Improve Communications Between TMC & TMS Elements in a Rural Environment Through a System that is Deployable Statewide

To assist the California Department of Transportation by identifying solutions to communication challenges between TMCs and TMS field devices in rural areas.

Rural areas pose a unique challenge to the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), because some regions are so remote that standard communications services are not available and conventional alternatives are cost prohibitive. In these areas, Transportation Management Centers (TMCs) and Traffic Monitoring Systems (TMS) field devices suffer from low data transfer rates, little reliability, and higher operational and maintenance costs. As a result, there is a need to find and establish reliable, scalable, and economical solutions to TMS field device and TMC communication in rural environments. This project will target these challenges and find, evaluate, demonstrate, and document technologies that meet these challenges. Improving the communications technologies will improve traveler safety, enhance department and emergency operations, and expand performance and reliability.