2012 12th International Conference on ITS Telecommunications

Using VANET to Support Green Vehicle

Communications for Urban Operation Rescue
Rafidah Md Noor∗ , Rashid H. Khokhar † , Reza Jabbarpour‡ , Sajad Khorsandroo§ ,
Norazlina Khamis¶ , and Oche Michael k
Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology
University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Email:∗ fidah@um.edu.my, † rkhokhar@gmail.com, ‡ reza jabbarpour66@yahoo.com,
§ sajadkh61@gmail.com, ¶ azlina@um.edu.my, and k ochesing@gmail.com

Abstract—The paper presents a model of operation rescue and
group vehicle approach to support green vehicle communication
for urban operation rescue. Using vehicular technology could
benefit operation rescue vehicles by enabling each vehicle spreads
the information related before arriving at the incident place. In an
effort to understand the operation rescue activities, studies on the
case study are briefly discussed. Green vehicle communications
requirements are presented to show the significance of using
vehicular technology. Experiments using NS-2 to measure the
average delay time per trip and average throughput for three
different scenarios are presented.
I. I NTRODUCTION
A vehicular network is a kind of wireless networks that
has emerged in wireless technologies and the automotive in-
dustry. Vehicular network is formed between moving vehicles
equipped with wireless interfaces that could be of homoge-
neous or heterogeneous technologies. These networks, also
known as Vehicle Ad Hoc Network (VANET), are considered
as one of the ad hoc network real-life applications, enabling
communications among nearby vehicles as well as between
vehicles and nearby fixed equipment (roadside equipment).
VANET a special kind of Mobile Ad Hoc Network (MANET)
which specialized in vehicular communications. VANET is
based on smart cars and base-stations, which share information
via wireless communications. This interchange of data may
have a great impact on safety and driving, reducing the number
of accidents and helping to optimize transport. Vehicles can
be either private, own by individuals or private companies,
or public transport (e.g., buses, trains, police cars, fire trucks,
helicopters, etc.) [2], [6]. Fixed equipment can belong to the
government, private network operators or service providers.
The emerging vehicular networks will enable a variety of
applications for safety which will be applied to reduce ac-
cidents as well as to save lives and reduce injuries, traffic
efficiency. Improving the traffic flow and reduce congestion
may help driver in accessing the accurate information and good
communications among the drivers and passengers.
The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. Section
II discusses the existing related work using mobile and vehic-
ular ad hoc networks. In Section III, the concept of vehicular
technology and its challenges are presented. In Section IV, we
presented our novel models which are operation rescue model
and green vehicle communications model. The performance
tests are presented in Section V. Finally, Section VI concludes
the paper with possible future directions.
II. O PERATION R ESCUE : R ELATED W ORK
Communication is the most important characteristic for
rescue group members in rescue operations and natural disaster
conditions. Researchers [19] have proposed the use of multi-
cast MANETs as a communication media in such environ-
ments. They used simulation tools to explore the efficiency of
their approached. MANETs are suitable for rescue operations;
because of their characteristics such as self-organizing which
require non-infrastructure network. Visiliou and Economides
[19] simulated two realistic scenarios in finding any survivors
at a mountain and gas pipe explosion. They used Multicast Ad-
hoc On-demand Distance Vector Routing Protocol (MAODV)
and On Demand Multicast Routing Protocol(ODMRP) as
different multicast protocols. Based on their simulation results,
ODMRP has better Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR) and lower
latency in both scenarios. They concluded that MANETs can
be used for reliable communication in real rescue operations.
Plagemann et al. [8] developed the MIDAS Data Space
(MDS) to transparently share information among rescue ap-
plications in MANETs. They applied optimistic replication
in MDS for getting the acceptable level of reliability and
availability for important information. Consistency manage-
ment and complexity are the most important problems which
caused by optimistic replication. They solved these problems
by using the tailor-made solutions for emergency and rescue
applications. Meanwhile, researchers in [12] studied the effi-
ciency of some routing and MAC protocols under the Client-
Server architecture to explore MANET usage in rescue and
relief applications at emergency situations. Ad hoc networks
(e.g. MANET, VANET) can be organized quickly, and ensure
communications during the rescue operations because of their
adaptive and dynamic MAC and routing protocols. They
performed different scenarios to show the impact of both
routing and MAC layer over multiple QoS parameters (delay,
throughput, energy, etc.) in small and large scales rescue areas.
Based on their results, AODV and ZPR routing protocols are
suitable for small and large scale rescue operations, respec-
tively.

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In [17], researchers proposed MANET-based Monitoring
of Battlefields or Rescue Operations in Urban Scenarios.
