This paper addresses several issues arising in the design of a model-coupling interface, including the synchronization of different simulation time-step lengths, and introduces an algorithm for data flow in this environment. This synchronization scheme can be used to couple an individual vehicle representation of traffic (mesoscopic or microscopic) to a macroscopic representation. In particular, the paper reports the formulation and implementation of model coupling of a microscopic traffic simulator (PELOPS) to a macroscopic simulator (SIMONE). The coupling of macroscopic data upstream to the microscopic simulator downstream utilizes a disaggregation tool. Coupling of the microscopic simulator to specified downstream macroscopic data has also been implemented. The macroscopic speed information is transmitted to the microscopic simulator in this implementation by introducing a simulated variable speed limit. An approach to validation of the coupling structure is also suggested that takes into account the dependencies of the different models. For the covering abstract see ITRD E114174.
Abstract