A networking perspective on self-organizing intersection management

We explore the networking aspects of realizing self-organized intersection management. Inter-Vehicle Communication (IVC) based on DSRC/WAVE is expected to complement other communication technologies including Wi-Fi and 3G/4G. Applications range from road traffic efficiency to critical safety situations, intersection management being one of the most compelling applications. The Virtual Traffic Light (VTL) system is envisioned to replace or to complement physical traffic lights in order to reduce costs and to optimize the road traffic flow in urban environments. VTL, developed at Carnegie Mellon University, outlines the general capabilities of such a system. The VTL system heavily relies on coordinating clusters of cars and the communication among them. We developed a DSRC/WAVE based communication protocol for the management of these clusters, carefully investigating all the networking aspects related to this management and the communication between the cluster leaders. Comparing VTL to physical traffic lights, we are able to show a speedup of up to 35% in realistic environments. Looking at the packet loss on the wireless link, we can show that even in high communication load scenarios, the speedup remains stable.