Resilience Engineering in Cloud-Based Transportation Systems: Designing High-Availability Architectures for Real-Time Tolling and Critical Infrastructure Operations
Keywords:
cloud architecture; critical infrastructure protection; disaster recovery; high availability; intelligent transportation systems; operational resilience; resilience engineeringAbstract
Transportation infrastructure represents a cornerstone of economic activity, public mobility, and national security. As transportation agencies accelerate cloud adoption for tolling operations, traffic management, and real-time analytics, operational resilience has emerged as a strategic imperative. This paper examines the application of resilience engineering principles to cloud-based transportation systems, with a focus on designing high-availability architectures for real-time tolling platforms and mission-critical transportation services. Drawing on the foundational anticipate-monitor-respond-adapt resilience model, we propose a multi-layered cloud resilience framework that integrates distributed compute infrastructure, multi-zone deployment strategies, automated failover, Infrastructure as Code (IaC) provisioning, self-healing orchestration, cloud-native disaster recovery, and behavioral observability. We further analyse cyber resilience controls aligned to the NIST Cybersecurity Framework and applicable critical infrastructure protection guidelines. Evaluation of the proposed framework against recovery time objectives, control coverage, and operational continuity benchmarks demonstrates its viability for agencies managing high-transaction tolling environments. The framework provides a replicable architectural pattern for transportation organisations seeking to eliminate single points of failure, protect revenue streams, and sustain public services under both operational and adversarial disruption conditions.
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