para os fins desta Resolução, considera-se:

"I – ITS (Intelligent Transportation Systems) - Sistemas de Transporte Inteligentes - Conjunto de equipamentos e sistemas de monitoramento de tráfego utilizados nas rodovias federais concedidas, desde os equipamentos e sistemas de coleta de dados, monitoramento e sensoriamento instalados ao longo das rodovias, equipamentos e sistemas de monitoração de tráfego instalados em postos de operação e fiscalização localizados nas rodovias e equipamentos e sistemas instalados nos Centros de Controle Operacional das concessionárias, sejam eles de coleta de dados ou de gestão operacional e demais Centros de Controle com os quais esses sistemas trocam informações; e

..."

And in English, Article 2 and the following articles read:

"Article 2 For the purposes of this resolution, it is:"

I - ITS (Intelligent Transportation Systems) - Intelligent Transport Systems - A set of equipment and systems for monitoring traffic used on federal highways granted, provided the equipment and systems for data collection, monitoring and sensing installed along the roads, equipment and systems for traffic monitoring stations installed in operating and monitoring located on highways and equipment and systems installed in Operational Control Centers of the utilities, whether the data collection and management and other operational control centers with which these systems share information e

"II - NTCIP - set of Communication Protocols and Data Dictionary Data Standards for ITS systems developed by the National Electronics Manufacturers Association (NEMA), in conjunction with the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) and the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE), which were designed to meet the needs of various systems, subsystems and services to service users of ITS systems.

"Article 3 The Dealers of Highways Granted governed by ANTT should adopt Protocol NTCIP - National Transportation Communications for ITS Protocol, developed by the National Electronics Manufacturers Association (NEMA), in conjunction with the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) and with the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE), which will regulate the use of equipment, systems and ITS applications in federal highways granted.

"Article 4 The set of Communication Protocols and Data Dictionary Data Standards for the Communication Center Field (NTCIP C2F - Center to Field) should be used for communication between the equipment and monitoring systems, traffic controllers, panels Variable message traffic, traffic sensors, meteorological sensors, OCR (Optical Character Recognition), registers speed (radar), weight sensors, motion
sensors, weight control, access ramps, traffic signals, CCTV (Closed Circuit TV) - only the control of cameras, other systems of data collection installed along the roads, with the Operation Control Centers and their collection systems and operational management of the utilities to which they are connected.

"Article 5 The set of communication protocols and data dictionaries Data Standards for Communication Center to Center (C2C NTCIP - Center to Center) should be used for communication between equipment and systems installed in Operational Control Centers of the dealers Centers Operational Control of other utilities systems and agencies and Regulators.

..."

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Posted January 7, 2010
NTCIP Joint Committee sets 2010 teleconference schedule. The NTCIP Joint Committee announced their teleconference schedule for CY2010, to be held on Thursdays at 2:00 to 3:00 PM Eastern Time.

The NTCIP Joint Cmte selected these dates for teleconferences:

>> January 21 (1/21).

>> (If the NTCIP 1201 v03 GO substitution is not ready for January), then February 18 (2/18).

>> Next, March 18 (3/18), after ITE's Spring Conference in Savanah.

>> Next, April 29 (4/29).

>> June 17 (6/17).

>> September 16 (9/16).

>> Last for the year, November 18 (11/18).

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Posted November 12, 2009
NTCIP 1204 v03 "ESS Interface Protocol" now Jointly Approved with PDF for Download. AASHTO, ITE, and NEMA are pleased to announce that a PDF edition of the NTCIP 1204 major version update v03 for Environmental Sensor Stations (ESS) is available for download from ntcip.org, from the 1204 shopping cart in the site's Library.

The 1204 download timer has been reset, with the shopping cart now providing the new version v03. Be sure to follow the instructions and "Save" the file to your own PC -- do not just "Open" the file.

The NTCIP 1204 v03 is a “major version” update of the prior NTCIP 1204 v02, and now includes test cases and test procedures in Annex C of the document. The test cases are traced from the ESS requirments to the step-by-step test procedures. The document title has been changed to "ESS Interface Protocol" to reflect the expanded content -- which goes beyond just an NTCIP data dictionary.

After balloting by AASHTO, ITE, and NEMA, the NTCIP 1204 v03 was jointly approved in 2008, and is now published in PDF as of November 2009. The PDF edition is available at no-cost for a limited time through the support of the Research and Innovative Technology Administration, whose assistance is gratefully acknowledged. The printed hardcopy edition will soon be available for order and purchase.

