Traffic control strategies based on internet of vehicles architectures for smart traffic management: centralised vs. decentralised approach

In order to reduce traffic congestion, real-time traffic control is one of the most widely adopted strategies. However, the effectiveness of this approach is constrained not only by the adopted framework but also by data. Indeed, the computational complexity may significantly affect this kind of application thus the trade-off between the effectiveness and the efficiency must be analysed. In this context, the most appropriate traffic control strategy to be adopted must be accurately evaluated. In general, there are three main control approaches in literature: centralised control, decentralised control and distributed control, which is an intermediate approach. In this paper, the effectiveness of a centralised and a decentralised approach is compared and applied to two network layouts. The results, evaluated not only in terms of performance index with reference to the network total delay but also in terms of emissions and fuel consumptions, highlight that the considered centralised approach outperforms the adopted decentralised one and this is particularly evident in the case of more complex layouts.