An Integrated Algorithm for Intersection Queue Length Estimation Based on IoT in a Mixed Traffic Scenario

Nowadays, traffic infrastructures and vehicles are connected through the network benefiting from the development of Internet of Things (IoT). Connected automated cars can provide some useful traffic information. An architecture and algorithm of mobile service computing are proposed for traffic state sensing by integration between IoT and transport system models (TSMs). The formation process of queue at this intersection is analyzed based on the state information of connected vehicles and the velocity of shockwave is calculated to predict queue length. The computing results can be delivered to the traffic information edge server. However, not all the vehicles are capable of connecting to the network and will affect the queue length estimation accuracy. At the same time, traffic cameras transmit the traffic image to the edge server and a deep neuron network (DNN) is constructed on the edge server to tackle the traffic image. It can recognize and classify the vehicles in the image but takes several seconds to work with the complex DNN. At last, the final queue length is determined according to the weight of the two computing results. The integrated result is delivered to the traffic light controller and traffic monitoring center cloud. It reveals that the estimation from DNN can compensate the estimation from shockwave when the penetration rate of connected vehicles is low. A testbed is built based on VISSIM, and the evaluation results demonstrate the availability and accuracy of the integrated queue length estimation algorithm.