Realization of a Self Powered Road Side Unit Using Network Processor Technology

Abstract

Background: Vehicular ad hoc networks (VANET) is a talented system which allows different applications such as road traffic safety, Internet access, advertising and multimedia streaming, as described in the various patents as well. VANETs can work according to two modes of communications, Vehicle to Vehicle (V2V) and Vehicle to Infrastructure (V2I). In the second case, a permanent communication infrastructure, i.e. Road Side Units (RSUs) can be used to undertake the various safety messages or to act as a gateway to the Internet. From the roadside infrastructure viewpoint, the majority of the previous works suppose metropolitan situation where the conventional wired power is offered at a rational rate. However, this assumption is not always true in practical. Our goal here is to propose a self powered VANET infrastructure and the major player in such an infrastructure is the road side unit. We propose that the RSUs can gather the energy required for their work from the surrounding environment, particularly solar energy. Such a proposal allows to set up the RSUs in any location without taking into consideration the power supply availability and hence, a wider area is covered by the VANET infrastructure. Keywords: Network processer, Vehicular Ad Hoc Network (VANET), Road Side Unit (RSU), solar energy harvesting, researchable batteries, duty cycling.