Comment on “Analytical investigation of the open boundary conditions in the Nagel-Schreckenberg model”

Abstract

In their recent paper [Phys. Rev. E 79, 031115 (2009)], Ning Jia and Shoufeng Ma used some Markov chain arguments for the analytical description of inflow in the deterministic Nagel-Schreckenberg model with open boundaries. In this context, they considered two different mechanisms of injecting vehicles: the standard injection rule and a popular expanded injection rule. While the results for the first one seem to be correct, simulations show that the inflow formula in case of the expanded injection rule yields only approximate results. Therefore, this comment provides the exact formula also in this case and explains the shortcoming in the derivation of Jia and Ma.