Data Modeling and Optimization for Wireless Drive-Through Applications

The increasing capabilities and decreasing cost of information and communication technologies (ICTs) are enabling new categories of vehicular telematics applications, such as wireless drive-through (WDT) services, in which an external service provider provides services to in-vehicle occupants via a wireless connection. Most telematics systems rely on proprietary protocols for data exchange between an in-vehicle client and its external counterpart in individual applications, making it difficult to share data-exchange methods among applications. Sharing data-exchange methods is important because it allows a rapid return on ICT investments. In this paper, we study the data-modeling issues for data exchange between an in-vehicle client and its service provider for WDT services. We present a novel data model that captures the main characteristics of data exchange for the WDT application family, using a formal mathematical representation and an intuitive graphical representation. We show that the proposed data model provides generality for such data exchange. In addition, we propose several optimization techniques based on the data model to minimize user interaction so that a good usability can be achieved. Our simulations and analysis demonstrate that the proposed data model and relevant optimization techniques are promising in supporting efficient WDT applications.