Simulating a multi-airport region on different abstraction levels by coupling several simulations

Abstract

Airports build the pillar for international mobility and are core elements of intermodal traffic. They are interface between ground level transportation and air transport and commonly act as central points for logistics. The DLR project "Optimode.net" investigates the interaction between relevant traffic modes and develops innovative approaches for integrated traffic management of ground and air level. The realization of an integration traffic planning is the foundation for several research questions, how the interaction between planes and ground transport can be improved. While the overall airport management benefits from more efficiency, travelers should be supported with a door-to-door management service. The simulated scenario consists of four cities in a multi airport region. The simulation of the region includes three airports in different sizes with the simulation of the feeder traffic to the airport. All cities are connected by road and railroad and public ground level transport is available. The procedure switching between a ground level vehicle and a plane needs several time consuming steps at the airport for individual passengers, including security checks, boarding and so on. Therefore these steps are also simulated at the airport on a passenger level. Furthermore the dispositioning of flights must be considered. On the ground level individual traffic, public road transport and railways are included in the simulation environment. In total the complete simulation environment is built of nine simulation models with various abstraction levels. For the simulation of ground level vehicles in this environment SUMO is used. This paper discusses the coupling and the data exchange between of the different simulators and further focuses on the integration of SUMO in this setup.