HPTSim: A Highway Parallel Traffic Simulation Framework for Mixed Concurrency Scenarios

Highway traffic is plagued by various challenges, such as traffic incidents, congestion, and other related issues, which severely hamper efficiency and safety. Accurately reproducing and restoring real-world highway conditions is a critical prerequisite to effectively tackle these challenges. Microscopic traffic simulation emerges as an indispensable analysis tool, facilitating a comprehensive understanding of the complex dynamics and interactions within traffic systems. By employing advanced simulation techniques, researchers can analyze and evaluate various strategies and interventions to enhance efficiency and safety in highway traffic. However, existing microscopic traffic simulation tools primarily focus on basic traffic flow simulation, limiting their ability to effectively handle diverse highway scenarios. Additionally, the associated high computational bottleneck poses a significant challenge that needs to be addressed. This article contributes toward this objective by presenting a highly generalized and interactive highway parallel traffic simulation (HPTSim) framework for mixed concurrency scenarios based on microscopic simulation tool SUMO. HPTSim exhibits a modular structure and has been specifically designed and integrated to address three core high-value scenarios: traffic incidents, dynamic speed limits, and work zones. Leveraging the benefits of its unique framework, the HPTSim framework incorporates different CPU threads to achieve parallel acceleration. Through real-world road network tests, it has been demonstrated that the HPTSim framework yields a substantial improvement of approximately 15% in computational efficiency. This highlights the framework’s effectiveness in enhancing simulation performance and efficiency.