Parallel Queue Model Approach to Traffic Microsimulations

Abstract In this paper, we explain a parallel implementation of a traffic micro - simulation model based on the queue model by Gawron Within this model, links do not only have a flow capacity that limits the number of vehicles that can leave the link, but also have a space constraint which limits the number of vehicles that can be on a link simultaneously The vehicles in this model follow their precomputed paths as in other route - plan - based simulations such as TRANSIMS Since the queue model needs less data and computing power, it runs much faster than TRANSIMS for the same data In the parallel implementation of the queue model we distribute the data onto a number of processors, each of which runs a smaller portion of the simulation The parallel version gives a maximum speedup of 28 on 64 CPUs using Myrinet communication For a realistic simulation of all of Switzerland, computing is up to 190 times faster than real time The maximum number of vehicles simultaneously driving in that simulation is about 160 000