System Design & Analysis (6) Git TBA

Git is my favorite Version Control System. It is stable, fast and opensource.

Basic:
1) It is designed by the super famous guy Linus Benedict Torvalds.
2) It is the most widely adopted version control system for software development.
3) Git is free software distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2.

Development Platform:
1) Git is primarily developed on Linux.

Project Target:
1) Designed for large projects.
2) A core assumption in Git is that a change will be merged more often than it is written, as it is passed around various reviewers.
3) Localized fast-commit, without internet.

Designed Operations:

TBA

Success?
Yes, see the user list:

System Design & Analysis (5) PARAMICS

PARAMICS is a traffic microsimulation software developed by Quadstone Paramics. It is also the first traffic simulation software I have used. Instead of a software, PARAMICS is more like a ecosystem. It contains everything from network Editor, Visualizer, DTA, Parallel Platform, Data Analysis, Reporting Auto-generation and Video-capturing.

Basic:
1) Originally established in the early 1990s by the UK Department for Transport.
2) The software is widely used by government agencies, consultancies and universities. 

Development Platform:
C++
Excellent Core + Plugin System

Project Target:
One-stop microsimulation software

Platform Design:
1) Modeller: Build and Run a microsimulation.
2) Processor: A tool that allows simulations to be run on any number of networked PCs.
3) Analyser: A toolkit for post simulation data analysis.
4) Estimator: for OD matrix estimation in microsimulation level.
5) Converter: Network data format converter.
6) Monitor: Evaluate the levels of traffic emission pollution.
7) Programming: Enable programmers to control using C++.
8) PPM: Pedestrian Module
9) Designer: 3D Studio

Key Concepts: (Nothing New but Productive & Professional)
1) OD Matrix
2) 3-D
3) Behavior Models: Car-Following & Lane Changing
4) OD Estimation
5) Report Auto-generation
6) Parallel Computing

GUI:

Recent Updates:
1) Support Environment and Emissions
2) Support Pedestrian Movement

Success?
Yes, It is a big success!
Compared to tens of other simulation products, Paramics is extremely successfully. 

Future
The core of Paramics is computational intensive and is not suitable for city-scale traffic simulation.
The current Paramics suit does not quite fit in the area of city-scale traffic simulations.
Something should be changed.

System Design & Analysis (4) SCATS

SCATS® (Sydney Coordinated Adaptive Traffic System) is an adaptive urban traffic management system that synchronises traffic signals to optimise traffic flow across a whole city, region or corridor.

Basic:

1) developed in Sydney, Australia by former constituents of the Roads and Maritime Services in the 1970s.

2) about 34,350 intersections in over 154 cities in 25 countries use the system. For example:

    Singapore: GLIDE

    Canberra "CATSS" (Canberra Automated Traffic Signal System)

    Melbourne "SCRAM"

    Perth "PCATS"

3) SCATS is already a recognised worldwide market leader in intelligent transport systems.

Development Platform:

1) It is a distributed system. Intersections are connected over PAPL, ADSL, PSTN.

2) Data is collected from loop detectors in intersections.

3) Signal time planing depends on real-time collected data. (Adaptive) The process happens in local PCs.

Project Target:

1) Provide an adaptive and comprehensive signal control application. 

Key Concepts:

1) Interval

2) Phase

3) Phases (Phase Organization)

4) Signal Planing (Phase Timing)

5) Sub-System (Master Signal & Slave Signal)

6) Priority Vehicles (Dynamic "Phase Organization" or Dynamic "Phase Timing")

GUI:

Since it is a command system, there is no GUI.

AN example control panel:

Recent Updates:

SCATS is recently deployed in New Zealand, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Amman, Tehran, Dublin, Rzeszów, Gdynia.

Success?

Yes, SCATS is a very successful system.

Designed in 1970s, even older than Windows, SCATS is still widely used in cities.

The success is based in:

1) SCATS succeed to implement its project target. 

2) SCATS is extremely stable.

3) No competitors.

System Design & Analysis (3) Waze

2010, in a NUS class "Intelligent Transportation System", I introduced Waze to classmates in an assignment. At that time, it is a startup software, which has <100 users in Singapore.
2013, Google completed the acquisition of Waze for a reported US$1.3 billion. There are only 100 employees.

Basic:
1) community-driven navigation application
2) only on mobility phones
3) real-time information sharing software
4) location-based services, e.g. gas

Development Platform:
Various: iPhone and Android (majorly)

Project Target:
Solve the challenges (high map update cost and information delay) by using communities.
1) Community activeness is the key and the most valuable in this project.
2) Everything (GUI, Function and Fun) is about user activity.

System Design & Key Concepts:
1) Turn-by-turn Navigation
2) User Trajectory&Speed Uploading (updating map)
3) Real-time Road Information Update
4) User Activeness

GUI:

Recent Updates:
*In 2011 Waze Mobile updated the software to display real-time, community-curated points of interest.
*In June 2012 Waze launched an update to provide real-time fuel prices.
*In June 2013, Waze introduced a global localization project that will enable future road closures and real-time traffic updates.

Success?
Yes, it is a very successful project. The success is based in:
1) Its fundamental idea to do it is great (Great Idea) and hard to achieve (Great Leader) and hard to compete (even Google has no confident to beat it). 
2) It captures user activeness. (Great Designer)

However, it meet with the monetizing problem, which is everywhere in map apps (even Google Map, Baidu Map, and off course Apple Maps and Microsoft Maps). 

Bought by Google, I think it is double-benefits:
For Waze, it can use Google Ad to get incomes (Location-based Ads) from its massive users.
For Google, it can avoid another competitor. (1B is a bit too much)

Future
In my view, Waze has achieved what it planned to do. 
Its functions are complete.
The future is to make it world-widely used and making money. 

Finally
This post focuses on high-level system design. So, the user activeness attraction is not included.