Parallel simulation of freeway traffic flows on a personal computer-based, distributed computing system

A personal computer (PC)-based, parallel simulation system for freeway traffic flows is being developed with a network of PCs under the WindowsNT environment. Basic segment types of a freeway were identified and existing macroscopic models were modified for each segment type. The computational cost of each segment type was then determined by performing a complexity analysis based on Pentium-processor PCs. The parallel algorithm first divides the whole section of a given freeway into multiple subsections depending on the number of PC's available in a network and the computational complexity of each subsection. Each subsection traffic flows are simulated in parallel and the data at the internal boundaries between two consecutive subsections are exchanged through a communication function at every time step. The algorithm is currently being tested with a network of Pentium-processor PCs using a 20 mile section of the I-494 freeway in Minneapolis, Minnesota, as an example.