Fast Shortest Path Routing in Transportation Networks with Time-Dependent Road Speeds

Abstract: The current paper deals with the subject of shortest path routing in transportation networks (in terms of travelling time), where the speed in several of the network's roads is a function of the time interval. The main contribution of the paper is a procedure that is faster compared to the conventional approaches, that derives the road's traversal time according to the time instant of departure, for the case where the road's speed has a constant value inside each time interval (in general, different value for each time interval). Furthermore, the case where the road's speed is a linear function of time inside each time interval (in general, different linear function for each time interval) is investigated. A procedure that derives the road's traversal time according to the time instant of departure is proposed for this case as well. The proposed procedures are combined with Dijkstra's algorithm and the resulting algorithms, that are practically applicable and of low complexity, provide optimal shortest path routing in the networks under investigation.