An Implementation of Traffic Light System Using Multi-hop Ad hoc Networks

In ad hoc networks nodes cooperate with each other to form a temporary network without the aid of any centralized administration. No wired base station or infrastructure is supported, and each host communicates via radio packets. Each host must act as a router, since routes are mostly multi-hop, due to the limited power transmission set by government agencies, (e.g. the Federal Communication Commission) (FCC), which is 1 Watt in Industrial Scientific and Medical (ISM) band. The natures of wireless mobile ad hoc networks depend on batteries or other fatiguing means for their energy. A limited energy capacity may be the most significant performance constraint. Therefore, radio resource and power management is an important issue of any wireless network. In this paper, a design for traffic light system employing ad hoc networks is proposed. The traffic light system runs automatically based on signals sent through a multi-hop ad hoc network of `n´ number of nodes utilizing the Token Ring protocol, which is efficient for this application from the energy prospective. The experiment consists of a graphical user interface that simulates the traffic lights and laptops (which have wireless network adapters) are used to run the graphical user interface and are responsible for setting up the ad hoc network between them. The traffic light system has been implemented utilizing A Mesh Driver (which allows for more than one wireless device to be connected simultaneously) and Java-based client-server programs.