On-line monitoring system for real-time traffic management applications

This paper is concerned with the problem of on-line monitoring of a traffic network. The problem was motivated by the need of real-time dynamic traffic assignment systems to maintain an internal representation of the traffic network consistent with that of the actual network. Potential error sources that can cause inconsistencies between the internal and the actual state of the network are identified and classified. The issues of observability and state variable definition of traffic networks are discussed. A framework for a monitoring system is sketched that aims to maintain a representation of the state of a network consistent with that of the actual network by applying on-line and off-line adjustments. Some solution approaches and computational results are presented for the main modules of the framework.