Satellites are used for mobile nodes monitoring with high
accuracy in open environments such as deserts. However when
rescue operations occured in urban environments, satellite-
based monitoring was not capable to detect the vehicles at
the parking space inside the building. In this situation, adding
the camera to the mobile units is one of the solutions for
high precision monitoring in rescue operations and battlefields
which has been proposed in [17]. The captured images and
videos are gathered by using MANETs mechanism. The data
is sent immediately to the headquarter using long range
communication or central control office for making a true
decision.
Bhargav et al. [4] proposed three types of communica-
tion which are an intra-team communication, an inter-team
communication and a global internetworking for a specific
team called unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) for tactical
information operations. When the autonomous team flying
close together, it created ad-hoc fashion network to allow
information exchanges. The experiment showed that their
network architecture supported the operational functionality
for multiple autonomous teams. Meanwhile, Martins et al.
[14] conducted the autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs)
for ocean searching operation. The underwater vehicles are
communicated through a command and control unit (CCU)
within a limited communication range. In similar scenario, [7]
proposed the disaster-relief network architecture by using self-
organizing ad hoc networks which enable quicker response to
typical communications with high bandwidth. It is importance
for rescue personnel to obtain accurate and consistent infor-
mation to control and coordination the rescue operations. All
the above mentioned approaches are summarized in Table I.
According to above literature reviews, most of the previous
approaches have focused on routing, MAC and multicast
protocols in MANET environments for investigation of rescue
operations. Thus, a new model or framework which includes
all these concepts needs to be developed. Considering that the
major components of rescue operations are vehicles such as
ambulances, helicopters and police vehicles, using the VANET
as network infrastructure would be a better solution.
III. G REEN VANET
Green ICT (Information Communication Technology) is
a newly-emerged area of study which focuses on reducing
harmful impacts of computer and communication equipments
on the natural environment and climate [5]. For example,
ICT industry, the same as aviation industry, produces 2-2.5%
of global carbon emission [10]. Besides, ICT equipments
energy consumption accounts for almost 3% of overall energy
consumption in Japan in 2006 [18]. Therefore, to preserve
the natural environment along with reduction in energy con-
sumption, it seems inevitable to pursue solutions which result
in a more green communication. Rescue operations based on
VANET (Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks) technology, is a field
of ICT which is in dire need of green communication. Not
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TABLE I
R ESCUE O PERATIONS USING A D H OC N ETWORKS
Approach Focus
Multicast MANETs [19] MAODV and ODMRP are compared as
multicast protocol. ODMRP has better PDR
and lower latency
MDS [8] Optimistic replication is used to transpar-
ently information sharing
Routing and MAC [12] MANETs’ Routing and MAC protocols are
investigated to find out their efficiency in
rescue operations
Battlefields [17] Adding the cameras to mobile units for
hidden points monitoring
UAVs [4] Provide architecture for tactical informa-
tion sharing among aerial vehicles. They
divided their architecture’s communication
level into three levels: intra-team com-
munication, inter-team communication and
global internetworking
AUVs [14] AUVs form an ad hoc network with the help
of autonomous surface vehicle (ASV) for
ocean explorations
Easy Wireless [7] Focus on the ITEA Easy Wireless project
and its main goal which is service continuity
for mobile users for better supporting of
rescue operations
only a rescue operation should not disturb people who leave
nearby, but also it has to be be performed in such a way that
lessens any possible damages to the surrounding environment.
In addition, due to the delicacy of a rescue operation, it has
to bring into account optimum energy consumption. However,
any proposed solution has to be implemented in an efficient
way [15] meaning that it requires to guarantee high quality
along with acceptable range of communication. IN other
words, mechanisms proposed in a successful solution should
not interfere with quality of ad hoc communication, or even
decreases the operative range of it.
Green solutions in VANETs have to take two important
issues into consideration: transmission techniques and commu-
nication status. According to [11], two important transmission
techniques in ad hoc networks are single-hop and multi-hop
communications. In single-hop model, energy consumption in
relation with longest transmission distance while in the latter
technique, multi-hop, numbers of mobile nodes in addition to
their distance play an important role. Each technique has its
own pros and cons. In order to benefit from their advantages
and avoiding from their disadvantages, it can be useful to
benefit from a geographical topology management protocols
such as GAF (Geographical adaptive fidelity)[20]. It helps to
keep the number of nodes and also their distance in such
a close to optimum situation in which energy consumption
can be decreased to a considerable extent. Another thing
to mention is the communication states. According to [9],
four types of communication status are: sleeping, listening,
transmitting and receiving. Energy consumption in sleeping
mode is much less than the other three modes. Thus, any
energy saving solution in VANET environments should take to using it. Onboard Unit’s provide communication to
advantage of an algorithm or a procedure which puts inactive other cars in the area, without a proper security they are
nodes in a sleeping mode and recover them whenever it is threats to the system.
