Scheduler Layer

The scheduling layer can be used to connect time events to specific locations. Such an event can be used for event management or the creation of new agents.

The model for the SchedulerLayer looks like this:

The SchedulerLayer is an active layer (more about active layers can be found here) and queries the TimeSeries depending on the current simulation time.

The layer manages a time series to several profile data containing a source geometry and optionally a target geometry.

note

Compared to concrete input CSV for the creation of agents, agent profiles can be defined to avoid having to prepare concrete instances with individual parameterization.

Definition of Scheduler Layer

To define your own scheduling layer, you have to define a new class which inherits from the abstract class SchedulerLayer.

First, a using import of the namespace has to be done:

using SOHDomain.Common;

Now a new class can be defined that inherits from the SchedulerLayer. As soon as an inheritance hierarchy has been defined, the method Schedule is expected to be implemented:

public class MySchedulerLayer : SchedulerLayer 
{
    public override void Schedule(SchedulerEntry dataRow) 
    {
        // do your scheduled logic here
    }
}

The Schedule method is called exactly when there is an entry with a valid period. A SchedulerEntry is passed with the call which contains the content of the entry from the table which is valid at this time.

The model for the SchedulerEntry looks like this:

Scheduling Layer parameters

The SchedulerLayer expects a tabular input of the form:

startTime	endTime	spawningIntervalInMinutes	spawningAmount	sourceX	sourceY	destinationX	destinationY
7:00	18:00	30	1	9.95253	53.54907	9.92812	53.52143
5:00	14:00	60	2	9.91582	53.54836	9.92797	53.50674
16:00	23:00	60	2	9.97033	53.54898	9.949668	53.531397
9:00	20:00	10	2	9.98911	53.54531	9.891536	53.534310
6:00	9:00	10	4	9.87707	53.53461	9.97969	53.54480

• The startTime (including) and the endTime (exclusive) each indicate the lower and upper interval bounds in hours of the day. It defines the time range of the day when new scheduling is triggered in the simulation.
• The spawningIntervalInMinutes (e.g. 30, for every half hour) allows to repeat the creation of scheduling events starting with the startTime.
• The spawningAmount of scheduling event. Describes how often the Schedule method should be called when a valid time is reached.
• To describe spawning source-target location, the scheduler offers two different parameterizations:
  • A concrete source and destination coordinate can be defined in WGS84:4326 notation via the fields sourceX (longitude) and sourceY (latitude) for the source and destinationX(longitude) and destinationY (latitude) for defining an optional target (e.g. 9.95253, 53.54907).
  • A source geometry can be defined via the source field (see polygon areas in the figure above) using the WKT (well-known-text) format with WGS84:4326 notation to designate areas, lines, and points in the simulation world (e.g. B. POLYGON((9.976880157282743 53.5447212390353,9.983403289606962 53.54446623736498,9.980656707575712 53.54240066721653,9.976880157282743 53.5447212390353))). For lines and polygons (areas) the model selects equidistributed randomly a coordinate that either lies along the line or is inside the described area. A helpful tool to define own WKT vector or selecting coordinates is the online Openlayers tool.

More information in contrast to a specialized SchedulingLayer implementation can be provided by using the Data attribute in the SchedulerEntry.

Scheduling for Agent Creation

The SchedulingLayer can be used directly to create agents. In the Schedule implementation, agents can be created directly by calling the new constructor.

public class CycleTravelerSchedulerLayer : SchedulerLayer
{
    public TravelerLayer TravelerLayer { get; set; }

    protected override void Schedule(SchedulerEntry dataRow)
    {
        var source = RandomPositionFromGeometry(dataRow.SourceGeometry);
        var target = RandomPositionFromGeometry(dataRow.TargetGeometry);


        var traveler = new Traveler(TravelerLayer, source, target)
        {
            ResultTrajectoryEnabled = true
        };

        TravelerLayer.Travelers.Add(traveler.ID, traveler);
        RegisterAgent(TravelerLayer, traveler);
    }
}

The above example creates a new Traveler agent for each valid event, registers it with the runtime system and adds it to the layer.