Wireless traffic service platform for combined vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communications

Vehicular wireless communications and vehicular ad hoc networks are nowadays widely identified enablers for improving traffic safety and efficiency, and a large number of suggestions for vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication have been presented. The focus is typically on bilateral communication between two vehicles or on broadcasting information from one vehicle or infrastructure to vehicles in the surrounding area. In the Carlink project [1, 2] of the European Celtic program call 3 we have developed an intelligent hybrid wireless traffic service platform between cars supported by roadside wireless base stations. Communication between cars will be arranged in an ad hoc manner, supported by wireless base station connection to the backbone network whenever possible. The platform consists of a specific set of services (e.g., local road weather service and incident warning service), but a variety of services can be integrated to this kind of a system. The ultimate goal was to enhance traffic safety and smoothness, but also to generate a completely new communication entity, allowing new types of applications, services, and business opportunities. In this article we present the concept and example services of the Carlink platform. The platform simulations, field tests, and analysis show that the platform operability and efficiency are suitable for a large-scale traffic system, to be verified in the pilot system deployment.