June 8, 2007 —Hotspots. GPS. Internet-enabled phones. The world is going wireless. And a group of researchers are extending the concept to the car, turning automobiles into network nodes that can receive and send signals to others nearby.
As car after car enters the mobile network (some eventually drop out of range), drivers can download multimedia — including movies, images and songs — or get real-time information about traffic.
"Say you are driving and a car that is three miles in front of you spots an icy spot on the road. It can trigger back a signal saying, 'Look, there is an icy road,'" said Giovanni Pau, research scientist at the University of California's Network Research Lab in Los Angeles, which is led by Mario Gerla.
Such a network could also give emergency first responders a reliable channel if a natural disaster destroys communication towers or access points.
The system uses a vehicle's onboard computer, GPS, low-cost sensors, custom software written by the UCLA team, and existing wireless channels.
In recent experiments, the researchers used the standard protocol that allows laptops, for example, to connect wirelessly to the Internet. The typical range is between 330 to 990 feet.
In the near future, vehicles will switch to the Dedicated Short Range Communications standard being developed by the Department of Transportation. This signal, which has a range of up to 3,300 feet, will allow high-speed communications between vehicles or between vehicles and the roadside.
The software written by the UCLA team locates its own car and the cars it wants to talk to, selects the strongest signals, determines if any of the drivers should have priority (emergency workers might, for example), and organizes the various data being exchanged.
For now, cars within a couple to a few hundred feet of each other can exchange data, but the information can hop from one car to the next across the entire network, which could span miles.
