The area-wide real-time traffic control system (ARTC): a distributed computing system

Abstract

This paper presents a distributed computing system, Area-Wide Real-time fiafic Conirol (ARTC) l , designed to provide areawide smooth traffic progress and to prevent frequent occurrences of traffic congestion. The signal controllers in ARTC, which are microcomputers, are interconnected through a computer network. By exchanging traffic flow information among the signal controllers, ARTC provides a new concept in areawide traffic control by exploiting the use of the computer network. Simulation results of the ARTC prototype control algorithm is presented, and the results show substantial improvement over an optimized fixed time control. The signal controllers and the computer network are designed to support the real-time communication requirements and a sufficient level of fault-tolerance.