A Compartmental Model for Traffic Networks and its Dynamical Behavior

We propose a macroscopic traffic network flow model suitable for analysis as a dynamical system, and we qualitatively analyze equilibrium flows as well as convergence. Flows at a junction are determined by downstream supply of capacity as well as upstream demand of traffic wishing to flow through the junction. This approach is rooted in the celebrated Cell Transmission Model for freeway traffic flow. Unlike related results which rely on certain system cooperativity properties, our model generally does not possess these properties. We show that the lack of cooperativity is in fact a useful feature that allows traffic control methods, such as ramp metering, to be effective. Finally, we leverage the results of the paper to develop a linear program for optimal ramp metering

An Adaptive Algorithm for Synchronization in Diffusively Coupled Systems

We present an adaptive algorithm that guarantees synchronization in diffusively coupled systems. We first consider compartmental systems of ODEs, where each compartment represents a spatial domain of components interconnected through diffusion terms with like components in different compartments. Each set of like components may have its own weighted undirected graph describing the topology of the interconnection between compartments. The link weights are updated adaptively according to the magnitude of the difference between neighboring agents connected by the link. We next consider reaction-diffusion PDEs with Neumann boundary conditions, and derive an analogous algorithm guaranteeing spatial homogenization of solutions. We provide a numerical example demonstrating the results