In this proposal, the Viggen Project Team presents an elegant approach to developing a truly portable Graphical User Interface (GUI) for the Highway Capacity Software (HCS). Our approach is based on the emerging Internet-driven computing technology and will be totally platform-independent. The prototype will be developed using a programming language called Java and users will be able to execute the prototype software through Java-aware Internet browsers regardless of the type of the computers they are using. With this approach, we will reach the goal of: "write once, deploy anywhere."We begin our proposal by providing a historical perspective of the FHWA's effort since the early 1980's providing software to traffic engineers using different computer systems. We identify all the issues related to the portability of the software and offered the Internent/Java solution. We then present our technical approach, staffing, and management plan. In addition to the prototype, we will develop as part of this study a component interface standard which will allow add-on components to be developed by third parties to extend functionality of the HCS.Commercial Applications:The Phase_I study will produce a Java-based GUI prototype for the Signalized Intersection component of the HCS which will be available on the Internet. Users of different computer systems will be able to access it regardless of the platform and operating system of the computer. This study will also produce an interface standard for add-on components which will undoubtedly spawn a new industry for add-on components development. Finally, the findings from this study will guide the FHWA to look beyond the scope of this project and to judge whether the Internet should be the next generation platform for deploying and delivering transportation application software to end users.
