Auction Based Algorithm for a Smart Junction with Social Priorities

Smart devices and their connections to the Internet of Things (IoT) have been the subject of many papers in the past decade. In the context of IoT in transportation, one feature is the smart junction. This research deals with this junction, where several cars approach the intersection from different directions, and a smart traffic light must decide regarding the time intervals of red and green light in each direction. Out novel approach is based not only on the number of vehicles in each lane, but also on the social characteristics of the passengers (e.g. a handicapped person, a driver with no previous traffic violations). These factors will be gleaned from IoT network sources on cars, traffic lights, individuals, municipality data, and more. In this paper, we suggest using a VCG (Vickrey-Clarke-Groves) auction mechanism for the intersection scheduling, combining the social characteristic with a benefit parameter that expresses the passenger's subjective perception of the importance of crossing the intersection as soon as possible. Our simulation results show the efficiency of the suggested protocol and demonstrate how the intersection scheduling depends on the passengers' preferences, as well as on their social priorities.