Initiating the Systems Engineering Process for Rural Connected Vehicle Corridors, Volume 1: Research Overview (2021)

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39   6.1 Conclusions Before NCHRP Project 08-120, there were no free resources available to rural transportation agencies seeking to develop initial systems engineering documentation for the deployment of connected vehicle technologies along their rural corridors. While there are other connected vehicle ConOps and other systems engineering artifacts available that are excellent resources, they are not as specic to connected vehicle deployments on rural corridors and do not provide the necessary exibility to be used as guidance—that is, being modular, editable model documents with step-by- step descriptions of the writing process. ese model documents provide agencies a much-needed starting point to develop tailored ConOps and SyRS. e model ConOps and SyRS both include lessons learned from the CV Pilot Deployment Programs that are relevant to rural environments and connected vehicle environments overall. Specically, in the areas of security and the secure credential management system, these docu- ments provide much guidance and technical information that did not exist when the CV Pilots and other early deployments were being conducted. ese lessons learned inuence the ITS stan- dards world, improving the guidance and quality of devices overall. Having one or more rural agencies tailor these model documents to their specic implementations would likely result in additional lessons learned and continue to help improve the guidance and advance the state of ITS and connected vehicle practices. Likewise, these experiences would further help the standards communities as they continue to dene the technical performance and guidance associated with connected vehicle applications. e end goals of connected vehicle technologies are applications and services that are inter- operable across the whole country. One lesson learned from the CV Pilots is that achieving interoperability, even just between three sites, was a technical challenge that took much coor- dination and technical discussion. e model ConOps and model SyRS reect the knowledge gained from these eorts; however, not all possible connected vehicle applications and services have been deployed by the CV Pilots. e addition of more rural connected vehicle deploy- ments will likely address some of these unexplored connected vehicle services. Using these model documents to capture the connected vehicle deployment details will advance these interoperability discussions and will likely contribute to future standards and guidance docu- mentation eorts. 6.2 Suggested Research 6.2.1 Suggestions for Practitioners and Agencies e following are suggestions specically for practitioners and agencies seeking to deploy connected vehicle technologies along their rural corridors. C H A P T E R   6 Conclusions and Suggested Research

40 Initiating the Systems Engineering Process for Rural Connected Vehicle Corridors • Before starting, practitioners/agencies should review current context to understand the devel- opments that may have taken place after the publication of this resource. Particular areas to assess include the state of deployment of vehicle-based communications technologies within the general vehicle population, existence of consensus-based standards and verification pro- cesses to support interoperability, and lessons and best practices from early deployment. • There is a need to identify relevant local stakeholders to provide input and feedback during the development lifecycle. The stakeholder groups, described in detail in the model ConOps, provide a starting point that represents a cross section of rural stakeholders, but these are not necessarily the same across rural areas nationwide. Tailoring based on local input is essential. As such, agencies must ensure all relevant internal (within their jurisdiction and system) and external stakeholders are accounted for. • Constraints should also be identified based on the particular rural agency and environment. For example, climate and environmental conditions vary significantly in different areas of the country, and field infrastructure will need to withstand the expected environment where installed. • Consider the use of commercial requirement management tools (i.e., not Word, Excel) if your project is large and complex, because these can have a significant impact on the maintenance, management, and traceability of user needs, requirements, and system/interface design. Model- Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) tools can be useful for larger-scale projects to incorporate systems engineering with design and code leveraging System Modeling Language (SysML). • Working in collaboration with peer agencies can yield mutual benefits from understanding and sharing best practices in rural connected vehicle development, deployment, and opera- tions. Also, by beginning their deployments with these model systems engineering documents and tailoring them to their local situation, agencies will have confidence that the systems engineering process is laying the foundation for developing a quality system or integration of connected vehicle capabilities into their existing system. 6.2.2 Suggestions for the Research Community This section provides suggestions for future research to NCHRP and the general research community. This is not meant to be an exhaustive list; instead, it is a compilation of gaps in knowledge the project team found during the literature review and stakeholder engagement activities: • Strategies to address rural field infrastructure constraints. Rural corridors often face limited availability of power and backhaul communications, such as fiber-optic cable. Research could explore and develop guidelines on the use of alternative power sources, such as solar for powering RSUs, capabilities, and costs associated with fixed point-to-point wireless backhaul options, and so forth. • Rural connected vehicle maintenance practices. Rural field infrastructure equipment may be located in remote areas where physical access for maintenance may be costly or otherwise limited, and where environmental conditions can be severe. Research could further develop the maintenance requirements and verification processes for sensors, processing, and commu- nications equipment, and identify practices to minimize maintenance needs, such as remote RSU update protocols and reliability testing processes. • Interoperable supporting connected vehicle services in rural context. Rural markets are unlikely to have the majority share of deployment, and therefore, rely on the broader connected vehicle environment. Research could further define robust interoperability across vendors with supporting standards and specifications so that rural agencies can be confident that their deployments will work with the broader vehicle population. Additionally, research could support rural-specific issues [e.g., support for certificate top-offs, certificate revocation list (CRL), and

