Intelligent Urban Traffic Control System KKKA6423 Assignment -2-

Supervisor Prof. Dr. Riza Atiq Abdullah OK

Prepared by:

Sarah hazim

P 65407

rasha salah ahmed P64799 6. April .2013

Introduction
Urban traffic control (UTC) systems are a specialist form of traffic management which integrate and co-ordinate traffic signal control over a wide area in order to control traffic flows on the road network. Integration and co-ordination between adjacent traffic signals involves designing a plan based on the occurrence and duration of individual signal aspects and the time offsets between them and introducing a system to link the signals together electronically. A traffic responsive signal control system is a means of adjusting the traffic signal settings (cycles, green splits and offsets), which optimize a given objective function, such as minimizing travel time or stops, in real-time based upon estimates of traffic conditions. There are many different UTC systems in operation around the world, but they can provide the basis for an extended control system, generally termed Urban Traffic Management and Control (UTMC). UTC systems can be used to obtain better traffic performance from a road network by reducing delays to vehicles and the number of times they have to stop. UTC systems also can be used to balance capacity in a network, to attract or deter traffic from particular routes or areas, to give priority to specific categories of vehicles such as public transport or to arrange for queuing to take place in suitable parts of the network. Demand impacts usually reduce travel time, but reduced travel times and good network performance may increase road capacity. This may cause a shift in demand towards car use. UTC systems may not make a positive contribution to all policy objectives.

Split, Cycle and Offset Optimization Technique (SCOOT):

The Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) in collaboration with UK traffic systems suppliers developed the SCOOT (Split Cycle Offset Optimization Technique) urban traffic control system. SCOOT is now co-owned by Peek Traffic Ltd, TRL Ltd and Siemens Traffic Controls Ltd. Early systems were tested in the late 1970s in Glasgow. The development of SCOOT for general use was carried out in Coventry with the first commercial system being installed in Maidstone in 1980. SCOOT is now used in over 170 towns and cities in the UK and overseas. SCOOT is a fully adaptive traffic control system which uses data from vehicle detectors and optimizes traffic signal settings to reduce vehicle delays and stops. There are a number of basic philosophies which lead to the development of SCOOT. One of these was to provide a fast response to changes in traffic conditions to enable SCOOT to respond to variations in traffic demand on a cycle-by-cycle basis. SCOOT responds rapidly to changes in traffic, but not so rapidly that it is unstable; it avoids large fluctuations in control behavior as a result of temporary changes in traffic patterns. SCOOT not only reduces delay and congestion but also contains other traffic management facilities. For example, in 1995 a new facility was introduced to integrate active priority to buses [link to bus priority] with the common SCOOT UTC system. The system is designed to allow buses to be detected either by selective vehicle detectors or by an automatic vehicle location (AVL) system.

Impacts on demand SCOOT is in use worldwide and has been shown to give significant benefits over the best fixed time operation. The effectiveness of the SCOOT strategy has been assessed by major trials in five cities (Wood, 1993; SCOOT website). The results from the trials are summarized in the table below.

Comparisons of the benefits of SCOOT, against good fixed time plans, showed reductions in delays to vehicles of average 27% at Foleshill Road in Coventry - a radial network in Coventry with long link lengths. In Worcester the use of SCOOT rather than fixed time UTC showed considerable saving which was estimated to be 83,000 vehicle hours or 357,000 per annum at 1985 prices. The replacement of isolated signal control in Worcester by SCOOT was also estimated to save 180,000 vehicle hours per annum or 750,000 per annum. In Southampton, economic benefit, excluding accident and fire damage savings, amounted to approximately 140,000 per annum at 1984 prices for the Ports wood/St. Denys area alone.

