Markov Chain Mobility Model for Multi-lane Highways

Traffic congestion is one of the biggest challenges around the world, resulting in multiple harmful consequences such as air pollution, road fatalities, and traffic jams. Thus, it is a vital need to develop preventive mechanisms that allow better traffic management and alleviate the burden put on the transport network. Vehicle-to-anything (V2X) communication is gaining massive research interest as a promising solution to mobility challenges. This technology will enable vehicles and the infrastructure to form a distributed network constantly exchanging traffic information in real-time. The availability of timely information can help road users make optimal choices and enable effective autonomous traffic control. Therefore, to avoid traffic congestion, mobility models need to be established to study vehicular dynamics and to forecast future traffic conditions. The main goal of this study is to develop a traffic model based on Markov chain to tackle the congestion issue in a highway environment. Based on traffic data collected from vehicles through V2X technology, the model studies the evolution of traffic flow along a multiple lane divided highway and locally calculates estimates of the expected number of vehicles traveling on a highway segment. Performance measures are then inferred to detect possible congestion and then prevent it from happening. The numerical results presented in this study validate the model accuracy and show its ability to reproduce the fundamental mobility aspects in a highway environment.