Applications in Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks

Abstract

The various sensors and wireless communication devices have been extensively applied to daily life due to the advancements of microelectronics mechanism and wireless technologies. Recently, vehicular communication systems and applications become more and more important to people in daily life. Vehicular communication systems that can transmit and receive information to and from individual vehicles have the potential to significantly increase the safety of vehicular transportation, improve traffic flow on congested roads, and decrease the number of people of deaths and injuries in vehicular collisions effectively. This system relies on direct communication between vehicles to satisfy the communication needs of a large class of applications, such as collision avoidance, passing assistance, platooning. In addition, vehicular communication systems can be supplemented by roadside infrastructure to access Internet and other applications. This system forms a special case of mobile ad hoc networks called Vehicle Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs). They can be formed between vehicles with vehicle to vehicle (V2V) communication or between vehicles and an infrastructure with vehicle to infrastructure (V2I) communication. The applications and characteristics of VANETs are introduced and presented in this Chapter.