Collection of Dedicated Information in Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks

In recent years, the application of mobile ad hoc networking among vehicles has become an important research field for the automotive industry. Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs) are formed by vehicles that are equipped with wireless communication devices based on the standard IEEE 802.11 Wireless-LAN. Embedding mobile ad hoc network devices into vehicles will pave the way for future Advanced Driver Assistance Systems. These could be used to improve road safety and comfort for the driver as well as the passengers. Consider the situation in which you drive into an unfamiliar city. Your vehicle navigation system checks the traffic conditions on-demand and directs you quickly through the city avoiding busy roads and road blocks. In the meanwhile your vehicle navigation system requests parking information in the vicinity of your destination, so that you can drive straight to a free parking space. In this paper we discuss the feasibility of dedicated information collection through parameterized queries in VANETs. As an application example, we analyze the use of personal messages to guide vehicles towards suitable parking spaces available nearest to their destination area. The evaluation shows that it is possible to use a VANET to collect on-demand information from a target area within a city. To prove this a search strategy is proposed, implemented and evaluated in an interactive and realistic simulation environment.