NTCIP 1204 v03 was drafted by the NTCIP ESS Working Group, chaired by Gene Martin (Virginia DOT).

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Posted October 7, 2009
New Recommended Policy Standard -- NTCIP 8005 v01 "Procedures for Creating MIB Files" -- Out for Approval. NTCIP Standards Bulletin B0135 reports that the Joint Committee on the NTCIP accepted the new "Procedures for Creating Management Information Base (MIB) Files" as a Recommended Standard for Information Management Policy. The standard publication number is NTCIP 8005 in the 8000-series of NTCIP Process, Control, and Information Management Policies.

AASHTO, ITE, and NEMA are distributing copies to their members for ballot and approval.

The NTCIP 8005 defines how to convert Management Information Base definitions into a MIB module. The document sets procedures to: (a) develop and check the syntax of Management Information Base (MIB) module files, (b) set compiler switches, (c) maintain the MIB file header, and (d) how to name the MIB modules.

Two of the NTCIP policy documents work together -- NTCIP 8004 (SMI) and NTCIP 8005 (Creating MIB Files). NTCIP 8004 defines the internal structure of the object definitions and the rules for MIB maintenance; NTCIP 8005 provides the instructions for extracting the object definitions from the NTCIP standards publications and making a MIB file.

Resulting from the two rounds of user comment review on NTCIP 8005, the "object subfields" in NTCIP object definitions have been revised again. Prior reference to and compliance with ISO 14817 has been deleted. Since NTCIP is primarily intended for center-to-field communications and device control, using SNMP-based data representation, the data structure defined in ISO 14817 is not needed. Also, the previous reference in NTCIP 8005 to the IEEE ITS Data Registry was deleted.

NTCIP 8005 v01 was developed by the NTCIP Joint Committee’s Base Standards and Profiles Working Group, which is chaired by Bob De Roche (Robert De Roche Consulting).

### Click here to read the Bulletin and the Document.

Posted September 29, 2009
Recommended Version of NTCIP 8004 v02 "Structure of Management Information (SMI)" Out for Approval. NTCIP Standards Bulletin B0134 reports that the Joint Committee on the NTCIP accepted the "NTCIP Structure and Identification of management Information (SMI)" as a Recommended Standard Policy. The standard publication number is NTCIP 8004 v02 in the 8000-series of NTCIP Process, Control, and Information Management Policies.

AASHTO, ITE, and NEMA are distributing copies to their members for ballot and approval.

The NTCIP 8004 SMI specifies the set of rules and protocols for organizing, describing, and defining transportation management information to be exchanged between transportation management applications, and/or transportation equipment, so they interoperate with each other. NTCIP 8004 is based on the Internet Advisory Board Standard (IAB STD) 16 - Structure and Identification of Management Information for TCP/IP-based Internets, and the International Standards Organization / International Electrotechnical Commission (ISO/IEC) 8824 - Abstract Syntax Notation One (ASN.1).

The two most important changes in the major version update of 8004 v02 are (1) the Object subfields were revised to harmonize with the revisions in NTCIP 8005, and (2) the Section 2.6 was added to set rules for both defining new, and maintaining existing MIB Objects.

NTCIP 8004 v02 also defines the MIB object status conditions of mandatory, optional, deprecated, and obsolete; and sets the rules for creating extensions to, or new versions of, the MIBs.

NTCIP 8004 v02 was developed by the BSP2 WG, chaired by Bob De Roche (Robert De Roche Consulting).

The User Comment Draft and Standards Bulletin are available in the Library. See the table of Document Links at http://www.ntcip.org/library/documents/.

All interested parties are encouraged to support the AASHTO, ITE, and NEMA members in their review, balloting, and approval of the Recommended Standard Policy.

### Click here to read the Bulletin and the Document.

Posted September 25, 2009
NTCIP 1213 ELMS included in NIST Smart Grid standards framework. The NTCIP 1213 "Object Definitions for Electrical and Lighting Management Systems" standard was included in the "NIST Framework and Roadmap for Smart Grid Interoperability Standards," released on 9/24/2009 at the Washington, DC "GridWeek."

In the attached PDF, see page 38, row 31.

Visit www.nist.gov/public_affairs/releases/smartgrid_092409.html for more information.

### Click here to view the document