Feasibility Analysis of a Self-Organized Distributed Traffic Information System: Modeling and Simulation

This dissertation is an initial feasibility study of a self-organized, distributed traffic information system, called “Autonet,” that is based upon peer-to-peer information exchange among vehicles with inter-vehicle communication equipment. Autonet, a concept proposed within the Cal(IT)2 Transportation Layer of the University of California, Irvine, is defined as an autonomous, self-organizing information network and control system for effective management of interactions among intelligently-informed vehicles, roadways, and stations. Before the proposed Autonet system can be implemented in a real-world transportation system, hardware and software requirements need to be identified; ideally, based on predictions provided by mathematical formulations and testing with microscopic traffic simulations. The research in this dissertation focuses on the traffic aspects of the proposed Autonet, using simulation approaches to assess the potential benefits that might be accrued by the traffic system and to evaluate the ability of the computing overlay to handle the traffic “application”. 
An existing microscopic traffic simulator, which is treated only as the vehicle mover, is selected and integrated with originally developed inter-vehicle communication modules through application programing interfaces to build the simulation framework for the feasibility analysis of the proposed Autonet system. Traffic-related information propagation in the traffic network via inter-vehicle communication, which is the foundation for the proposed self-organized, distributed traffic information system, can be tested in detailed modeling under that simulation framework. This dissertation investigates traffic information propagation both in one-dimensional highway/freeway networks including one-direction and two-direction cases, and in two-dimensional arterial street networks, considering various roadway formats and incident conditions, for different combinations of modeling parameters related to the the proposed systems.
Further, a series of vehicle re-routing applications under the incident condition based upon the proposed self-organized, distributed information system are tested via simulation. Analysis of the simulation results is given for individual groups of vehicles and for the whole system to find potential benefits from Autonet implementation. Finally, this dissertation identifies needs for future research both for the modeling effort and for some issues involving actual implementation.