Efficient Information Dissemination in VANETs

Vehicular ad-hoc networks (VANETs) enable promising new possibilities to enhance traffic safety and efficiency. The vision of VANETs is that vehicles communicate spontaneously, in an ad-hoc manner over a wireless medium. Based on this inter-vehicle communication (IVC), vehicles exchange important information, e.g., about road conditions and hazardous situations. Moreover, such information can be propagated via multiple hops, thus making the dissemination of important information possible over longer distances. This is the key advantage of this kind of safety applications compared to conventional safety systems. Whereas conventional safety systems only rely on information sensed in the direct neighborhood by onboard sensors of a vehicle, active safety applications based on IVC can utilize information generated by nodes multiple hops away. Moreover, such information can be enriched on the way with information sensed by relaying cars. This greatly enhances the potential of VANET applications. The advantage is twofold: