Cars as roadside units: a self-organizing network solution

Deploying roadside units, RSUs, for increasing the connectivity of vehicular ad hoc networks is deemed necessary for coping with the partial penetration of DSRC radios into the market in the initial stages of DSRC deployment. Several factors, including cost, complexity, existing systems, and lack of cooperation between government and private sectors, have impeded the deployment of RSUs. In this article, we propose to solve this formidable problem by using a biologically inspired self-organizing network approach whereby certain vehicles serve as RSUs. The proposed solution is based on designing local rules and the corresponding algorithms that implement them. Results show that the proposed approach can increase the message reachability and connectivity substantially.