Communicating with cars

UCLA computer science professor Mario Gerla and researcher Giovanni Pau aim to turn cars into computer nodes, creating a mobile computer network.

Computers already have made their way out from under the bonnet and into the passenger space with systems such as GPS navigation and services that can unlock a car by satellite. And wireless LAN capability will soon be installed by car manufacturers to make driving safer.

‘We have all of these computer devices as integrated systems inside our cars,’ Gerla said. ‘It's time to extend that concept. Computers are already being installed in many vehicles, and wireless capability will soon follow, so a mobile network deployment would only require the relatively low-cost addition of sensors to the vehicle's roof and bumpers and configuring the computer with new 'mobile' applications.’

The team at UCLA Engineering's Network Research Lab, led by Gerla, is looking at reinventing cars and networks based on the principles of a wireless, mobile ad-hoc networking platform, or MANET. The MANET platform allows moving vehicles within a range of 100 to 300 metres of each other to connect and, car by car, create a network with a wide range. As cars fall out of range and drop out of the network, other node-equipped cars can join in to receive or send signals.