Smoothing Vehicular Traffic Flow Using Vehicular-Based Ad Hoc Networking & Computing Grid (VGrid)

We propose VGrid: an ad hoc networking and computing grid formed by leveraging inter-vehicle wireless communications. In addition to exchanging data between vehicles, VGrid actively uses pertinent data to perform computations for solving traffic-related problems. In this paper, we examine the problem of smoothing vehicular traffic flow through the use of real-time position and velocity information exchanged over the network. This is accomplished through the application of 1) accident alert messages sent from the site of an accident or other obstruction in the road and 2) dynamically-calculated variable speed limits based on the local density of vehicles. Using a realistic model of highway traffic flow, we show through simulation that VGrid reduces speed variance, corresponding to more homogeneous vehicle behavior in freeflow and obstructed-lane scenarios