The Potential of Using Inter-Vehicle Communication to Extend the Coverage Area of Roadside Wireless Access Points on Highways

Intelligent transportation systems (ITS) is an important research topic. One goal of ITS is to provide Internet access services for vehicle drivers and passengers. Deploying many roadside wireless access points along a highway may be able to provide such a service on the highway. However, due to the short transmission range of these wireless access points, such an approach may incur much deployment cost. This paper investigates the potential of using inter-vehicle communication to extend the coverage area of roadside access points on highways.