NeTS: Small: Information Dissemination in Vehicular Networks for Reducing Traffic Congestion

该项目的目标是制定解决方案，以减少城市地区的拥堵问题。在不久的将来，每辆车都将配备GPS和专用短程通信（DSRC）能力。在拥挤的城市地区，部署了Road Side Units （rsu）和Relay Nodes （RNs）。每辆进入这些区域的车辆将通过RSU向控制中心报告其基于GPS的轨迹（即到达目的地的选择路径）。rsu可以监控过往车辆，并协助控制中心与车辆之间或车辆与rsu之间的数据传递。控制中心将根据目前的交通负荷，通过调整部分车辆的行驶轨迹或向特定区域的车辆发送警告信息，来决定如何使交通畅通。本项目旨在探讨这种基础设施的可行性和三个相关研究问题。需要解决的研究问题是：1)如何在给定的路线图中经济有效地部署最小数量的rsu和rn，以保证在这样的基础设施中数据传播的延迟和性能？2)如何有效地将数据从车辆传递到RSU，从RSU传递到车辆？3)如何及时有效地向可能受到特定交通事故影响的车辆发出与交通有关的警告信息？该项目预计将把对车对车和车对基础设施通信的理解提升到一个更高的水平。此外，该项目对社会产生了重大影响。不仅可以缩短每个人的通勤时间，而且还可以节省总能源及其相关的环境影响是巨大的。

The goal of this project is to develop solutions to reduce congestion problem in urban area. Each vehicle will be equipped with GPS and dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) capability in the near future. In congested urban areas, Road Side Units (RSUs) and Relay Nodes (RNs) are deployed. Each vehicle entering these areas will report its trajectory (i.e., a selective path to a destination) based on GPS to a Control Center via an RSU. RSUs can monitor the vehicles passing by and assist the data delivery between Control Center and vehicle or vehicle to RSUs. The Control Center will be responsible for deciding how to smooth the traffic based on the current traffic load by adjusting the trajectories of some vehicles or sending warning message to vehicles in certain areas. This project is to investigate the feasibility and three associated research issues of such an infrastructure. The research issues to be addressed are 1) How to cost effectively deploy the minimum numbers of RSUs and RNs in a given roadmap to guarantee the delay and performance of data dissemination in such an infrastructure? 2) How to effectively deliver data from vehicles to RSU and from RSU to vehicles? 3) How to disseminate traffic related warning messages to vehicles that may be affected by a given traffic incidence in a timely and effective manner? This project is expected to advance the understanding of vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communications to a higher level. Moreover, this project has a substantial impact to the society. Not only can the commute of each person be shortened, but also the total energy saving and its associated environmental impact can be huge.