needed. 6) The IP version 4 (IPv4) is not enough address for every
In a rescue operation which benefits from VANET, com- car. IP version 6 (IPv6) has been proposed for use in
munication channels can be heavily loaded and sometimes vehicular networks. Cars should be able to change their
congested. Therefore, more bandwidth is required to send an IP addresses so that they are not traceable, however it
undistorted video stream over the wireless channels. Clearly, is not clear how this will be achieved.
this is not possible (or very difficult) to provide more band- 7) Technologies like the cell phones are already acting as
width for this goal, especially in the middle of a rescue portable computers in cars, GPS units are being used to
operation. Then, we need to devise some solutions which route alternate directions, and safety systems such as On-
guarantee quality of communication without adding any more Star can notify authorities in the event of an emergency.
resources to the operation. [16],[13] are among those solutions With technology increasing data rate in cellular phones,
which can accelerate emergency video streaming transmission there may not be a need to use cars as nodes on a
over VANET, without any degradation in video quality and network.
also without any in increase in the available bandwidth. IV. U RBAN O PERATION R ESCUE
A. The VANET Challenges An operation rescue is planned activity involving people to
The special behavior and characteristics of VANETs create perform variuos activities to free from danger or confinement.
some challenges for vehicular communications, which can Search and Rescue (SAR) is about searching and provision
greatly impact the future deployment of these networks. A of aid to people who are in distress or imminent danger. The
number of technical challenges need to be resolved in order general field of search and rescue includes many specialty sub-
to deploy vehicular networks and to provide useful services fields, such as mountain rescue, ground search and rescue,
for drivers and passengers in such networks. Below we try to search and rescue dogs, urban search and rescue in cities,
enumerate some of those challenges. combat search and rescue on the battlefield and air-sea rescue
1) The design of the transport protocol for VANETs is over water.
A proposed operation rescue model is presented in Figure 1
rather at its initial phase. There is no transport protocol
where it consists of Operation Rescue Data Center (ORDC),
customized for vehicular networks so far, and it is also
operation rescue teams, and green vehicle communication
very difficult to design new protocols or adapt existing
indicators. The operation rescue team creates a vehicle area
protocols by modifications or enhancement.
network (VAN) for communications. Each rescue unit vehicle
2) Hardware designers for VANETs has no full or enough
will communicate in less than 1000 metres radius. The ORDC
resources and capacity for a full functional mobile ad
monitors and controls the operational rescue that involves
hoc network this poses a serious scalability issue for the
multiple teams. A proposed model in each district or region
hardware designers. For example, a small node density
may provide the efficiency of operation rescue.
situation would involve very few cars to communicate
in which some vehicles may be out of range completely.
As for high density situations, sharing bandwidth may
pose to be a challenge for VANETs
3) VANET is a cooperative technology and potential cus-
tomers may not see the immediate value. This poses a
business challenge for VANET especially in creation of
new market for the technology. Newer cars could all
be equipped with VANET, but would not be able to
communicate with the older vehicles.
4) New protocols and wireless transmission schemes for
VANETs cannot be implemented in large test bed
systems due to complexity and costs. Therefore, sim-
ulation of VANETs is a crucial method to evaluate
new approaches. However, the specific characteristics
of vehicular networks also require specific simulation
models. New road-based mobility models including the
behavior of potential drivers are one example for a
specific simulation model [1].
5) One of the biggest hurdles for any new technology
today is security. VANET promises to provide safety Fig. 1. Operation Rescue Model.
and entertainment to its users, however there are risks

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 TABLE II
A. Requirements for Green Vehicle Communications PARAMETERS OF IEEE 802.11 P S PECIFICATIONS
The significance of using VANET to support green vehicle
Parameter Values
communications are listed below:
1) Travel Time Index (TTI): Reduce Vehicle Miles Traveled Mobility Model Mobility Random Waypoint
Simulation Area 1000 m x 1000 m
by using TTI. The percentage of travel trips accessi-
Mobility Speed 20 m/s
ble by the vehicles (travel time between representative
No. of vehicles 10-20-50
locations) and each rescue unit team perform at one
Traffic Type Constant Bit Rate (CBR)
particular area and shall not travel far from their team.
