Self-Organised Routing for Road Networks

Abstract : Increasing mobility and the resulting rising traffic demands cause serious problems in urban regions world-wide. Approaches to alleviate the negative effects of traffic include an improved control of traffic lights and the introduction of dynamic route guidance systems that take current conditions into account. One solution for the former aspect is Organic Traffic Control (OTC) which provides a self-organised and self-adaptive system founded on the principles of Organic Computing. Based on OTC, this paper introduces a novel concept to dynamic route guidance in urban road networks. Inspired by the well-known protocols Distance Vector Routing and Link State Routing from the Internet domain, the major goal of the route guidance mechanism is to increase the network’s robustness with respect to congested or blocked roads. The efficiency of the developed approach is demonstrated in a simulation-based evaluation that considers disturbed and undisturbed traffic conditions.