Intelligent Transport Systems

3 Wireless Communications in Vehicular Environments

Pekka Eloranta¹ and Timo Sukuvaara²

¹ Mobisoft Oy, Tampere, Finland

² Finnish Meteorological Institute, Sodankylä, Finland

3.1 Background and History of Vehicular Networking

When we look back to the 1950s, automobiles were basically mechanical systems with no electronics. In the past few decades, however, electronics has become one of the major elements of a vehicle’s value, reaching a mean share of around one-third of the total value of a modern car. The first generation of vehicle electronics was stand-alone in-vehicle systems, basically automating or supporting certain driving tasks. A typical example of such an achievement is the anti-lock braking system. The number of such ECU (Electronic Control Unit) systems on each car has increased from only a few in the 1990s to around 50 and more by 2010. ECUs control almost every activity in a modern vehicle, aiming to improve travel safety and comfort, as well as reducing fuel consumption [1]. Automobiles today are no longer vehicles with electronics, they could be characterized as “computers on wheels.”

The next major step just emerging and happening is the wider scale adaptation and exploitation of wireless telecommunications. The main motivation for the applications of wireless networking to road traffic scenarios is to optimize driving with respect to safety, fluency and efficiency. While passive safety systems have proven to be effective in protecting passengers, they ...