Bi-Directional Information Exchange in Decentralized Schedule-Driven Traffic Control

Abstract

Recent work in decentralized, schedule-driven traffic control has demonstrated the ability to improve the efficiency of traffic flow in complex urban road networks. In this approach, each time an agent generates a new intersection schedule it communicates its expected outflows to its downstream neighbors as a prediction of future demand and these outflows are appended to the downstream agent's locally perceived demand. In this paper, we extend this basic coordination protocol to additionally incorporate the complementary flow of information reflective of an intersection's current congestion level to its upstream neighbors. We present an asynchronous decentralized algorithm for updating intersection schedules and congestion level estimates based on these bi-directional information flows. By relating this algorithm to the self-optimized decision making of the basic protocol, we are able to approach network-wide optimality and reduce inefficiency due to myopic intersection control decisions.