Vehicular Ad Hoc Network Microsimulation System for Transportation, Wireless, and Traveler Behavior

This research defines the Traveler Agent Intelligent Transportation Simulator, TrAITS, for the verification and analysis of coordinated traveler-based activities aided by wireless enabled devices integrating multiple models of transportation. This provides a foundation for research into the characteristics of applications, devices, and services within Intelligent Transportation Systems, Computational Transportation Science, and Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks using proven methods from the fields of wireless networking, transportation science and traffic modeling, and computer science. This simulation environment models Intelligent Transportation Systems applications in multiple forms including those integrated with vehicle hardware or provided as applications on wireless devices. A researcher may leverage this design to model travelers interacting with a multi-modal transportation environment at a fraction of the real-world deployment investment. Agent-based simulation components within this environment provide a basis for validating traveler behavior, traffic sensors and actuators, and services built upon simulated wireless and transportation devices. The characteristics of real and simulation environments are also analyzed as a basis for calibration. An additional contribution is the design of compound utility-based clustering algorithms, verified through simulation, which employ wireless networking and vehicular characteristics to improve the stability of vehicular ad hoc network clusters thereby decreasing network communication overhead.