  Simulation-based traffic impact assessment studies of advanced technologies
such as truck platooning need to be carried out to ascertain their benefits for
traffic efficiency, safety and environment. To reduce uncertainty in the
results of such simulation-based studies, the same simulation studies can be
performed in different simulation software. Many traffic simulation software
packages (Aimsun, SymuVia, Vissim, SUMO) are currently available for traffic
impact assessment of new technologies such as truckplatooning. However, to
fully model and simulate the functionalities of such advanced technologies in
different simulation environments, several extensions need to be made to the
simulation platforms. In most cases, these extensions have to be programmed in
different programming languages (C++, Python) and each simulator has its own
simulator specific API. This makes it difficult to reuse software written for a
specific functionality in one simulation platform in a different simulation
platform. To overcome this issue, this paper presents a novel architecture for
cross-platform simulation. The architecture is designed such that a specific
functionality such as truck-platooning or any other functionality is made
platform independent. We designed a cross-platform architecture for simulating
a truck-platooning functionality using Vissim and SymuVia simulation software
to determine the traffic flow effects of multi-brand truck platooning in the
context of the EU project ENSEMBLE. In this draft paper, we present the
structure of the framework as well as some preliminary results from a simple
simulation performed with the cross-platform simulator.
