26 May, 2006

Bus Information Scheduling and Control for Amman (BiSCA)

Project BISCA, standing for Bus Information, Scheduling, and Control for Amman, is one aiming to develop a computerized distributed Urban Public Transportation Information System, customized for the city of Amman, with centralized processing and data-warehousing. A project that relays under the category of Traveler and Transport Information Systems, and that was purposed to be in-charge of the public transportation half of the urban Traveler and Transport Information Systems' concept.

Building an Urban Public Transportation Information System was to comply a need for making the urban public transportation sector more attractive for the public, as a solution for the traffic problems a resident of Amman would obviously notice nowadays. The solution was based upon the power of providing the information to whom it may concern; making the urban public transportation more attractive as more information, dynamic information in particular, are provided for the public regarding their movements, and at the same time the whole industry of urban public transportation to be made better managed, controlled and organized, the latter of which can not be done without the power information, this time provided for the personnel working the urban public transportation industry, either supervisors, executives, or the fleet drivers their selves.

The project was implemented upon strong bases of information gathered from both world wide experiences in this field, as well as information gathered from the local urban public transportation industry, understanding the local needs and difficulties in this field, and matching them with unimplemented solutions suggested locally to gather with solutions found for similar cases and measures in the world wide experiences that were studied. All of these information, measures and solutions gathered and studies were structured using Software Engineering methodologies and framed in clear requirements, which were later structured with all their tiny details and set as scenarios to be developed.

This project consists of a centralized unit in charge of and manging the system's processes, calculations, and data-warehousing, along with a set of distributed subsystems through which the system's users get their services from the system, those are illustrated in an administration software that enables transportation company's administration to control the data available in the system's data warehouse. A supervision screen that enables the supervisor at the main bus terminal to supervise and control the buses' movements and the system's solutions in the unusual occurring cases. A situated display at the stations informing the passengers about the buses they are waiting for at that station and the times needed for the buses to reach that station. And a portable device's micro edition software on the handsets installed on the buses' boards, in charge of tracking the buses' positions and enable the interaction between the driver and the server, reporting about the difficulties he might be facing and receiving control and scheduling orders.

The project has been mainly developed using Java Standard Edition Technology in all its subsystems excluding the software on the handsets installed in the buses, which has been developed using Java Micro Edition. The data-warehouse was designed and developed on an Oracle Database Management System. The whole software engineering process of the project was implemented according to the Unified Process methodology.

more info at www.project-bisca.com

Technorati Tags: BiSCA, Project, Jordan, IT, Industry, Hashemite, University, Bus, Information, Scheduling, Control, Amman, TIS

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Good on ya for taking on such a big challenge... I hope your project succeeds for the good of all Jordan. Any chance of showing off some of what you have done so far? Anything is better that the nothing we have now!!!!

Regards,
abed