Content dissemination over VANET: Boosting utility based heuristics using interests

Drivers are not expected to vote while driving, but VANETs are an excellent media for dissemination of pre-recorded support/opinions on regional issues in a decentralized deliberative petition drive or opinion poll. We propose and evaluate heuristics for scheduling messages in a VANET broadcasting-based dissemination of data for decentralized petition drives among self-interested participants. The goal of the heuristics is to increase dissemination of the citizen initiatives questions and results under the given assumptions. The self-interest of the participants is assumed to be manifested by selectivity in the storage and forwarding of raised issues and positions for those issues. Here we describe the concepts enabling the fully decentralized organization of the petition drives and polls. The underlying protocol that we implemented for fully decentralized polling of opinions over VANETs is also introduced and evaluated.