Dynamic load balancing for parallel traffic simulation

In this paper, we describe implementation of the Parallel Traffic Simulator which applies parallel algorithms and computer graphics in the field of traffic simulation. It simulates traffic behaviour at the individual vehicle level. Parallel environment used consists of a set of workstations connected in a network. Networked workstations make up a loosely coupled parallel computer architecture with distributed memory. PVM network programming environment is used to implement message passing between workstations. Simulation of traffic is an example of computation with changing load balance. Data parallel approach with initial static data decomposition distributes road network and initial positions of vehicles across participating workstations. However, as the simulation progresses, vehicles may concentrate only on some workstations which leads to system imbalance. Therefore we have developed a dynamic load-balancing algorithm.