TrafficCam: Sharing traffic information based on dynamic IPv6 multicast group assignment using smartphone sensors

Exchanging traffic information among nearby vehicles is one of the communication scenarios in the field of intelligent transport systems (ITS). An important question in this scenario is “How can traffic information be delivered to only one subset of nearby vehicles in the same road traffic situation?”, for example, to only congested traffic in a certain lane. In this demonstration, we propose a dynamic IPv6 multicast group assignment mechanism using GPS, an accelerometer and a magnetometer embedded in smartphones. Our mechanism enables each vehicle to find the relevant vehicles, and to compose a temporary IPv6 multicast address. Our mechanism can deliver traffic information to a group of vehicles in a particular situation. This demonstration, carried out on virtual traffic congestion, shows an information-sharing scenario using a prototype of the proposed mechanism, implemented as an Android application called TrafficCam. Our application demonstrates the usefulness of the proposed mechanism.