Research Archive

ITS JPO releases ARC-IT Version 8.1 and supporting software tools

The U.S. Department of Transportation's Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Joint Program Office is pleased to announce that the National ITS reference architecture, now known as now known as Architecture Reference for Cooperative and Intelligent Transportation (ARC-IT), and the supporting software have been updated to Version 8.1 and are available at the National ITS Architecture website, www.arc-it.net.

ARC-IT provides a common framework for planning, defining, and integrating ITS deployments. The Architecture was developed and has evolved with stakeholder input, using a consensus-building methodology in accordance with legislative direction. ARC-IT reflects the contributions of a broad cross-section of the ITS community and provides a definitive reference for ITS deployment planning.

This new version of ARC-IT provides new content for the Enterprise and Functional view as well as new service packages for Loading Zones, Maintenance, and Traffic Code Dissemination.  ARC-IT has benefited from use in international ITS harmonization efforts with Europe, Australia, and Japan. Version 8.1 incorporates additional concepts from FRAME, the European ITS Architecture, that were identified to support the Harmonized Architecture Reference for Technical Standards (HARTS).

The software tools, Regional Architecture Development for Intelligent Transportation (RAD-IT) and Systems Engineering Tool for Intelligent Transportation (SET-IT), are also updated to align with ARC-IT 8.1 and addresses issues reported by 8.0 users.  Users can now import project architectures from one tool to another. RAD-IT users can also define Needs for their region or project and build a list of agreements based on their stakeholders and interfaces.  SET-IT is now available for users of 64-bit Office and Visio software.  RAD-IT and SET-IT are available as a free download from the National ITS Architecture website.