The area-wide real-time traffic control system (ARTC): a distributed computing system

The authors present an efficient software application of a distributed system for area-wide traffic control. This system, called area-wide real-time traffic control (ARTC), can provide orderly movement of traffic, shorten average vehicle delay, prevent congestion, and improve road utilization. The signal controllers in ARTC, which are microcomputers, are interconnected through a computer network. By exchanging traffic flow information among the signal controllers, ARTC provides a novel concept in traffic control by using the computer network. Simulation results of the ARTC prototype control algorithm are presented. The results show substantial improvement over an optimized fixer time control. The signal controllers and the computer network were designed to support real-time communication requirements and a sufficient level of fault tolerance