Networked parking spaces: architecture and applications

Finding a parking space is a common challenge faced by millions of city-dwellers every day. As common is the revenue generation by fee and fine collection in these municipalities. Wireless ad hoc networking technologies offer a new and efficient means to both simplify the process of parking and find collection as well as extending the convenience for drivers. In this paper we describe a multi-hop wireless parking meter network (PMNET) that, when coupled with a GPS receiver, allows a user (driver) to quickly locate and navigate to an available parking space. Our solution is achieved by equipping existing parking meters with wireless radio frequency (RF) transceivers and auxiliary hardware and software. We believe that this is a compelling application that applies wireless ad hoc networking and low-power, short range RF technologies. The attractiveness of the proposal stems from the fact that such a network of nodes can function without any fixed wired or wireless infrastructure such as cellular or satellite networks. In this work, we model a PMNET as a special class of ad hoc networks characterized by a combination of static, immobile nodes (parking meters) and mobile nodes (vehicles). We propose scalable techniques for satisfying a mobile user's query in a distributed fashion. In particular, we make use of the static nature of the parking meters for efficient discovery and location based routing of information between them and users.