Routing Algorithms for Dynamic , Intelligent Transportation Networks

(ABSTRACT) Traffic congestion has been cited as the most conspicuous problem in traffic management. It has far-reaching economic, social and political effects. Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) research and development programs have been assigned the task of developing sophisticated techniques and counter-measures to reduce traffic congestion to manageable levels, and also achieve these objectives using area-wide traffic management methods. During times of traffic congestion, the traffic network in a transient, time-dynamic state, and resembles a dynamic network. In addition, in the context of ITS, the network can accurately detect such transient behavior using traffic sensors, and several other information gathering devices. In conjunction with Operations Research techniques, the time-varying traffic flows can be routed through the network in an optimal manner, based on the feedback from these information sources. Dynamic Traffic Assignment (DTA) methods have been proposed to perform this task. An important step in DTA is the calculation of user-optimal, system-optimal, and multiple optimal routes for assigning traffic. One would also require the calculation of useroptimal paths for vehicle scheduling and dispatching problems.