CCITL: A cloud-based smart traffic management protocol using intelligent traffic light system in VANETs

Road congestion and traffic jams are serious problems for drivers, causing them more delay in reaching their destinations. Motivated by these considerations, this article proposes an intelligent scheduling algorithm based on vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) and Cloud computing to schedule traffic lights to smooth road traffic and reduce waiting time on the road, called CCITL (cloud computing based intelligent traffic light protocol). In CCITL, we involve cloud computing by using conventional and vehicular clouds to have a global view of the road network and take advantage of the cloud computing capabilities to calculate the most appropriate traffic signal formulas and combinations with their phase durations in a dynamic way. This allows to ensure the fluidity of the traffic and the arrival at the destination in a short time while minimizing the waiting time on the different segments of the road network. Our proposed protocol has been developed and evaluated over OMNET++ simulator with the simulator of urban mobility (SUMO). The simulation results showed that CCITL greatly contributed to the alleviation of traffic congestion as well as to the reduction of the dwell time of vehicles in the different segments, thus reducing delays and waiting in intersections.

Automated summary

This article proposes an intelligent scheduling algorithm based on VANETs and Cloud computing, called CCITL, to smooth road traffic and reduce waiting time. By utilizing the cloud computing capabilities, CCITL calculates the most appropriate traffic signal formulas and combinations in a dynamic way to ensure traffic fluidity and minimize waiting time.