Research by Bell (1986) suggests that SCOOT is likely to achieve an extra 3% reduction in delay for every year that a fixed-time plan "ages". Further, the effects of incidents have been excluded from many of the survey results to ensure statistical validity. Since SCOOT is designed to adapt automatically to compensate for ageing and incident effects, it is reasonable to expect that, in many practical situations, SCOOT will achieve savings in delay of 20% or more. In 1993 a SCOOT demonstration project in Toronto showed an average reduction in journey time of 8% and vehicle delays of 17% over the existing fixed time plans. During weekday evenings and Saturdays, vehicle delays were reduced by 21% and 34%. In unusual conditions following a baseball game, delays were reduced by 61%, demonstrating SCOOT's ability to react to unusual events. (Siemens Automotive, 1995) In Sao Paulo in 1997 a survey showed that SCOOT reduced vehicle delays by an average of 20% in one area tested and 38% in another over the existing TRANSYT fixed time plans. It was estimated that financial benefits to Sao Paulo as a result of these delay reductions would amount to approximately $1.5 US million per year. (Mazzamatti et al, 1998) Impacts on supply Field trials of bus priority using SCOOT survey were carried out in areas of Camden Town and Edgeware Road in London in 1996. The Camden network consisted of 11 nodes and 28 links. The Edgeware Road site was a linear network consisting of 8 nodes and 2 pelican crossings. The bus routes were surveyed for the periods 7:00 - 12:00 and 14:00 - 19:00. The results

show that greater benefits can be obtained where there is lower saturation level. (Bretherton et al.1996).

Figure (1): The flow of information in SCOOT based UTC system.

UTOPIA (Urban Traffic Optimization by Integrated Automation) / SPOT (System for Priority and Optimization of Traffic): Is designed and developed by FIAT Research Centre, ITAL TEL and MIZAR Automation in Turin, Italy. The objective of the system is to improve both private and public transport efficiency. The system has been fully operational since 1985 on a network of about forty signalized junctions in the central area of Turin. The area also contains a tram line and control of

the

trams

is

integrated

within

UTOPIA/SPOT

(Wood,

1993).

UTOPIA/SPOT is now used in several cities in Italy and also in the Netherlands, USA, Norway, Finland and Denmark. The system uses a hierarchical-decentralized control strategy, involving intelligent local controllers to communicate with other signal controllers as well as with a central computer. Central to the philosophy of the UTOPIA/SPOT system is the provision of priority to selected public transport vehicles at signalized junctions and improvements in mobility for private vehicles, subject to any delays necessary to accommodate priority vehicles (Wood, 1993). The French PRODYN system and the German MOTION system have some similarities to SPOT, but have not been used outside their counties (Kronborg and Davidsson, 2000).

Impacts on demand The improvements attributed to UTOPIA in Turin have been calculated a previous traffic responsive control strategy rather than against a fixed time system. Benefits of implementing UTOPIA were shown to give an increase in private traffic speed of 9.5% in 1985 and 15.9% in 1986, following system tuning. In peak times the speed increases were 35%. Public transport vehicles, which were given absolute priority, showed a speed increase of 19.9% in 1985 (Wood, 1993). SPOT was introduced in Scandinavia in the early 1990 (Kronborg and Davidsson, 2000). In Oslo, Norway, SPOT started to be operated in four intersections with high priority to public transport in 1996. Only traffic parallel with the tram routes was evaluated and had good results (15% reduction in travel time).

Impacts on supply UTOPIA/SPOT has been explicitly designed with public transport vehicle priority in mind (Wood, 1993). Buses and LRT vehicles are given absolutely priority at junctions, subject to the accuracy in forecasting their arrival time. In Turin LRT are given higher priority than buses because they have more passengers but extra priority can be assigned on a vehicle by vehicle basis if required. Total benefits of UTOPIA-SPOT: UTOPIA-SPOT offers the network manager the following benefits: - Keeps the flow going - Manages timely public transport - Fully adaptive, adjusts to the traffic situation - Realizes strategic traffic policy objectives. - Dynamic priority levels for public transport vehicles. - Tuned and tested in lab situation before installation on-site. - Open communication infrastructure. Gaps and weaknesses Many papers or reports on UTC systems evaluated only the impact on efficiency such as reduction in journey time, delay and stops compared with previous types of system. However, reducing travel times can increase road capacity, and increasing capacity over a significant area may cause a shift in demand towards car use and increase car traffic volume. The potential for