Conclusions and Suggested Research 41   so forth] where vehicles may not encounter infrastructure as frequently as in a dense urban environment. • Research on higher-latency communications and applications. In rural environments, vehicles may encounter field infrastructure infrequently. Research could explore applications that could leverage V2V relay (like the WYDOT CV Pilot’s DN or wildlife detection and advisory) where information could be relayed to passing vehicles, including agency vehicles, and then reach infrastructure systems. • Funding strategies for rural connected vehicles. The need for funding strategies was expressed by stakeholders throughout the project. Research could identify potential programs eligible for supporting rural connected vehicle deployment, including upgrading existing supporting infrastructure systems and new deployment components as well as sources for O&M. For rural agencies that may only have minimal resources and infrastructure footprint, research could explore strategies that may work cooperatively with a wider region or at the state level. • Cellular, satellite, and other wide-area communications. Rural environments often lack wide- spread communications infrastructure and given the geographic scale, wide-area communi- cations may support certain connected vehicle use cases. Research could assess the state of availability, footprint, capacity/capabilities, and market sustainability for wide-area communi- cations on rural roadway corridors, both currently and in the near future. • Training/Workforce Development for Rural Connected Vehicle. Agency staff, who may already have a variety of responsibilities, need to gain the training and knowledge to support both deployment and connected vehicle system integration as well as O&M. Research could develop common connected vehicle training resources that could apply to and be made available to a wide range of rural agencies. • Procurement strategies and resources for rural connected vehicles. Rural agencies may wish to deploy on a smaller scale rather than on a large-scale project that garners greater interest from vendors. Research could define feasible procurement strategies for small-scale projects (which do not rely on high vehicle market penetration) and share experiences that allow agencies to increase capability gradually over time. • O&M and lifecycle cost experiences/guidance. For connected vehicle system deployment to be sustainable, O&M must be adequately considered. Research could define lifecycle costs and benefits over time across varying types of rural deployments and guide agencies on the value of rural connected vehicle deployments. • Integration with other emerging technologies. Companion technologies, such as unmanned aerial vehicle (drone) applications for remote infrastructure monitoring and inspection, have been growing. Research could identify areas where other emerging technologies can be of particular support to geographically sparse rural connected vehicle corridors, such as incident investigation/verification, mapping, and so forth. • Engagement with additional rural stakeholders. There are community-specific stakeholders that should be part of engagements for potential rural connected vehicle projects. Research could identify engagement strategies for specific communities (e.g., Native American Tribal Lands) for input on their specific needs and priorities for connected vehicle implementation. This project also developed an implementation plan that provides a pathway to put the research into practice. For example, the plan recommends continuing outreach efforts, such as presenta- tions to groups started under this project to introduce and encourage practitioners to use and tailor the model ConOps and model SyRS documents to their local situation, and to conduct a pilot activity with one agency incorporating feedback and lessons learned into revised model documents.