Shock Wave Mitigation in Multi-lane Highways using Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communication

• Published in: 2021 IEEE 94th Vehicular Technology Conference (VTC2021-Fall) pp. 1 - 7
• Main Authors: Suriyarachchi, Nilesh, Baras, John S.
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 01-09-2021
• Subjects: Degradation; Information sharing; Road transportation; Shock waves; Traffic control; Vehicular ad hoc networks; Vehicular and wireless technologies
• DOI: 10.1109/VTC2021-Fall52928.2021.9625297
• EISSN: 2577-2465

In the presence of human driven vehicles (HDVs), traffic shock waves are a naturally occurring phenomena, which contributes to congestion and efficiency degradation in highway networks. The introduction of connected autonomous vehicles (CAVs) with advanced sensing, actuation and communication capabilities allow new approaches in control to be applied in order to solve the problem of shock waves. This work on shock wave dissipation, introduces a communication-based cooperative control method for CAVs in multi-lane highways in a mixed traffic setting. The method allows for proactive control application and exhibits good shock wave dissipation performance even with low CAV penetration levels. Results are verified on a three lane circular highway loop using realistic traffic simulation software.