the benefits of UTC systems to be eroded by induced traffic needs to be borne in mind. Relatively little information is available on environmental or safety benefits. Suffolk County Accessible Transportation (SCATs): Suffolk County Transit is the provider of bus services in Suffolk County, New York on Long Island in the United States and is an agency of the Suffolk County government. It was founded in 1980 as a county-run oversight and funding agency for a group of private contract operators which had previously provided such services on their own. While the physical maintenance and operation of the buses are provided by these providers, other matters ranging from bus purchases to route and schedule planning to fare rules are set by Suffolk Transit itself. Though serving the entirety of Suffolk County, the one exception is in Huntington, located in the northwestern part of the county, where that town's private operator declined to join Suffolk Transit. Instead, Huntington took over that town's system which became Huntington Area Rapid Transit, or HART. Most of HART's routes do connect to both Suffolk Transit and Nassau Inter-County Express and one can transfer between HART and Suffolk Transit fairly easily. In addition, the village of Patchogue has its own local bus service Suffolk County Accessible Transportation (SCAT) is Suffolk Transit's federally-mandated paratransit service for ADA-eligible passengers with disabilities. SCAT service is available Monday through Friday, 6:00 AM to 8:30 PM and Saturday, 7:00 AM to 8:30 PM. The fare is $3.00.

Fare: The current Suffolk County Transit base fare for most one-way local bus travel is $2.00. For seniors and the disabled, the base fare is $0.75; personal care attendants (PCA) may ride for free when traveling with seniors or the disabled. Students with school-issued identification pay a reduced fare of $1.25. Children under five years of age are free, with a limit of three children for every adult. On routes S92 and 10C, the base fare is $2.25[4] Fare payment is conducted with the use of coins or paper currency, and must be exact. Bus transfers cost an additional $0.25, and must be requested and paid for upon boarding the bus. These transfers are valid for two hours after issue and can be used on Suffolk County Transit connecting routes, or to Nassau Inter-County Express (NICE) connecting routes with a special transfer request slip (transfers to NICE require payment of a "step-up" fare.

Intelligent Traffic Adaptive Control Area (ITACA) The ITACA adaptive traffic control system its application to traffic control in the Spanish cities of Madrid and Barcelona. ITACA offers real-time response to current and future traffic flow demands, and brings 'intelligence' to fixed-time pattern control approaches. It incorporates: (1) an adaptive system, which is used to evolve the best plan at each junction; and (2) an expert system, which can use all the adaptive system's data and predictions to obtain a global solution for the total traffic plan. This solution is communicated to the adaptive system by a sophisticated use of importance (weight) factors. The adaptive system has cycle, split, and offset optimizers, and uses profiles to update the road network model. The model's components include: (1) queue lengths; (2) congestion indicator; (3) load; and (4) saturation flow modifier. The expert system is an optional part of ITACA, which uses the model's current network data and its rules to adjust the weights of each traffic movement. Its most obvious use is to avoid secondary congestion, the blocking of junction exits by downstream queues. It is expected that congestion strategies will develop differently for each network, and depend strongly on users. Any number of overlapping concurrent strategies can be implemented. For the covering abstract see IRRD 877920.

ITACA recommendation: From the exchange of knowledge with the project partners and the discussions at ITACA meetings in Brabant some recommendations were formulated to incorporate in a road map to Sustainable Mobility in Noord Brabant: Transition from value-added chain to a value-added network; Stimulate and promote E-biking for shorter distances and develop and promote sharing vehicles. Make sustainable road transport an integrated part of city investment plans A market approach for mobility (supply and demand) combined with governments responsibility for market regulation

 Experience, convenience, comfort, and personal safety should become the first principles for development en innovation.

