Implications of Communication Constraints for the DLRP in Transport Logistics

Abstract

Autonomous control of logistic objects such as vehicles and goods in transport processes means that such objects act independently to find their best way through a logistic network. In order to make reasonable decisions, they have to interact with other objects, e.g. to determine the availability of transport demand or free transport capacity along a possible route. Interaction means the use of information and communication infrastructure, for example by using the Distributed Logistic Routing Protocol (DLRP) that was developed for this purpose. The physical infrastructure, however, has direct technical constraints such as limited communication bandwidth or storage capacity and indirect constraints that are caused, for example, by the communication costs. This article discusses some of these constraints and their implications for the implementation and operation of DLRP in transport logistic processes.