Time dependent routing in road networks

• Main Author: Soon, Sean Yong Jian
• Other Authors: Xiao, Xiaokui
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Computer science and engineering::Computing methodologies
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/70150
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Routing in road networks is a well-studied problem with a wide variety of applications. As an example, suppose one wishes to save on fuel with vehicular travel. Under the assumptions that travel speed is constant, and that fuel is consumed at the same rate throughout, one would have to take the shortest path from the start point to their destination. The problem of finding the shortest path becomes increasingly difficult as the area to be traversed grows, since there are more possible roads to consider. This report considers various approaches to solve this problem. Another challenge emerges when one considers the fact that traffic conditions in real-world road networks do not stay constant throughout the week, or indeed, even throughout the day. That is, the constant travel speed assumption as mentioned in the paragraph above cannot be assumed to hold true all the time. Moreover, a short but busy road could end up slower to travel on than a long but empty one. In effect, because of the variation with time, the routing problem becomes a time dependent one, rather than being based on distance. This report also details a routing strategy with time taken into consideration.