Location-based reverse data delivery between infrastructure and vehicles

Abstract

Reverse data delivery is one of the key operations in vehicular ad hoc networks which allows data delivery from roadside units (infrastructure) to vehicles. In the past, a number of data dissemination schemes have been proposed by researchers for the vehicular ad hoc networks to tackle the problem of data forwarding from vehicles and roadside units to data concentration points or Access Points (APs). In contrast, schemes for reverse data forwarding which allows a data concentration point to apprise the on-road vehicles about any eventuality or developing hazardous conditions are very few. This paper proposes a reverse data forwarding scheme which utilizes the characteristics of the road networks to inform passing vehicles of important information related to any accident, crash, or hazardous road conditions. The proposed scheme takes into account the geographical proximity factor by considering a localized sub-region/segment in the greater road network which is most adversely affected by the occurrence of some unfortunate road event. For its implementation, the scheme is dependent on DSRC-enabled roadside equipment to relay road-safety messages from AP to vehicles. In case if the passing vehicles are not fitted with DSRC on-board units, the scheme has the capability to directly interact with the variable-message signs on intersections with the objective of reaching as many vehicles as possible to increase the chances of message delivery. Simulation results using a small road segment confirm that the proposed scheme is more effective when the localized sub-region is smaller or in other words when more vehicles in the vicinity of the accident location are provided with pre-warning messages.

Keywords

• vehicular ad hoc networks
• i2v data delivery
• reverse data forwarding
• road traffic safety