Modeling of the dynamic flow propagation of multiple units of information under vehicle-to-vehicle communications based advanced traveler information systems

In a vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications-based advanced traveler information system (ATIS), the dynamic flow propagation of multiple units of information depends on the interactions between the traffic and inter-vehicle communication characteristics and constraints, and the consequent dynamics. This study models the dynamic flow propagation of multiple units of information using a multi-layer framework that captures the dynamics of the three interacting layers: physical traffic flow, inter-vehicle communication, and information flow. The traffic flow dynamics are captured using a cell transmission model in the physical traffic flow layer. The inter-vehicle communication layer uses the time-dependent locations of vehicles in the traffic flow layer and inter-vehicle communication-related constraints to determine the occurrences of inter-vehicle communication. The information flow layer depicts the flow of multiple units of information as a network. Thereby, the proposed framework describes how the dynamic flow propagation of multiple units of information can be mapped from the traffic flow dynamics and the inter-vehicle communication constraints. Synthetic experiments analyze the interactions between the traffic flow dynamics and inter-vehicle communication constraints, and the flow propagation characteristics of multiple units of information. They illustrate that the proposed multi-layer framework enables the integration of the traffic flow dynamics and inter-vehicle communication constraints to generate insights into the flow propagation of multiple units of information. Also, they indicate that it can be extended to incorporate the dynamic flow propagation characteristics of multiple units of information into the design of robust V2V-based ATIS architectures.