A hub-odometer sensor network for road user charges

Considering vehicles as sensors is a new paradigm introduced by Intelligent Transportation Systems. This paper focuses on utilising standards such as IEEE 802.11p developed for vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) purposes in a self-reporting mass distance charging application for heavy vehicles. An axle mounted hub-odometer based device is proposed. The system is based on a delay tolerant data sharing regime utilising single hops within a highly dynamic topology. The messaging and application requirements are outlined and specific attention is paid to design considerations with regards to the antenna placement. The relatively low placement of the antennas on the axle ends has implications on effective transmission distance and transmission durations of moving vehicles. Ns-2 simulations are utilised to determine transmission duration requirements to test the design against.