The ever-increasing and unbalanced traffic load in cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) networks have increased the network congestion and led to user dissatisfaction. To relieve the network congestion and improve the traffic load balance, in this paper, we propose an intelligent software defined C-V2X network framework to enable flexible and low-complexity traffic offloading by decoupling the network data plane from the control plane. In the data plane, the cellular traffic offloading and the vehicle assisted traffic offloading are jointly performed. In the control plane, deep learning is deployed to reduce the software defined network (SDN) control complexity and improve the traffic offloading efficiency. Under the proposed framework, we investigate the traffic offloading problem, which can be formulated as a multi-objective optimization problem. Specifically, the first objective maximizes the cellular access point (AP) throughput with consideration of the load balance by associating the users with the APs. The second objective maximizes the vehicle throughput with consideration of the vehicle trajectory by associating the delay-insensitive users with the vehicles. The two objectives are coupled by the association between the cellular APs and the vehicles. A deep learning based online-offline approach is proposed to solve the multi-objective optimization problem. The online stage decouples the optimization problem into two sub-problems and utilizes the ‘Pareto optimal’ to find the solutions. The offline stage utilizes deep learning to learn from the historical optimization information of the online stage and helps predict the optimal solutions with reduced complexity. Numerical results are provided to validate the advantages of our proposed traffic offloading approach via deep learning in C-V2X networks.

As one of the most frequently occurred driving behaviors, the lane-changing’s impact on surrounding traffic is important. From the aspect of macro-traffic flows, its impact on traffic efficiency and safety has been investigated. However, as a non-essential lane-changing type, a single discretionary lane-changing’s impact on surrounding traffic is still difficult to be quantified by real-word traffic data. To solve this problem, this paper first proposes a trajectory data-based analytic method to calculate response time of the lane-changing vehicle and its following vehicles, then develops a time sequence data processing method based on feature points to analyze the change pattern of the variable minimum space, and then a lane-changing’s temporal and spatial on surrounding traffic can be captured by the decreasing-increasing pattern of minimum space. Besides, a high-precision trajectory data set, called Zen-traffic, is employed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods and reach conclusions. Given the condition that the speed of a discretionary lane-changing vehicle is between 6 to 20 m/s, i.e., the traffic condition at which lane changes more likely occur, the results of the paper include (1) on average, 4 or 5 vehicles are usually impacted by a discretionary lane change; (2) the average impact time is 12 to 13 seconds and it has little relationship with the distance between the lane-changing vehicle and the following vehicle on the target/initial lane; (3) the lateral movement direction (i.e., changing to left or to right) of a lane change has a significant impact on the number of the vehicles affected.

Accurate prediction of electric bus energy consumption is a key step to realize the orderly planned charging of electric buses. Meanwhile, to address the problem that the current electric bus energy consumption prediction model is not conducive to realistic application, this paper proposes an energy consumption prediction model that considers actual electric bus operation data to predict trip energy consumption. First, based on the operation data of six routes in Beijing, the influencing factors of electric bus energy consumption are summarized, including route name, travel direction, weekday and nonweekday, operation time, vehicle number, and driver’s name. Secondly, the energy consumption influencing factors were used to extract trip energy consumption features, including departure moment features, vehicle performance features, and driver attribute features. A new simple method is proposed to deal with un‐ordered characteristic data to solve the problem of quantifying the influencing factors. The energy consumption prediction model considering actual quantifiable features utilizes the concept of distance to identify several historical trips that have characteristics most similar to the predicted trip in terms of energy consumption. The new prediction model is essentially a machine learning model based on k‐means clustering algorithm, which leverages feature extraction and data analysis to make predictions. Finally, the real data are used to predict the energy consumption of different routes and different driving directions on weekdays, respectively. The energy consumption prediction error is as low as 7.112%, and the prediction results are compared with other traditional prediction models, and the model accuracy is high.

Lane-changing maneuvers critically influence traffic flow and safety. This study introduces the Global Optimal Lane-Changing (GOLC) model, a framework that optimizes decisions by quantitatively predicting their systemic effects on surrounding traffic. Unlike traditional models that focus on immediate neighbors, the GOLC model integrates a kinematic wave model to precisely quantify the spatiotemporal impacts on the entire affected platoon, striking a balance between local vehicle actions and global traffic efficiency. Implemented in the Simulation of Urban Mobility (SUMO) environment, the GOLC model is evaluated against benchmark models Minimizing Overall Braking Induced by Lane Changes (MOBIL) and SUMO LC2013. Comparative evaluations demonstrate the GOLC model’s superior performance. In a three-lane scenario, the GOLC model significantly enhances traffic efficiency, reducing average delay by 3.4% to 46.8% compared to MOBIL under medium- to high-flow conditions. It also fosters a safer environment by reducing unnecessary lane changes by 1.1 times compared to the LC2013 model. In incident scenarios, the GOLC model shows greater adaptability, achieving higher average speeds and lower travel times while minimizing speed dispersion and deceleration. These findings validate the effectiveness of embedding macroscopic traffic theory into microscopic driving decisions. The model’s unique strength lies in its ability to predict and minimize the collective negative impact on all affected vehicles, representing a significant step towards real-world implementation in Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems (ADAS) and enhancing safety in next-generation intelligent transportation systems.