A study on traffic signal control at signalized intersections in vehicular ad hoc networks

The Seoul metropolitan government has been operating a traffic signal control system with the name of COSMOS (Cycle, Offset, Split MOdel for Seoul) since 2001. COSMOS analyzes the degrees of saturation and congestion which are calculated by installing loop detectors. At present, subterranean inductive loop detectors are generally used for detecting vehicles but their maintenance is inconvenient and costly. In addition, the estimated queue length might be influenced by errors in measuring speed, because the detectors only consider the speed of passing vehicles. Instead, we proposed a traffic signal control algorithm which enables smooth traffic flow at intersections. The proposed algorithm assigns vehicles to the group of each lane and calculates traffic volume and congestion degree using the traffic information of each group through inter-vehicle communication in Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks (VANETs). This does not require the installation of additional devices such as cameras, sensors or image processing units. In this paper, the algorithm we suggest is verified for AJWT (Average Junction Waiting Time) and TQL (Total Queue Length) under a single intersection model based on the GLD (Green Light District) simulator. The results are better than random control method and best-first control method. For a generalization of the realtime control method with VANETs, this research suggests that the technology of traffic control in signalized intersections using wireless communication will be highly useful. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.