congestionmanagement

Congestion management is the set of strategies, policies, and technologies used to reduce congestion in transportation networks, electric power systems, and communications networks. Its aim is to improve overall system performance by minimizing delays, increasing reliability, and reducing costs and environmental impact.

In transportation, congestion management encompasses demand management (pricing, work-hour shifting, information provision), capacity expansion (infrastructure investments), and operational measures (adaptive signal control, ramp metering, reversible lanes, incident management). It relies on traffic models, real-time data, and simulations to forecast congestion, evaluate interventions, and support decision makers. Congestion pricing or dynamic tolling is often employed to influence traveler behavior and spread demand.

In electric power grids, congestion management involves relieving transmission line congestion to ensure reliable delivery of electricity. Tools include economic dispatch and re-dispatch, generation curtailment, demand response, energy storage, and network upgrades. Market mechanisms such as locational marginal pricing and transmission rights may be used to allocate congestion costs and incentives.

In data and communications networks, congestion management relates to congestion control and traffic engineering that prevent or alleviate bottlenecks in routers and links. This includes queue management, rate control algorithms, and quality of service provisioning to maintain throughput and minimize delays.

Key outcomes are measured with travel time and reliability in transport, system security and price signals in power, and latency and throughput in networks. Common challenges include cost, political feasibility, data quality, equity, and adapting to uncertain demand.