Affiliations: University Lille North of France, Valenciennes, France | IIS Department, University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain | INRIA Lille Nord Europe, Villeneuve d'Ascq,
France
Note: [] Corresponding author: Thierry Delot, University Lille North of
France, LAMIH UMR UVHC/CNRS and INRIA, Le Mont Houy, 59313 Valenciennes,
France. Tel.: +33 3 27 51 19 56; Fax: +33 3 27 51 19 40; E-mail:
Thierry.Delot@univ-valenciennes.fr
Abstract: By exchanging events in a vehicular ad hoc network (VANET), drivers
can receive interesting information while driving. For example, they can be
informed of available parking spaces in their vicinity. A suitable protocol is
needed to disseminate the events efficiently within the area where they are
relevant. Moreover, in such a competitive context where each vehicle may be
interested in a resource, it is crucial not to communicate that resource to
each driver in the vicinity. Otherwise, those drivers would waste time trying
to reach a parking space and only one of them would be fulfilled, which would
lead to a poor satisfaction in the system. To solve this problem, we detail in this paper a reservation protocol that efficiently allocates parking spaces in
vehicular ad hoc networks and avoids the competition among the vehicles. We
have integrated our protocol within VESPA, a system that we have designed for
vehicles to share information in VANETs. An experimental evaluation is
provided, which proves the usefulness and benefits of our reservation protocol
in both parking lots and urban scenarios. Besides, we present an in-depth study
of the state of the art on this topic, that shows the interest and the
originality of our approach.
Keywords: Vehicular networks, data sharing, parking space allocation
