  VISSIM is a widely used microscopic traffic simulator, which not only
provides a graphical user interface to simulate simple static controls
(pre-timed or fixed-time) but also offers flexibility to dynamically control
simulation through versatile programming languages (C++ and Java etc.).
However, to implement various traffic control techniques, integration of
computational tools may save lots of effort and time as compared to standard
programming platforms. MATLAB falls in the category of a widely used
computational tool and also fulfills the primary requirements to control VISSIM
simulation dynamically. Therefore, this study proposes and develops a direct
interface between MATLAB and VISSIM to extensively harness the computational
power of MATLAB. The significance of developed interface is demonstrated on a
practical scenario, by conducting an online optimization of green time splits
on a study network.
