Inter-car communications

Scenario proposal
 Scenario proposal compiled by:

Ambient Communication Research Group (ACRG)

Department of Telecommunications and Media Informatics (DTMI),
and Department of Telecommunications (DT)

Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BUTE)

June 20, 2004

DTMI
Continued:
Scenario proposal compiled by:
Christian, Family, Department names

Tamas Henk DTMI

Geza Gordos DTMI

Gabor Feher DTMI

Rolland Vida DTMI

Robert Szabo DTMI

Imre Sandor DT

Contact
 Tamas Henk henk@tmit.bme.hu
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DTMI
Communication backgrounds

Ambient Intelligence
 Self-organizing, ad-hoc networks
 Wireless communication technologies
 Transparent service discovery / plug-and-play
 Peer-to-peer network management
 Self-healing capability, fault tolerance
 Security, AAA

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DTMI
 Assumed trends

Most of the road vehicles will be equipped with
 mobile communication and positioning (GPS) devices
 sensors for

weather

vehicle dynamics (e.g. distance, acceleration,...)

pollution

siren detection

collision
 interface toward intra-car communication devices

Some components (traffic lights, announcement boards,
special cars) are connected to the Internet, they support
gateway functions

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DTMI
 Proposed communication
infrastructure of the
„Inter-car scenario”

Cars on the road form a mobile ad-hoc network
 high dynamicity (self-organization)
 fixed elements (signposts, announcement boards, traffic lights)
can be also integrated

and also connect to the fixed network through gateways

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Communication Challenges

How to form the network
 relativ positions of vehicles are unstable
 righ/low relative speeds
 multi-path radio wave propagation
 routing, flooding, multicasting

information scope, fast adaptation, scalability

Maintaining the continous operation of the ad-hoc

network
 how to use information of locations and motions
 determination and evaluation of car density

Authentication & Security

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DTMI
Further challenges

This proposal does not yet touch upon

related challenges on the fields of

Microelectroelectronics,
microsensorics and actuators

Sotware engineering

Man-machine interface

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DTMI
 Appl. of Inter-car Comm. 1/x
Road Traffic Information

Exaplary goals Rational
 prevention of consecutive collisions

in-time alternative routes
 informing central traffic control about
formation of clasters of vehicels
less serious accidents
 alarming emergency services

Challenge
 detection of the traffic jam or obstracles

adaptive warning/alarm thresholds
 localization of the traffic jam
 fast propagation of traffic jam information

limiting the scope of the information

multicast propagation

robustness & scalability
 authentication, false alarms, event
correlation

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DTMI
 Appl. of Inter-car Comm. 2/x
Ambient Traffic Light Control

Goal:
 Adapt the traffic lights to the current
traffic conditions

Challenges:
 The traffic conditions change all the
time
 Streets that lead to a crossroad are Rational
heavily or lightly crowded
More fluent flow of traffic
 The green light intervals should
Adaptiveness to the changing
adapt to these conditions

Selecting that member of the ad-  not pre-set
hoc network, that provides
Less pollution
information to the central traffic
controller about the cluster (size,
Harmonization of successive traffic
speed, etc.) lights

Coordination among successive
No red light when no cross traffic
traffic lights on a same street
Serving of inferior roads only when
 Preemption (priority) to public traffic, no interruption of main roads’
transport & emergency services traffic

Pedestrian crossing support
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DTMI
 Appl. of Inter-car Comm. 3/x
Emergency Signal

Goal:
 Organize traffic when police,
ambulance, or firefighter emergency
signal is heard

Challenges:
 Detect the direction the sound comes
from

Sound recognition

Increase accuracy by using members of Rational
the ad-hoc network asw sensor (e.g.
microphone) array
shortened reaction times
 Organize changing lanes, and/or pulling
avoidance of additional
to the side accordingly accidents resulting from the
 Coordinated action from the vehicles on extraordinary situation
a multi-lane street, highway, or at
crossroads

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DTMI
 Appl. of Inter-car Comm. 4/x
Ambient Hitchhiking

Goal
 reduction of city and high-way traffic

Challenge
 Incentives for sharing your car with others

Possibility of using dedicated, less congested
lanes

Cars with many passengers have priority
 Credit based charging

Micro payments

Drivers can use the credits to become
passengers next time Rational
 Destination matching, pick-up handshaking
Better economic

route (multi seat) planning
Less pollution

change cars in an ad-hoc fashion to reach the
destination
US example of priority lane
 Security (service rating, anonymity,  for cars with more than one
payments) person

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DTMI
 An illustrative tale for the Inter-
car scenario (1)
Alice the Regional Bus Driver

5a.m.: Alice leaves for work, but this time does not take her car, instead she enters her destination
into her PDA, that acts as an ad-hoc node. As she approaches the main road, her hitchhiking
information is spread.

5:10am: Bob, who has left for work early this time, recognizes on his car’s on-board computer that
someone (with a nice picture of Alice) is heading for a destination he will pass by. Bob already
notices Alice at the corner he is approaching. Bob signals his willingness to give a lift to Alice.

5:12am: Bob and Alice together are on the road toward the city center.

5:30am: Alice has checked the latest traffic information form the Ambient Network around.

6:00am: Bob and Alice approaches the bus station. The ride happend to be fast because of the light
early morning traffic. As they passed along all the approached traffic lights were green by their
arrival thanks to the intelligent traffic light control system.

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DTMI
 An illustrative tale for the Inter-
car scenario (2)

6:30am: Alice sitsw into her driver seat in the bus. She updates the traffic jam
information again on her PDA and departs with the bus.

7:00am: still in the city, the traffic is ever increasing. Nevertheless Alice progresses
relatively fast thanks to the intelligent traffic light control system which prioritize public
transport.

8:00am: out of the city, on the highway. Alice recognizes that there was an accident
some 20 miles ahead. She is informed of a possible alternative route that she takes.

9:00am: luckily avoided the traffic jam, she is on the highway again. She checks
whether to leave the highway for the next stop in the village: if no one waits for this bus
and no one signals a stop, there is no point to leave the highway.

9:55am: She arrives to the destination, in the central part of AmI-City. She is taking a
rest and preparing for the return trip.

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DTMI