Deployment of roadside units to overcome connectivity gap in transportation networks with mixed traffic

In the foreseeable future, the traffic stream will be likely mixed with connected automated vehicles (CAVs) and regular vehicles (RVs). In the mixed traffic environment, when following a RV, due to the lack of vehicle-to-vehicle communications, it may take longer time for a CAV to sense and react than a human driver, which results in longer time headway and the loss of highway throughput. To address such a connectivity gap, this paper investigates an infrastructure-based solution, i.e., the deployment of roadside units to help CAVs in the heterogeneous traffic stream. Specifically, it is envisioned that these roadside units can sense vehicles in their coverage areas and provide the beyond-line-of-sight motion information to CAVs to empower them to react proactively, as they would do when following other CAVs. This paper is devoted to the analysis of the impacts of this type of roadside units at a strategic planning stage. In doing so, we first derive an analytical link performance function to capture their impact on the link capacity and travel time, and then develop a network equilibrium model to gauge their effect on travelers' route choices and thus the flow distribution of both RVs and CAVs across the whole network. This modeling development will allow us to conduct a cost-benefit analysis for a given deployment plan of roadside units. For fair analyses, we further develop an optimization model to determine the optimal deployment plan for a given budget, while focusing on the worst case of its impact, because the flow distribution resulting from our network equilibrium model is not unique. Such a model provides a conservative estimate of the benefit brought by roadside units. Lastly, we offer case studies to demonstrate the models and unveil the potential of such an infrastructure-based solution.