Traffic management system including a layered management structure

Claim 1

A traffic management system (TMSYS) for managing in a road network (RDN) the vehicle traffic (C 1 , Cx) on a physical layer (PL), said traffic management system (TMSYS) comprising a layer structure including at least: a) a traffic signalling layer (TSL) including a plurality of traffic signalling units (TSU) for monitoring or controlling the vehicle traffic (C 1 , Cx) and a traffic signalling layer information exchange interface (TSL-EX) adapted a1) to output traffic signalling information (TSI) about the vehicle traffic (C 1 , Cx) on the physical layer (PL); a2) to receive traffic control information (TCI) for controlling the vehicle traffic (C 1 , Cx); and a3) to output traffic guidance information (TGI) to the vehicles (C 1 , Cx) on the physical layer (PL); and b) a traffic control layer (TCL) including a packet switched control network (PSCN), in which the packet traffic (CP 1 , CPx) is controlled with a predetermined packet control method to correspond to or simulate the vehicle traffic (C 1 , Cx) on the physical layer (PL), including a traffic control layer information exchange interface (TCL-EX) adapted b1) to receive traffic signalling information (TSI) about the vehicle traffic (C 1 , Cx) on the physical layer (PL); b2) to output traffic control information (TCI) for controlling the vehicle traffic (C 1 , Cx); b3) to output packet signalling information (PSI) about the packet traffic (CP 1 , CPx); and b4) to receive packet control information (PCI) for controlling the packet traffic (CP 1 , CPx) in the packet switched control network (PSCN).