With emerging standards such as dedicated short-range communication (DSRC) designated for vehicle-to-vehicle communications and roadside-to-vehicle communications, cars will soon be able to communicate with each other. This enables a new class of communications applications that can support future transportation systems and needs. Located in Motown, we are working to rapidly adapt these technologies for the transportation industry. Several faculty members at the University of Michigan-Dearborn have teamed together to establish the Vehicular Networking Systems Research Laboratory. The goal of this laboratory is to provide a dedicated environment for interdisciplinary experimental research in wireless networking and mobile computing in order to develop expertise in both the theoretical and applied aspects of wireless networking and mobile computing within the context of automotive applications. The current foci of our research are in the following five areas:

1. Development of physical layer prototypes for inter-vehicle communications
2. Development of routing protocols for inter-vehicle communications
3. Development of a real-time traffic information system
4. Development of an in-vehicle database management system
5. Development of a cooperative driving system

This lab was established with funding from NSF Grant No. 0521142.