Max band: Max band is a bandwidth optimization program that calculates

signal timing plans on arterials and triangular networks. MAXBAND produce cycle lengths offset speeds and phased sequences to maximize a weighted sum of bandwidths. The primary advantage of MAXBAND is the freedom to provide a range for the cycle time and speed. The lack of incorporated bus flows and limited field tests are disadvantages of MAXBAND. Now days microcomputers are as commonly available as the electronic calculators of the 70s and, while more expensive than calculators, are easily within the economic reach virtually; to every transportation professional in most locations throughout the world. Developers of computerized traffic tools, such as the U.S. Department of Transportation and some state Departments of Highways and Transportation, universities and private organizations have promulgated a substantial suite of software tools for every phase of transportation planning and engineering in the past decades. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and Federal Transit Administration (FTA) have even set up microcomputer software distribution and support centers to help get the products to users. Currently for example, the Center for Microcomputers in Transportation (McTrans), lists over 475 software tools in these functional areas:

Construction management; Highway design, pavements, bridge design and hydraulics; Maintenance; Safety and accident records; Surveying; Traffic engineering; Transit; and Urban transportation planning.

RONDOn (Rolling horizon based Dynamic Optimization of signal control):

Is a newly developed real-time traffic adaptive signal control system that aims to reduce the response delay against the sudden changes of traffic flow. RONDO project started in 1998. Since then continuous enhancements to RONDO have been undertaken. Now, RONDO is challenging the new problems, which are to promote traffic safety and to protect the environments with keeping traffic efficiency. In this paper, the latest

additional functions are introduced to solve these problems. A plan to install the pilot system at the beginning of 2001 is described. Application Rondo uses a feedback loop to govern the behavior of traffic in the network core. It manages the flows that originate and terminate between various PoPs (Points of Presence) in the network by directing these flows into the multiple pathways that are created using MPLS Label Switched Paths. These LSPs serve as conduits through the network that are unaffected by the local optimization strategy of shortest path routing. Rather, Rondo optimizes performance based on global traffic considerations in the network.

System Components Rondo is composed of the major parts shown in Figure 2 above. In the remainder of this paper, we will describe each element with emphasis on the data collection subsystem and the analysis engine.

Physical Network The experimental network is a set of 10 MPLS-enabled counters and Inter connections patterned after a much-scaleddown representation of a major service providers network backbone as depicted on their web site. We note that the provider has 2500 PoPs worldwide so our model has only rough equivalence to reality. However, even with only ten routers, our network exhibits complex and often fascinating behaviors. Routers are connected with 10-megabit links, which makes possible the creation of realistic overload conditions. Each router models a PoP (Point of Presence) on the network where customer nodes are attached. In Rondo, each node attached to a PoP is a PC that sends and receives packets. The network uses a combination of Cisco 3620 and 3640 series routers. The release of Ciscos IOS (Internet Operating System) available on our routers allows only destination - based selection of MPLS tunnels. -Cisco is a registered trademark of Cisco Systems, Inc. Upgrades will ultimately allow selection of the tunnels based on other parameters in the IP packet.

 Programmable Load Generators and Loading Strategy We use a collection of PCs programmed to generate time-varying loads similar to those expected in an operational network. Background network traffic on the network is constant in time and is generated by commercially available packet generators. Loads are carefully crafted to cause a buildup of congestion that does not have an overall steady state solution, and are designed to stress the given physical topology.

Data-Collection System The data-collection system uses a variety of devices and techniques to monitor the conditions in the network. These include both active and passive methodologies that capture such characteristics as throughput, loss, delay and jitter. Data collection, a key part of Rondo, uses an extensible architecture to provide rapid processing of data under time constraints for its collection, reduction and transmission. Data flow from the network probes through the collection system to the analysis engine with little latency and to archival storage at a lower priority. Data are retained in a database system for other applications such as service-level management that do not require rapid data processing. We describe this part of the system in detail below. Data Model and Database Rondo uses the database for a variety of classes of information including physical and logical network topology, configuration information and archived measurement data. The algorithms, displays and other components are driven by the information described by this model, and as such, the

