Case Study: Laboratory for Traffic and Transport Engineering achieves scalable, cost-efficient urban traffic simulation with Google Cloud Platform

Laboratory for Traffic and Transport Engineering Solving urban congestion with a scalable game

LICIT (Laboratory for Traffic and Transport Engineering), a research unit of IFSTTAR and ENTPE in Lyon, needed large-scale mobility data to model and improve urban traffic and air quality. To collect realistic decision-making data it built a multiplayer simulation game that must support many simultaneous users during intermittent sessions, creating a need for a scalable, cost‑efficient infrastructure rather than expensive always-on hardware.

Working with NRX and IT Link, LICIT deployed the platform on Google Cloud Platform using Compute Engine, Cloud Storage and Google Kubernetes Engine so the service can scale up for peak sessions and scale down to zero when idle. The solution supports hundreds of concurrent users today, is easily expandable to thousands (potentially up to 10,000 before software limits), reduces capital expense by avoiding on‑premises servers, and enables ongoing data collection and future features such as educational deployments and advanced analytics.

Laboratory for Traffic and Transport Engineering

Cécile Becarie

Research Engineer