# Capacity-aware back-pressure traffic signal control

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1309.6484 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1309.6484/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 25 Sep 2013.

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [Expression might be enough: representing pressure and demand for reinforcement learning based traffic signal control](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.10107/) (2021)

## Abstract (arXiv)

The control of a network of signalized intersections is considered. Previous work demonstrates that the so-called back-pressure control provides stability guarantees, assuming infinite queues capacities. In this paper, we highlight the failing of current back-pressure control under finite capacities by identifying sources of non work-conservation and congestion propagation. We propose the use of a normalized pressure which guarantees work conservation and mitigates congestion propagation, while ensuring fairness at low traffic densities, and recovering original back-pressure as capacities grow to infinity. This capacity-aware back-pressure control allows to improve performance as congestion increases, as indicated by simulation results, and keeps the key benefits of back-pressure: ability to be distributed over intersections and O(1) complexity.