Performance Analysis of Decentralized VS Centralized Control for the Traffic Signal Synchronization Problem

Abstract

This paper suggests the adoption of a spatial decomposition method to solve the signal synchronization problem. A good signal setting maximizes the number of vehicles passing through intersections, while minimizing gas emissions and possible delays experienced by drivers. The signals synchronization issue can be defined as the problem of finding the offsets, the green timings, and the cycle length for a series of controlled intersections, minimizing the total delay of the network subject to admissibility constraints. In this paper, the authors optimized the signal setting through a new Surrogate Method calculating the objective function via the ${\text{CTM}}_{\text{UT}}$ model while performing a simulation. A spatial decomposition approach is here suggested with a simultaneous analysis of different levels of cooperation among subnetworks. This study tries to identify a subnetwork that might be representative of the entire network while taking into consideration two factors: efficiency and efficacy. A comparison between centralized and decentralized control is performed.