A bench-scale reactor(72 L) red with domestic sewage, was operated more than 3 months with three operation modes:traditional mode, modified mode and real-time control mode, so as to evaluate effects of the operation mode on the system performance and to develop a feasible control strategy. Results obtained from fixed-time control study indicate that the variations of the pH and oxidation-reduction potential(ORP) profiles can represent dynamic characteristics of system and the cycle sequences can be controlled and optimized by the control points on the pH and ORP profiles. A control strategy was, therefore, developed and applied to real-time control mode. Compared with traditional mode, the total nitrogen(TN) removal can be increased by approximately 16% in modified mode and a mean TN removal of 92% was achieved in real-time control mode. Moreover, approximately 12.5% aeration energy was saved in realtime control mode. The result of this study shows that the performance of nitrogen removal was enhanced in modified operation mode.Moreover, the real-time control made it possible to optimize process operation and save aeration energy.