On the Application of Zone Flooding in a Traffic Warning System

The LIWAS Traffic Warning System aims at providing early warning to vehicles about slippery conditions on the road. The LIWAS system is currently under development and consists of two main parts: sensors for measuring and classifying the state of the road, and a communication infrastructure for distributing road-state information to vehicles. This paper concentrates on the communication infrastructure, and considers the application of zone flooding for implementing the distribution of road-state information. Zone flooding combines flooding and geocasting to distribute road-state information in a geographically bounded area. To evaluate the applicability of zone flooding in the LIWAS system, a simulation model has been created using the Network Simulator 2. The simulation model captures a representative road-scenario and has been used to evaluate several flooding protocols when used to implement zone flooding. The primary evaluationcriteria are the load on the network and the capability to warn other vehicles in time.