1. Home
2. Innovation
3. Intelligent Transportation Systems
4. Architecture
5. Border Information Flow Architecture

Border Information Flow Architecture

Transport Canada has developed a Border Information Flow Architecture (BIFA) in partnership with the U.S. Federal Highway Administration. The BIFA is intended to ensure that technologies deployed at border crossings interact efficiently with each other. The development of the BIFA followed the regional ITS architecture practices widely used throughout Canada and the U.S. The BIFA was developed in conjunction with federal, state and provincial agencies from both sides of the border.

How to Use the BIFA

• ITS project implementation: The BIFA can be used to support the planning of ITS projects along the Canada-U.S. border. Specifically, it can be used to:
• • map the project to a regional architecture by selecting portions of the BIFA that correspond to the project
  • identify roles and responsibilities of the various stakeholders involved in the project
  • define functional requirements of the project
  • identify applicable ITS standards
     
• Border-region ITS architecture development and updating: The BIFA can be used during the development or update of regional, provincial or state-wide ITS architectures for areas along the Canada-U.S. border. Many of the border components of the BIFA can be reviewed and incorporated into a regional architecture, including those addressing Stakeholders, Elements, Services, Interconnects, Operational Concepts and Requirements.
   
• Transportation planning: The BIFA can be used to support the transportation planning process. A long-range transportation plan will describe goals, objectives and policies. These can be used, when reviewing the services available in the BIFA, to select ITS-related projects that can help meet long-range objectives. The BIFA will allow planners to:
• • consider transportation services described in the architecture
  • consider integration opportunities described in the architecture
  • provide improved definitions of projects

The BIFA is available online at www.iteris.com/itsarch/bifa/. It is a customizable intelligent transportation systems (ITS) architecture that includes border-unique components that may be used to map flows of information across the Canada-U.S. border as well as between agencies and systems at border crossings. The BIFA includes elements from the Canadian and U.S. national ITS architectures, and identifies cross-border linkages between them.

BIFA Pilot Project Funding Program

Transport Canada created a BIFA Pilot Project Funding Program to facilitate the sharing of transportation information across the Canada-U.S. border, using the BIFA. To encourage the use of the BIFA as a planning tool, the Program will provide funding to eligible recipients to undertake pilot projects that demonstrate the use of the BIFA to guide the implementation of technology at border-crossing sites.

The BIFA identifies a number of service areas that are captured within its scope. The BIFA Pilot Project Program provides financial support for cross-border initiatives in the following areas:

• Traffic Management: systems designed to monitor highway and arterial traffic flow and roadway conditions in the border region, as well as coordinated traffic control systems in a binational corridor or across multiple jurisdictions
• Traveller Information: systems that provide static or real-time transportation information to cross-border travellers
• Commercial Vehicle Operations: systems that facilitate the efficient movement of trucks across the border, or that reduce barriers to efficient operation in a foreign country, such as duplicative safety inspections
• Incident Management: systems designed to quickly detect and verify incidents near the border and coordinate agency responses in order to clear the incident and return to free-flow traffic conditions
• Emergency Management: initiatives that will improve cross-border communication to facilitate emergency response to incidents at the border and assist disaster recovery
• Archive Data Management: the collection and storage of border transportation data for non-operational purposes (e.g., planning and research)
• Maintenance Management: systems designed to coordinate construction and winter maintenance activities in the border region
• Electronic Payment: systems that automate the collection of tolls and other fees at the border
• Border Inspection: systems that automate border inspection processes by customs agencies and others

Examples of BIFA Pilot Projects

Examples of the kinds of projects that may be financed under the BIFA Pilot Project Funding Program include:

• Communication linkages across the border that enable transportation network managers to share real-time traffic data such as traffic camera images designed to better manage the flow of traffic in the border region.
• Linking traveller information systems on both sides of the border so that information provided to drivers does not stop at the border, but is presented in a way that makes travel through the binational border region as seamless as possible.
• Commercial vehicle operations projects that can share safety and inspection information across the border so that Canadian commercial vehicles inspected in Canada are able to bypass duplicative inspections in the U.S.
• Demonstration and operational evaluation of emerging wireless communication applications and services designed to provide connectivity with and between vehicles, and between vehicles and the roadside infrastructure, in support of border crossings (e.g., IntelliDriveSM).
• Development or update of a regional or project ITS architecture that includes cross-border elements.
• Development of tools or templates, including educational products, to help users apply the BIFA.
• Other projects that facilitate the exchange of transportation information across the border aimed at making cross-border travel safer, more secure and more efficient.

Funding

The maximum Transport Canada contribution for BIFA pilot projects to any recipient other than for-profit private enterprise, is $500,000 per project. The maximum contribution to a private enterprise is $100,000 per project.

Funding from all Canadian federal government sources will be limited to a maximum contribution of 50 percent of total eligible expenditures for a given project.

All projects must be completed by March 31, 2011.

Eligibility

Eligible recipients are Canadian provinces, territories, municipalities, aboriginal groups, private enterprises, academic institutions, public or private transportation authorities/agencies, and not-for-profit organizations, as well as foreign recipients, including the U.S. Department of Transportation, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and states that have an international border crossing with Canada. Foreign recipients will be required to demonstrate how the project supports Canadian interests.

Contributions to for-profit private-sector organizations will only be considered for projects that can be shown to advance the public good (i.e., facilitate improvements at border crossings).

All projects must have the support of at least one key stakeholder, including, but not limited to transportation agencies, states, provinces, municipalities, international bridge owner/operators, toll operators, international carriers, transportation or traffic management centre operators, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the Canadian Border Services Agency. Support can be demonstrated through a Letter of Support and should include a description of the nature of the support.

For More Information

Transport Canada is currently accepting proposals for funding.

For more information about this program, please contact us by e-mail at its-sti@tc.gc.ca, or by telephone at 613-991-6454.

Date modified:

2010-07-14

Primary navigation