Transportation Internet: A Sustainable Solution for Intelligent Transportation Systems

New challenges such as automation, connection, electrification, and sharing (ACES) have brought disruptive changes to vehicles, transportation, and mobility services, which urgently requires an ideal solution for sustainable transportation. This paper introduces the Internet as a paradigm and, for the first time, proposes the Transportation Internet (TI), inspired by the similarity between the Internet and transportation. Referring to the construction ideas of the Internet, this paper establishes the framework of TI, proposes the transportation router based on the transportation switching and routing models, and preliminarily forms a large-scale automatic transportation solution. Following the latest technologies of the Internet, this paper further presents the software-defined transportation (SDT) by separating the control plane and transport plane of the transportation router, which can enhance transportation routing and provide Internet-like capabilities such as centralized intelligent control, terminals plug-and-play, and open application ecology. The evaluation of the prototype system shows promising results. The software-defined signals (SDS) can save 36% energy compared to signal machines, and the software-defined vehicles (SDV) automatic driving can save 24% energy compared to manual driving. Overall, TI brings innovations to sustainable transportation, and provides a framework for a new generation of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS).

Automated summary

This paper introduces the concept of the Internet and proposes the idea of the Transportation Internet (TI) as a solution for sustainable transportation in the face of new challenges such as automation, connection, electrification, and sharing. The framework of TI is established based on the construction ideas of the Internet, and a transportation router is proposed to form a large-scale automatic transportation solution. Additionally, the paper presents software-defined transportation (SDT) which enhances transportation routing and provides Internet-like capabilities. The evaluation of the prototype system shows promising results in terms of energy savings.