During the last 10 years, the number of vehicles in the whole world, especially in America, Europe, and Asia has considerably increased. Such unbelievable increasing became one of the most evident reasons for traffic jams and car accidents. The issue of safety on roads and in the air by means of inter-vehicle communication bothers numerous universities, manufactures, and governments. To make the traffic safer, it is necessary to develop and prove ongoing inter-vehicle communication ideas, which provide vehicles and their drivers with the opportunity to communicate with each other by means of infrastructures.
Inter-vehicle communication was developed in Japan in 1980s. Now, such technologies are available to lots of organizations almost in any country. To create perfect innovative devices, it is important to study and evaluate the already existed technologies. They are Global System for Mobile communication (GSM), Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC), and Global Packet Radio System (GPRS). The innovations within the inter-vehicle communication need to be analyzed in order to underline the weaknesses and strong points of the existing technologies, define general characteristics of such applications, and make use of them for further development.
Mobile Communication on Roads
Almost each year, traffic accidents take millions of lives away. The reasons for these accidents are different, and one of the most dangerous is mobile communication. Phones are one of the most possible devices that distract drivers. (Sundeen 26) The Internet and mobile phones play a crucial role in the life of every person. Such techniques are necessary for communication between people and provide them with the opportunity to exchange the information. (Lott 2) The activities of the Vehicle Infrastructure Integration help to define vehicle mobility as the most frequent device that shares information between the vehicles during driving and do not disturb the drivers.
Such innovation helps to make driving safer as well. (Werner v1) Mobile connection is extremely important for people, and it is impossible to stop using it even on roads. It is necessary to create certain warning system that helps to prevent accidents caused by inattentiveness of the driver. One of such systems that may be used in any car is WILLWARN – Wireless Local Danger Warning. (Willwarn project 1). To launch any of such systems, it is better to use innovative launch programs, which are necessary to enhance inter-vehicle communication and keep pace during driving. To support various operations for enhancing pace and improve safety on roads, it is important to gather larger amounts of information. (Welch and Greenfeld 1)
Projects for Inter-Vehicle Communication
The project Willwarn aims at providing enhanced safety by means of vehicle-to-infrastructure or vehicle-to-vehicle communication. One of the possible benefits for users at low equipment rates, who use cars to transport the messages and other kind of information, is to create a system with low cost. (Willwarn Project) One more project that deserves attention in this work is the Vehicle Infrastructure Integration (VII). The goals of this integration are to underline the key details, problems, and innovative developments that have already been discussed in public. (Werner v1) New and rather sophisticated devices that serve to help vehicles communicate need to provide much higher rates. However, users want to find cheap equipment that will help to restrict the complexity in networks to the possible minimum. (Lott 2)
Cheap equipment that corresponds to all the necessary requirements for inter-vehicle communication is not real. This is why institutions, which deal with the implementation of communication devices, should consider not only communication needs, but also customers’ possibilities. Any way, the operations with launch vehicle are extremely necessary in order to enhance communication abilities, make roads safer, and do not decrease pace. (Welch and Greenfeld 1)
Help of Inter-Vehicle Communication Devices
Inter-Vehicle communication has lots of positive and significant functions. One of the brightest examples of such necessity was the car show in Dunn Loring, Northern Virginia. During this show, two car models, Toyota and GM, used vehicle-to-vehicle communication in order to prevent care accidents and crashes and reduce traffic congestion. One more thing that was used to improve the results of the show was the exploration of energy issues by means of changing drilling with tailpipe. (O’Brein G02) There are also lots of other projects, which aim at warning people in road traffic by means of inter-vehicle communication. One of them is MAC, medium access control; another is the message passing algorithm. (Briesemeister and Schäfers 2)
Europe does not want to be behind these innovative technologies, and presents its own devices and programs. DRIVE and PROMETHEUS are two European programs, which aim at providing safety on roads in Europe. These organizations try to separate DRIVE and PROMETHEUS, however, the purposes remain the same. CEC, the Commission of European Communities, controls DRIVE. EUREKA, the European Research Coordination Agency platform, runs PROMETHEUS. (European ATIS Projects/Systems)
Hoc Network Mobility of Nodes
Wireless connection between the vehicles is surely important. Carmakers have already presented services of automobile telematics. These devices have need unknown during a certain period of time. These applications consist of telecommunications and computation. One of the examples of such applications are rout planning. This application catches GPS signals, which are aimed to use information from sensors. (Chen, Kung, and Vlah 1) Too high mobility on roads and in the air may cause certain problems during the application of ad hoc networks with the cars and other kind of transport. One of their suggestions is to employ geographic constraints in order to define the destination more clearly. (Johnson, Maltz, and Broch 1) The implementation of sources routs allows nodes to maintain and check the destination within the ad hoc network.
A great amount of network users causes certain problems. It becomes impossible to trace the vehicle and provide it with the ability to communicate with another vehicle. The only solution is to enlarge networks. During the meeting concerning the Vehicle Infrastructure Integration the issues concerning safety devices such as interactions and pedestrian, and other mobility applications were discussed. (Werner v1)
The Necessity of Launch Vehicle Operations
Inter-Vehicle communication happens on roads and in the air. NASA activities always attract the attention of researchers. For example, communication needs could be met by means of different antennas. (Welsh and Greenfeld 2) Certain vehicles also have the combination of antennas (DSRC), wave radars, infrared sensors, computers with digital maps and GPS. Such antennas facilitate the inter-vehicle communication in many ways. In every car, it is necessary to have a laptop computer with the DSR routing protocol that allows local logging of any event. All the necessary information is saved on the hard disk. (Jonson, Maltz, and Broch 18)
In general, inter-vehicle communication is a huge sphere that requires constant researchers and analyses. Lots of new inventions and programs have been already created, and many ideas are in progress. Any kind of investigation requires certain time and money. Projects like Willwarn present interesting technologies that captivate customers. After considering the shortages of past projects and the necessity of modern people, it is quite possible to create and develop new devices for inter-vehicle communication, which in their turn, help to make roads and air safer. Any vehicle will get an opportunity to communicate to each other and prevent eventual accidents and crashes.
Works Cited
“European ATIS Projects/Systems”, 2009. Web.
“Willwarn”. 2004. PReVENT. 2009. Web.
Briesemeister, L., Schäfers, L. “Disseminating Messages among Highly Mobile Hosts Based on Inter-Vehicle Communication.” 2000. Berkeley University. Web.
Chen, Z. D., Kung H., and Vlah, D. “Ad Hoc Relay Wireless Networks over Moving Vehicles on Highways.” 2001. Harvard University. Web.
Jonson, D. B., Maltz, D. A., Broch, J. “DSR: The Dynamic Source Routing Protocol for Multi-Hop Wireless Ad Hoc Networks.” Computer Science Department, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, (2001).
Lott, M., Halfmann, E., Schulz, E., Meincke, M. “A Frequency Agile Air-Interface for Inter-Vehicle Communication.” In Proc. ICT, (2003).
O’Brein, B. “Miniature Car Show Set in Dunn Loring”, The Washington Times, 2006.
Sundeen, M. “Driving Hazards: the Phone Factor: Many Things Can Distract Drivers, but Mobile Phones Are Today’s Focus.” State Legislatures, 29, 2003.
Welch, B., Greenfeld, I. “Launch Vehicle Communications.” 2005. NASA. Web.
Werner, J. “Details of the VII Initiative’s ‘Work in Progress’ Provided at Public Meeting.” 2005. National Transportation Operations Coalition. Web.