Impacts of Information Flow Topology on Traffic Dynamics of CAV-MV Heterogeneous Flow

With the development of Connected Autonomous Vehicle (CAV) technology, different information flow topologies (IFTs) have been applied to CAV Ad Hoc Networks. Firstly, from the perspective of the controller, a general model is proposed to directly reflect the actual communication effect on the controller instead of simply abstracting it into the optimal time interval, which is more feasible. Secondly, linear stability analysis is carried out based on the general model where different time delays are considered, and stability criterion is obtained for subsequent analysis. Finally, we compare the three main IFTs through numerical simulations and analyze the difference in stability region, robustness, traffic safety, and Eco-driving between platoon Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control (CACC) controllers based on different IFTs. It is found that adopting CACCs can notably improve the traffic capacity and traffic safety relative to Manual Vehicle (MV) no matter what IFT is adopted. As for the difference between the three IFTs, predecessor-leader following (PLF) and multiple-predecessor-leader following (MPLF) are significantly superior to predecessor following (PF), while the choice between PLF and MPLF depends on the communication bandwidth. With higher communication bandwidth or fewer communication vehicles, MPLF will be a better option; on the contrary, PLF is more suitable.