Center for Activity Systems Analysis

Two recent technological events should be examined more closely for their applicability to ATMIS and other ITS systems. First, the recent rise of wireless LAN protocols such as 802.11b should be studied for use in a vehicle context. Second, the rise and fall of Napster, followed by increased development of more decentralized protocols such as Gnutella and Freenet are leading to increasingly robust peer-to-peer platforms. This paper argues that peer-to-peer communication and local area wireless networks should play a central role in any system to distribute traveler information services. Instead, the National ITS Architecture makes no mention of peer-to-peer information exchange, relegating local area wireless connections to vehicle control.