Adaptive Traffic Control Using Cooperative Communication Through Visible Light

The purpose of this study is to develop a Visible Light Communication (VLC) system that facilitates safe vehicle management through intersections using Vehicle-to-Vehicle, Vehicle-to-Infrastructure, and Infrastructure-to-Vehicle communications. By using the headlights, streetlights and traffic signaling to broadcast information, the connected vehicles interact with one another and with the infrastructure. Using joint transmission, mobile optical receivers collect data, calculate their location for positioning and, concomitantly, read the transmitted data from each transmitter. In parallel with this, an intersection manager coordinates traffic flow and interacts with the vehicles via Driver Agents embedded in them. A communication scenario is stablished, and a “mesh/cellular” hybrid network configuration proposed. Data is encoded, modulated and converted into light signals emitted by the transmitters. As receivers and decoders, optical sensors with light filtering properties, are used. Bidirectional communication between the infrastructure and the vehicles is tested. To command the passage of vehicles crossing the intersection safely queue/request/response mechanisms and temporal/space relative pose concepts are used. Data shows that the adaptive traffic control system in the Vehicle to Everything environment can collect detailed data, including vehicle position, speed, queue length, and stopping time. The short-range mesh network ensures a secure communication from streetlamp controllers to the edge computer through the neighbor traffic light controller and enables peer-to-peer communication.