Packet Size 512 bytes
h i Simulation Time 100 s
travel−trip−loc−time
TTI = f ree−f low−travel−time × peak − hours ×100 Protocol AODV
Maximum distance 100 m
2) Buffer Time Index (BTI): Impact of Real-Time Rescuer
Information. To analyze the information used in effective
ways. BTI measures the extra buffer time needed to send to allow the changes of vehicle direction. A new approach of
the message to the rescue unit team. group vehicular is proposed to provide green communications.
h i Figure 2 describes the concept of group vehicular approach.
BT I = [95th−percentile−travel]−[travel−rate]
travel−rate
× 100 The operation rescue team consists of one commander vehicle
and multiple follower vehicles. Each vehicle communicates
3) Average Delay per Trip (ADT): Reduce congestion by among themselves through 802.11p standard. The commander
using ADT. Vehicle delays during the time elapsed from vehicle is point of reference for the follower vehicles in the
the notification of an incident until all the team arrived operation rescue. The commander acts as a router to forward
and the incident is removed from the scene. or receive messages from or to the data center. The group
is randomly distributed around the reference location. Each
h i
ADT = [95th−percentile−travel]+[extra−travel−time] vehicla has a speed and direction that derived by randomly
×100
total−travel−time
deviating from the commander vehicle.
4) Throughput: Number of vehicles traversing in one par-
ticular areas with given facility section to perform the V. P ERFORMANCE T EST
operation rescue. We used the NS-2 simulator [3] to measure the performance
of the vehicular network. There are three different scenarios
B. Group Vehicular Approach
which consists of 10 vehicles, 20 vehicles and 50 vehicles. The
An operation rescue is a challenging experience in helping context is about simulating the operation rescue team traffic
any incidents involved in urban areas and rural areas. The in urban area. Hence, the speed is considered 20 m/s which
rescue team requires efficient and reliable communications run with configurations of IEEE 802.11p. Table II shows the
for each operational rescue involved. The operation rescue parameters defined in NS-2.
team would be able to share an incident location, share the
incident cases via video or voice streaming, forward a medical A. Experiments and Results
information, etc. Urban traffic has increased dramatically, The experiments are conducted to measure the proposed
making driving more stressful, costly, and unhealthy. For urban model using the two indicators which are Average Delay Time
operation rescue team, it may affect their operation because (ADT) and Throughput. In mobility random waypoint model,
of the high traffic density. Our aim is to use vehicular ad a vehicle moves toward it destination in randomly manner
hoc technology to support urban operation rescue in providing with a defined speed [0, Vmax ] where Vmax is the maximum
green vehicular communications. allowable speed for a vehicle. When the vehicle reached the
destination, it stopped for a duration (”pause time”). The
process repeats until the simulation ends.
Figure 3 shows the results for average delay time per trip
for three different scenarios. We examined the average travel
time per trip for the operation rescue from the coordinate range
(150, 250) to their destination at the coordinate range (890,
990). The operation rescue communicating with each other
via the commander to ensure that they are moving to the same
direction. First, the results are collected and presented for one-
Fig. 2. Group Vehicle Communications Model. way trip of the operation rescue. Then, we presented the results
for two-way trip where the operation rescue is moving towards
A mobility random waypoint is simple and widely use to their start coordinate. With a small number of vehicles, 10, the
evaluate the MANET performance. It consists of pause time average delay per trip is 165.20 ms compared to 181.20 ms

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and 224.30 ms for 20 vehicles and 50 vehicles respectively.
The higher number of vehicles communicating on the road,
increased the delay time per trip.
Fig. 3. Average Delay Time per Trip.
We conducted similar experiment to measure the average
packet throughput during the travel time for the operation
rescue. The average throughput for 10 and 20 vehicles are 0.06
Mbps and 0.118 Mbps respectively. The average throughput
for 50 vehicles are higher than the other 2 scenarios, i.e.
0.455 Mbps. Figure 4 depicts the average throughput for three
different scenarios.
Fig. 4. Average Throughput.
VI. C ONCLUSION
This paper introduced an operation rescue model with green
vehicle communication indicators. Travel time index, buffer
time index, average delay per trip and throughput are proposed
to measure the green vehicle communications for operation
rescue. A simple communication in the mobility group are
experimented using NS-2. The two indicators are used to
evaluate the three scenarios, which are average delay time
per trip (ADT) and throughput. ADT results have shown
that the higher number of vehicles on road, contribute to it
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results. Meanwhile, the average packet throughput is increased
with higher number of vehicles compared to less number of
vehicles. In future, we will evaluate the other two indicators,
i.e. TTI and BTI, using real traffic data.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank Ministry of Higher Educa-
tion (MOHE) Malaysia and University of Malaya that funded
this project under HIR-B000009.
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