Weighing communication overhead against travel time reduction in advanced traffic information systems

Advanced traffic information systems can assist drivers in reducing their travel times by making better use of available road capacity. In assessing their practical applicability, however, it is important to assess the overhead that various advanced traffic information systems bring. This paper evaluates the communication overhead for a decentralized, delegate multi-agent system based advanced traffic information system and for a centralized system. We document the relationship between the communication overhead and travel time reduction for both systems. This analysis can help in weighing both factors when designing a practical traffic information system in a real-world scenario.