A top-down approach to inter-vehicle communication (Poster)

Currently, most of the research on inter-vehicle communication uses the same approach as research on general-purpose networks: protocols and algorithms are developed “bottom-up”, i.e., starting from medium access and addressing, proceeding upwards to the application layer. The set of applications is then evaluated through simulation or real-world experiments. In this paper we argue that, unlike general-purpose networks, inter-vehicle communication is about very specific goals defined by the application domain: preventing accidents and saving resources (e. g., travel time, fuel, road capacity). Inter-vehicle communication should therefore be tailored to achieve those specific goals. As a consequence, research in this area should follow a top-down approach, starting out with precise objectives. From these, applications and protocols should be derived - and not the other way around. Besides proposing the general concept of top-down research on inter-vehicle communication, we illustrate the process by means of a simple example, showing the relation between available information and road usage efficiency.