A distributed intelligence methodology for railway traffic control

A distributed approach to railway traffic control is described. The approach overcomes the upper bounds imposed on the size of controlled areas by the requirement for real-time processing when centralized methodologies are applied. The control problem is modeled in terms of resource allocation tasks, and the concept of priority is generalized to rule local control decisions. The analysis of a global network´s behavior, as derived from the integration of local microdecisions, prefigures a depletion effect which will protect the system from traffic jam collapses. Simulation runs are reported to show the control system´s overall operation