  A vehicle-to-infrastructure communication can inform an intersection
controller about the location and speed of connected vehicles. Recently, the
design of adaptive intersection control algorithms that take advantage of this
information evoked a lot of research, typically assuming a perfect
communication. In this study, we explore possible effects of a temporal
decrease in the reliability of the communication channel, on a throughput of a
signalized intersection. We model road traffic and DSRC-VANET communication by
integrating the well-established traffic and communication simulation tools
(Vissim and OMNeT++). Comparisons of the perfect communication conditions with
challenging, but realistic conditions involving communication distortions show
that the adaptive intersection control may suffer from significantly increased
average delays of vehicles. The level of delays is largely independent of
whether the communication distortions affect all or only a single intersection
approach. For some signal groups, the average vehicle delays are significantly
increased, while for the others they are decreased, leading to the disbalance
and unfairness. We show that the data received in the previous time intervals
and simple assumptions about the vehicle movements can be used to estimate the
lost data. The compensation of the communication distortions affecting a single
intersection approach decreases the average vehicle delays. When the
communication distortions impacting all the intersection approaches are
compensated for, the vehicle delays are even set back to the levels comparable
with the perfect communication conditions. Overall, the results demonstrate
that the impact of the communication distortions should be considered in the
design of the adaptive intersection control algorithms.
