Whatcom Council of Governments

Cascade Gateway Border Data Warehouse Upgrade & BIFA Integration

The Border Information Flow Architecture (BIFA) is a tool based on existing U.S. and Canadian National Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Architectures, developed by the U.S. Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and Transport Canada to ensure that technologies deployed at border crossings interact efficiently with one another. To facilitate the use of the BIFA, Transport Canada created a BIFA Pilot Project Funding Program to encourage recipients to undertake pilot projects that demonstrate the use of the BIFA to guide the implementation of technology at border crossings.

The Whatcom Council of Governments (WCOG) project was designed to build on an existing data archive and show how the BIFA can help plan cross-border ITS implementations. The project had three objectives.

Objective 1: Improve the binational Cascade Gateway Border Data Warehouse

Since the cross-border Cascade Gateway Border Data Warehouse is a prime example of a binational ITS project using multiple technologies owned by a variety of U.S. and Canadian agencies, it was used at the sample project for developing a BIFA project architecture.

Improving the original archive

The previous border data warehouse had several issues identified by regional stakeholders which affected functionality and needed improvement. Through stakeholder feedback and the Project Advisory Team, a list of limitations in the prior system was identified, along with seven operational needs to address in the new system:

1. The warehouse needs to maintain existing features (including but not limited to port and detector data, email automated reports, downloadable files, and custom queries).
2. The warehouse needs to present data in a clear, concise manner that is easy for inexperienced end-users to find what they are looking for.
3. The warehouse needs to provide data in downloadable and exchangeable formats that are easy to understand and capable of being used on multiple platforms.
4. The warehouse needs to quickly and efficiently pull data from the archive.
5. The warehouse (website and data archive) needs to be developed in such a way as to make it simple to modify and be alerted of errors.
6. The warehouse needs to be designed in a way that administrators can monitor the health of the warehouse and be alerted of errors.
7. The warehouse needs to be built for future expansion and increased archiving requirements.

Systems Engineering documentation was developed as well as a project architecture using the BIFA template. Using these materials, WCOG hired IBI Group to develop the new archive and corresponding website. The website and data set are available at: www.CascadeGatewayData.com

Incorporating new data

In addition to developing the new website, IBI Group was hired to examine the possibility of integrating additional data sources into the archive:

1. U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics
2. B.C. weigh-in-motion detector data
3. WA state weigh-in-motion detector data
4. CVISN data on I-5 northbound
5. GPS fleet data (purchased from vendors by WA State)
6. Booth status data

Of the data sets analyzed, work continued on three datasets: the BTS commodity data, the WA State weigh-in-motion detector data, and the GPS fleet data. The B.C. weigh-in-motion detector data was determined to be of too poor quality to be worth the expense. The CVISN data would have taken longer than the project timeline to provide power and communications for data transfer. The booth status data is still dependent on pending decisions within U.S. Customs & Border Protection and remains an interest of IMTC stakeholders.

The BTS commodity data are now available as a tab on the website. GPS fleet data previously provided by WSDOT are archived in the database but not yet queriable online, pending future data transfers and a determination of how best to use the data in the context of transportation planning. Lastly, work continues to link the WSDOT weigh-in-motion detector to the archive. Equipment has been purchased but there still needs to be improvements to communication for wireless transfers of the data to the system.

A full description of the project process and deliverables is in: Border Data Warehouse Upgrade & BIFA Integration Project Report #1: Final Report.

Objective 2: Use the BIFA template to develop a project architecture that will be compatible with both U.S. and Canadian regional ITS architectures

WCOG used the BIFA template of Turbo Architecture as the starting point in developing a project ITS architecture that would be compatible not only with the Whatcom Regional ITS Architecture, but with B.C.’s ITS strategic plan.

A draft of the project architecture was reviewed by Consystec and R.C. Ice and Associates for issues and recommendations, and revised. The final version is available as Border Data Warehouse Upgrade & BIFA Integration Project Report #2: Project ITS Architecture.

The Turbo Architecture project file was also converted to U.S. and Canadian Turbo-compatible versions so that B.C. architecture developers can integrate the project seamlessly into their versions of their regional architecture.

The entire architecture development process was detailed in a log for the benefit of other agencies developing similar cross-border ITS projects to highlight methodology, what worked, and how issues were resolved. The log is available as part of: Border Data Warehouse Upgrade & BIFA Integration Project Report #3: Recommendations for BIFA and Architecture Developers.

Objective 3: Provide guidance for other regions considering the BIFA for their cross-border ITS projects, and recommendations for future BIFA development

An original deliverable envisioned for this project was a user’s manual for regions developing similar binational ITS projects. However as WCOG used the BIFA template for the architecture process, it was quickly determined that, for numerous reasons, using the template was harder than starting an architecture from scratch.

Instead of a user’s manual, therefore, WCOG developed a more robust recommendations report for both BIFA developers and for agencies interested in creating a binational project architecture. The recommendations report is available as: Border Data Warehouse Upgrade & BIFA Integration Project Report #3: Recommendations for BIFA and Architecture Developers

Benefits of using BIFA

The greatest benefit of the BIFA was seen at the initial stages of the project and included:

• Developing a BIFA-based project architecture was a valuable exercise in identifying project stakeholders
• Mapping data-sharing connections made it easier to describe the project with stakeholders and define elements needed to make those connections work
• It helped clarify which data-sharing agreements would be useful long-term
• It mapped connections between the U.S. and Canadian services.

Challenges of using BIFA

Although there were benefits using the BIFA for this project architecture, numerous challenges affected the overall process for WCOG. Challenges included:

1. BIFA usability
2. Turbo architecture software
3. Using BIFA for a project
4. Incompatibilities with U.S./Canadian architectures
5. Unique BIFA components are obsolete

Challenges of ITS Architecture in general

There were also challenges to the ITS architecture process in general, which were not specific to BIFA but just as critical in this project. To better identify how many of these challenges were unique to this project and how many were shared by other regional ITS architecture maintainers, a series of interviews were conducted and results compiled. Challenges identified through this interview process included:

1. Inaccessible language
2. Repetitive structure
3. Architecture is too specific for planners but not specific enough for engineers
4. Architecture is not being used as intended

Recommendations

Recommendations developed for the BIFA itself include:

1. Re-define BIFA as a template for guiding cross-border ITS projects with recommendations for strategies, not as a separate architecture.
2. Do not develop cross-border ITS projects using the Turbo files unless a version of Turbo can be made compatible with both U.S. and Canadian architectures.
3. Use regional architectures in lieu of developing a separate BIFA.

Recommendations for national ITS architecture changes were also developed and outlined in the report, as well as recommendations for agencies undergoing a similar process.

More details can be found in: Border Data Warehouse Upgrade & BIFA Integration Project Report #3: Recommendations for BIFA and Architecture Developers.

For More Information

Contact Melissa Miller at (360) 676-6974.