Communication between an ITS Management Center or portable computer and an Electrical and Lighting Management System (ELMS) is accomplished by using the NTCIP Application Layer services to convey requests to access or modify values of ELMS data elements resident in the device via an NTCIP network. An NTCIP message consists of a specific Application Layer service and a set of data elements. An NTCIP message may be conveyed using any NTCIP defined class of service that has been specified to be compatible with the Simple Transportation Management Framework (STMF).

The scope of NTCIP 1213 v02 is limited to the functionality related to ELMS within a transportation environment.

The remainder of NTCIP 1213 v02 includes the following sections, and each section builds on the previous section(s):

a) Concept of Operations (Section 2)—providing a description of user needs (needs for features and needs related to the operational environment) applicable to ELMS devices

b) Requirements (Section 3)—defining the functional requirements that address the user needs identified in the Concept of Operations, and including a Protocol Requirements List (PRL) that defines conformance requirements, thereby allowing users to select the desired options for a particular project

c) Dialog Specifications (Section 4)—describing how each functional requirement is fulfilled (the dialogs define the standardized procedure for a Traffic Management Center to exchange data with an ELMS device)

d) ELMS Object Definitions (Section 5)—defining the data exchanged during communications; some of the definitions are included via reference to another standard.

e) Requirements Traceability Matrix (Annex A)—providing a table that associates each requirement to a dialog, and its associated list of data

f) Object Tree (Annex B)-- provides a graphical representation of the branch and tree tructure for objects and the organization of the data defined in NTCIP 1213 v02

g) Astronomical Clock Support (Annex C)—including object definition modifications needed to support Astronomical Clock

NOTE—Test procedures needed for each functional requirement are not included in NTCIP 1213 v02, although they may be added in a future version.

Section 2 and Section 3 are presented at a high level and are of interest to most readers; Section 4 and Section 5 address more detailed design issues that are of interest to implementers, integrators, and testers.