DIT4TraM is focused on identifying, developing, and deploying cutting-edge methods for distributed traffic monitoring and control, including approaches based on learning, self-organization, and mechanism design. The methods will be tested for and deployed in six pilot areas: Amsterdam, Utrecht, Glyfada, Bordeaux, Athens (virtual), and the AP-7 Mediterranean highway (virtual). Each pilot area will follow the same generic architecture that will be tailored for the specific methods that are developed for and tested in these pilot areas.
The key decision in this architecture was to clearly separate the Distributed Network mobility and Traffic Management (DNTM) System as a whole and the technical, supporting DNTM Platform. Therefore, the DNTM System represents the complete system for a particular pilot case and includes all pilot-specific system agents. The DNTM Platform is part of the DNTM System and provides a common, reusable platform for all pilot system agents and provides the communication layer between all system agents. For each pilot those External Systems are identified and included in the architecture, e.g. traffic light controllers or banking systems, that are needed for the specific use case.
The main concept of the DNTM system is a multi-agent system of multiple interacting intelligent agents. Agents in a multi-agent system have several important characteristics[1]:
- Autonomy: agents are at least partially independent, self-aware, and autonomous;
- Local views: no agent has a full global view, or the system is too complex for an agent to exploit such knowledge;
- Decentralization: no agent is designated as controlling other agents (or the system is effectively reduced to a monolithic system).
Multi-agent systems consist of agents and their environment. The environment for all system agents in the DNTM is provided by the pilot study environment or virtual environment from the simulation system.
Each pilot area will also have its own instance of the DNTM system. The DNTM System and Platform will thus not consist of one single, centralized solution that all pilots connect to. This guarantees that a pilot site can be developed independently. At a later stage, the DNTM Systems can be interconnected for data exchange between pilot sites if this need is identified.
Read more about the DNTM system architecture in our Downloads section (D6.2) or following this link.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-agent_system