Wireless Networks for Cars

Wireless Networks for Cars
Raja Sengupta [Assistant Professor, Civil & Environmental Engineering, UC Berkeley]
Abstract:

On October 21 1999, the FCC allocated 75 megahertz of spectrum as part of the USDOT’s “Intelligent Transportation Systems” (ITS) national program. It noted:

The record in this proceeding overwhelmingly supports the allocation of spectrum for DSRC based ITS applications to increase traveler safety, reduce fuel consumption and pollution, and continue to advance the nations economy.

The first industry-government supported standard came on August 24 2001. ASTM’s E17.51 standards committee voted 20-2 to base DSRC on a modification of IEEE 802.11a, called IEEE 802.11a Roadside at the time, and now named IEEE 802.11p. The chipsets required to the build the radios, started shipping in volume from Atheros, a month later. Now, seven years later, the chipsets are in millions of home radios everywhere and in DSRC radios almost nowhere. Specifically, we have 20 operated by UC Berkeley in California, 57 by the national VII program in Michigan, and a few in New York. There are no DSRC applications available to consumers for the enhancement of traveler safety, or any of the other goals endorsed by the FCC.

We will discuss some of the scientific challenges leading to this delay and a strategy to realize USDOT and FCC’s vision by leveraging the rise of the mobile Internet.

Biography:

Dr. Raja Sengupta is an Associate Professor in the Systems Engineering program within Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California at Berkeley. He received his Ph.d from the EECS department, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. His research interests are in vehicular ad-hoc networks and unmanned air vehicles. He is Associate Editor of the IEEE Control Systems magazine. He was Program Chair of the IEEE Conference on Autonomous Intelligent Networked Systems 2003, Co-General Chair of the first ACM MOBICOM Workshop on Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks 2004 and Co-Program Chair of the second workshop. .