The Advanced Transportation Controller (ATC) Standards are intended to provide an open architecture hardware and software platform that can support a wide variety of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) applications including traffic management, safety, security and other applications. The ATC Standards are being developed and maintained under the direction of the ATC Joint Committee (JC) which is made up of representatives from the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE), and the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA).
The Advanced Transportation Controller Standard (ATC Standard) is one of the four standards of the ATC family of standards. The ATC Standard provides a powerful, on-street, computing platform for numerous ITS applications intersection control, ramp metering, data collection, safety, security and other applications. It uses a transportation controller architecture where the computational components of the controller reside on a single small printed circuit board (PCB), called the “Engine Board,” with standardized connectors and pinout. It is made up of a central processing unit (CPU), Linux operating system (O/S), memory, external and internal interfaces, and other associated hardware necessary to create an embedded transportation computing platform. The Engine Board plugs into a “Host Module” which supplies power and physical connection to the input/output (I/O) facilities of the controller. While the interface to the Engine Board is completely specified, the Host Module may be of various shapes and sizes to accommodate innumerable transportation controller designs and cabinet architectures. The ATC Standard works together with the Application Programming Interface (API) Standard to allow application programs to share the resources of the controller and the transportation field cabinet system.
ATC 5201 Standard v06 represents a significantly improved and clarified document over ATC Standard 5.2b. There were 303 comments submitted and adjudicated by the Controller WG in the development of ATC 5201 Standard v06. This provided valuable feedback in identifying areas of ATC Standard 5.2b that needed correction, further definition or enhancement. Specific areas where the standard was enhanced are as follows:
Other standards within the ATC program include the Model 2070 Standard, the ATC API, and the Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Cabinet Standard.
ATC 5201 Standard v06.25 was published as a Jointly Approved standard of the ATC JC on January 12, 2018. It was completed approximately a year prior but was delayed due to an appeal that was later rescinded. During the process of the appeal, a maintenance effort was started that would become ATC 5201 v06A.35. Comments were solicited from the Controller Working Group (WG), a technical subcommittee of the ATC JC. Its membership is made up of members from state and local transportation agencies, manufacturers, software developers and consultants. There were 57 comments submitted. Of those 57, 54 comments were adjudicated and closed. There were 3 comments that remained on the list that could not be closed due to the scope of the effort at the time. Later during the development, User Comment Draft (UCD) ATC 5201 Advanced Transportation Controller Standard Version 06.32 (ATC 5201 v06.32) was produced and distributed to the SDOs. Based on this UCD, 29 comments were submitted (included the three previous unresolved comments) and adjudicated by the Controller WG. Both sets of comments provided valuable feedback in identifying areas of ATC Standard 5201 06.25 that needed correction, further definition or enhancement.
The improvements to the standard are mainly corrections and additions focused on removing ambiguities and barriers to software portability and hardware compatibility. There are also increases to memory sizes and to the minimum Linux kernel version to be more contemporary. ATC 5201 v06A.35 represents an improved and clarified document over ATC 5201 v06.25.
The Controller WG submitted ATC 5201 Standard v06A.35 to the ATC JC for review as a Proposed Recommend Standard (pRS). The ATC JC accepted the document as a Recommended Standard during their teleconference on June 20, 2019 with a vote of 8 yeas, 0 nays, and 0 abstentions.
| SDO Process Step | Status | Start | End |
| ATC 5201 Advanced Transportation Controller Standard v06A (v06A.37) | PDF | Completed | 09/03/19 | 07/29/20 |
|
Notice of Intent to Adopt ATC 5201 Standard v06A |
Completed | 01/17/20 | 02/21/20 |
|
User Comment Draft (UCD)
|
Complete |
05/09/18
|
07/18/18
|
(For complete details on the steps of the Standards Development Process please click here.)
|
Step No.
|
SDO Process Step
|
Status
|
Start Date
|
Completion Date
|
|
13
|
Jointly Approved Standard
|
Completed
Complete |
2/22/20
12/04/17
|
7/29/20
01/12/18
|
|
12
|
Notice of Intent to Adopt |
Complete | 10/03/15 |
12/04/17
|
|
9-11
|
Recommended Standard |
Complete | 08/28/15 |
10/03/15
|
|
8
|
Comments Report
|
Complete | 09/24/12 | 08/28/15 |
|
6-7
|
Solicit Comments on UCD |
Complete
|
07/30/12
|
09/24/12
|
|
5
|
User Comment Draft (UCD) |
Complete
|
03/30/12
|
07/30/12
|
|
4
|
Working Group Drafts (WGDs) |
Complete
|
2010
|
03/30/12
|