Online Simulation and State Estimation for a Traffic Flow Model

For advanced traffic information systems and traffic control systems, the detailed and accurate knowledge of the current state of a road network is of great importance for their efficiency. In real traffic, measurements are mostly collected at local points, from sensors like loops, infrared sensors, or video cameras. To get the overall state of a traffic system, online traffic simulations or traffic state estimations are used. This paper focuses on the main differences between these two approaches. An example with real traffic data shows, that the state estimation can cope better with inaccurate initial conditions and measurement errors.