Documents

While the primary means of approaching and understanding the Architecture Reference for Cooperative and Intelligent Transportation (ARC-IT) is through the many hyperlinked pages of this website, and the primary means of using and applying ARC-IT is through its tools (RAD-IT and SET-IT), there are still a number of documents that provide information on certain aspects of the content and use of the architecture that may be beneficial to a number of readers.

Originally the National ITS Architecture was defined by its documentation. There were documents for the Physical and Logical Architectures as well as Service Packages and a set of supporting documents as well. That original set of documentation has been moved to the "Archived Architecture Documents" page.

The documents on this page provide resources to help use and apply the architecture for ITS research, regional architecture development, and project deployment.

The ARC-IT document set is listed below and is available as compressed PDF files, which may be downloaded and viewed using Acrobat Reader.

The architecture documents fall into the following categories:

Architecture Description Documents:

The following document describes ARC-IT and how it's organized.

Key Concepts Document

The Key Concepts (June 2022 update) document explains the essential terminology and concepts needed to understand, navigate, and use ARC-IT. The following concepts and terms that are part of the definition of ARC-IT are explained: Architecture Views, ITS Services/ Service Packages, Physical View (with its Physical Objects, Information Flows, and Functional Objects), Functional View, Enterprise View, and the Communications View.

Regional ITS Architecture Guide

The Regional ITS Architecture Guide (November 2020 update) is a guide for transportation professionals who are involved in the development, use, or maintenance of regional ITS architectures. The document describes a process for creating a regional ITS architecture with supporting examples of each architecture product and discusses mainstreaming ITS into the planning and project development processes.

Systems Engineering for Intelligent Transportation Systems

The Systems Engineering for Intelligent Transportation Systems (December 2023 update) website at FHWA provides a good introduction to systems engineering and a basic understanding of how it can be applied to planning, designing, and implementing intelligent transportation systems (ITS) projects. It walks step by step through the project life cycle and describes the systems engineering approach at each step. If you are new to transportation systems it describes how to begin implementing the systems engineering approach on ITS projects and incorporate systems engineering more broadly into your organization's business processes and practices.

RAD-IT Help

The Regional Architecture Development for Intelligent Transportation Help Manual (May 2024 update) contains all of the Help content from the RAD-IT software in an organized document. This format maybe easier to navigate and use than traversing the Help menus within the tool.

SET-IT Help

The System Engineering Tool for Intelligent Transportation Help Manual (May 2024 update) contains all of the Help content from the SET-IT software in an organized document. This format maybe easier to navigate and use than traversing the Help menus within the tool.

Connected Vehicle Environment Primer

The Primer on the Connected Vehicle Environment (November 2015 release) provides an overview of the connected vehicle environment and to discuss some of the larger issues that pertain to the overall environment or ecosystem as some have called it.

The Vision for Dynamic Spectrum Use

The Vision for Dynamic Spectrum Use discusses the use of spectrum beyond the 30 MHz dedicated to ITS, and how a flexible approach might enable more connected and cooperative applications.