Abstract: One reason behind traffic congestion is the unbalanced distribution of vehicle flows in urban road networks. Meanwhile, traffic control systems comprise a typical class of positive systems. Therefore, the evolution of traffic flows in the network must be modeled by compartment positive systems. In this study, we propose the steady-state signal control approach to achieve the balance of the network as a control objective. First, we establish the compartment positive system model of network flows, which can describe the oversaturated features of the network with any control structures. For given vehicle inputs of the network, there exists a unique stable equilibrium of the network from nonnegative matrix theory; from this, we educe the analytic computation formula of the equilibrium. On the basis of this formula, we propose the steady-state signal control law of the network, which is the link-state-feedback control law. Finally, we chose the network located at the Olympic Park area in Beijing, and compared the steady-state signal control approach with the fixed-time signal control approach in a VISSIM simulation environment. The results show that the steady-state signal control approach can improve network performance and reduce local congestion under higher demand conditions of the network.