Congestion Reduction Using Ad hoc Message Dissemination in Vehicular Networks

Vehicle-to-vehicle communications can be used effectively for intelligent transport systems (ITS) and location-aware services. The ability to disseminate information in an ad-hoc fashion allows pertinent information to propagate faster through the network. In the realm of ITS, the ability to spread warning information faster and further is of great advantage to the receivers of this information. In this paper we propose and present a message-dissemination procedure that uses vehicular wireless protocols for influencing traffic flow, reducing congestion in road networks. The computational experiments presented in this paper show how an intelligent driver model (IDM) and car-following model can be adapted to 'react' to the reception of information. This model also presents the advantages of coupling together traffic modelling tools and network simulation tools.