  We present results on the modeling of on- and off-ramps in cellular automata
for traffic flow, especially the Nagel-Schreckenberg model. We study two
different types of on-ramps that cause qualitatively the same effects. In a
certain density regime one observes plateau formation in the fundamental
diagram. The plateau value depends on the input-rate of cars at the on-ramp.
The on-ramp acts as a local perturbation that separates the system into two
regimes: A regime of free flow and another one where only jammed states exist.
This phase separation is the reason for the plateau formation and implies a
behaviour analogous to that of stationary defects. This analogy allows to
perform very fast simulations of complex traffic networks with a large number
of on- and off-ramps because one can parametrise on-ramps in an exceedingly
easy way.
