Section based approximation of link traffic flow: a system dynamics approach

Link traffic flow models are widely used in networking loading model studies. A section based method is developed for supporting analysis of link flows with kinematic waves. We consider the shock surface between free traffic and congested traffic, divide the link into two dynamic sections with different traffic states and present a section based link flow model (STM) to simulate the link flow in traffic network. The computing performance of STM is evaluated and the quality of the presented approximation procedure is tested against the results of the cell transmission model and link transmission model. The results show that the STM presented in this paper yields better approximations of analytical results compared to cell transmission model and can capture the queue propagation without extra model improvement compared to link transmission model.