Simple method with link cost setting for simulating traffic congestion in disaster-affected networks

We propose a method that addresses the shortest path problem in estimating network traffic distribution when a network infrastructure is damaged at the time of disaster. It uses link costs that are different from those used prior to the disaster. There are three assumptions: (1) traffic whose source and destination points lie outside the disaster-affected area do not use damaged networks, (2) Traffic that traverses the border of the disaster-affected area uses at most one link, (3) traffic that is related to the disaster-affected area does not exit disaster area. We use different link costs from those used prior to the disaster time, and the shortest paths under the link costs that satisfy conditions (1), (2), and (3) above. In this paper, we introduce a method for setting link costs and adapt it to yield a real networking model. We set traffic patterns and a disaster-affected area and carry out simulations. The simulation results confirm that it is possible to simulate the changes in volume and the distribution of traffic owing on each link. © 2017 The Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan.