ATC systems are specifically designed for long term
maintenance and operations. We use off-the-shelf software and products that
are standards within the industry.
We develop on Microsoft™ operating systems and use Microsoft™ development tools for critical software. Our basic SCADA engine is General Electric's iFIX product line. We use standard PC hardware, and standard serial interfaces.
These core products are all well supported now, and will be in the foreseeable future. For products we must procure from lesser known companies, we use those in which the same functionality is available from multiple sources. Thus, even if the individual product is not supported in the future, the functionality is.
Sometimes we create our own solution to a particular problem. For example, having found existing hardware and software fault tolerance solutions to be unsatisfactory for 24/7 operations using multiple RS232 serial devices, and cluster servers to be far too slow, we developed our own Advanced Fault Tolerant Solution (AFTS).
To insure that our AFTS system is maintainable, (and for maintenance only) we supply the client with schematics, source code for the firmware and PC side software, parts lists, and board layouts.
We supply the source code (for maintenance only) for all of our proprietary code in the system. We also supply all of the development tools (compilers, etc.) that we used to develop the system.
Four Virginia tunnels are now controlled by our integrated systems based on GE's IFIX SCADA products, are fully supported by just two people within VDOT as part of their larger functions. No additional staff has been needed. As a result of the success of these projects, these two individuals, Alton Yates and Morris Pearson, recently received the VDOT Commissioner's Award of Excellence. See "Virginia DOT uses SCADA for tunnel traffic control." Better Roads (October 2000).
WE COMPLETE PROJECTS ON TIME AND ON
BUDGET.