organization of this model is crucial to the effectiveness of Rondo. The model, which is important for other applications, is realized in a relational database. The most important function of the database is to hold the state of the network topology, which changes as the system reroutes LSPs to alleviate congestion. The analysis and reroute engine periodically updates the topology as the network is reconfigured. Analysis and Rerouting Engine This element of the system contains techniques for detecting congestion in a network and altering the existing traffic flows to eliminate an overload condition. The engine is designed to focus on more than link utilization, which is the most basic metric of network performance. Utilization indicates the level of activity between network elements and is often viewed as a measure of network congestion. This view is too simple when one considers the classes of traffic that flow over an IP network. High utilization of a link is one form of congestion, but others might include excessive delay, jitter or high packet loss, all of which could happen at relatively low levels of link utilization. These are measures of congestion that seriously affect proposed services in next-generation IP networks, including voice and video. The engine is designed use any measurable quantity as an indication of a network problem that needs correction. MPLS Configuration and Control Rondo relies on MPLS to form explicit paths through the core network. Explicit paths allow precise control over the placement of traffic flows within the routed domain of Rondo. All traffic in Rondo flows through explicitly routed MPLS tunnels, which specify each node along a path from

the ingress to egress routers. The network configuration is initially optimal in the sense that all tunnels travel via the shortest path in the network. Once established, packets enter the MPLS tunnels as a function of their destination address and are delivered to the egress router. Rondo thus uses MPLS as a mechanism for packet forwarding that is not directly aware of quality of service. Mixing packets with different levels of quality of service in an LSP is possible though but limits the effectiveness of available controls. Once the initial explicit paths are established, the analysis and reroute engine operates to reroute packets through a path established by a new MPLS tunnel, which may no longer be the shortest path. This action currently takes place via IOS commands that are issued from the controller. When MPLS traffic-engineering MIBs become available, the controller will use SNMP to establish the new routes. System Operation The analysis and rerouting engine is in overall control of the system. The engine communicates with the data collection system to establish a schedule of network measurements. As the data collection system takes each measurement, it notifies the analysis and rerouting engine of the presence of new data. The engine combines the new data with the current system configuration and previous data to decide on the appropriateness of rerouting an MPLS tunnel. If a move is appropriate, the analysis engine reconfigures the network through the LSP configuration control and updates the network state in the database. As we discuss in the following, the route of the new MPLS tunnel does not necessarily preserve overall network optimality. Rather our goal is to reroute

traffic as quickly as possible to minimize the congestion at the expense of achieving a theoretical optimum over the whole network. Global optimization might imply moving many or even all the routes in the network. The strategy in Rondo is to move from one to a few MPLS tunnels over a period of a few minutes with minimal disruption to network traffic.

Conclusions The particular techniques proposed are experimental and not yet mainstream, especially when proposed for such a large, on-line, application. The pro-active and re-active nature of agents can be a helpful paradigm in intelligent traffic management and control. Further (real-life) tests on a control strategy, based on intelligent and autonomous agents, are necessary to provide appropriate evidence for operational use as relatively little is known about the global behavior of these intelligent agent systems when they are scaled up to deal with more realistic problems. As this research is still ongoing we hope, in the end, to demonstrate that an integrated dynamic urban traffic control system based on agent technology can adapt and respond to real world traffic conditions in real-time. A working prototype of such a system should give appropriate evidence on the usability of AI agent based control systems. Signal control systems that have the capability of optimizing and adjusting the traffic light settings are able to improve the vehicular throughput and minimize delay through appropriate response to changes in demand patterns. With the introduction of two un-coupled loops, whether agent technology is used or not, a different theory of traffic control can be met. Artificial agents are a metaphor to be used for theoretical and implementation purposes. Primarily results indicate that given an automated control strategy implemented in the traffic signaling devices we can get a system that makes better use of the capacity of the intersection. It has been shown that control systems based on agent technology can adapt and

respond to changing conditions in real-time and in the meantime making better use of the infrastructure.