A low-cost distributed instrumentation system for monitoring, identifying and diagnosing irregular patterns of behavior in critical ITS components

ITS telecommunication infrastructure and information gathering/distribution equipment such as fiber-optic routing devices, communication huts, uninterrupted power supplies (UPSs), cameras and dynamic message signs (DMSs) are critical to the effective management of resources in emergency situations. Frequently encountered scenarios include evaluating the severity of vehicle collisions to dispatch appropriate law enforcement and ambulatory services, or issuing time-sensitive AMBER alerts to assist in the effort to find missing or kidnapped children. Due to the unacceptably high cost of ITS equipment failures, preventative maintenance and dense operational testing are high priorities. In this paper we present a low-cost distributed instrumentation system (DIS) for continuous monitoring of critical ITS components. Over the last three years, we have developed and deployed the DIS in the Oklahoma Department of Transportation (ODOT) private fiberoptic network that spans several major metropolitan areas in and around Oklahoma City, Tulsa and Lawton. The Oklahoma DIS is responsible for monitoring the health of the entire ODOT ITS communications network as well as the integrity of each camera video signal and the operational status of each DMS. All of the information acquired by the DIS is integrated into an operational summary that is available on a private website for the design and execution of ITS equipment maintenance plans. In Oklahoma, information acquired by the DIS has been successfully integrated into a wide range of operation and maintenance (O&M) planning, which has led to a significant improvement in terms of overall ITS quality of service (QoS) and a quantifiable reduction in wasted costs associated with the premature discarding of energy storage devices.