A Study of Wireless Sensor Networks for Urban Traffic

Monitoring: Applications and Architectures

Mohamed Amine Kafi, Yacine Challal, Djamel Djenouri, Messaoud Doudou,
Abdelmadjid Bouabdallah, Nadjib Badache

To cite this version:

Mohamed Amine Kafi, Yacine Challal, Djamel Djenouri, Messaoud Doudou, Abdelmadjid Bouab-
dallah, et al.. A Study of Wireless Sensor Networks for Urban Traffic Monitoring: Applications
and Architectures. International Conference on Ambient Systems, Networks and Technologies, 2013,
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 A study of Wireless Sensor Networks for Urban
Traffic Monitoring: Applications and Architectures
Mohamed Amine KAFIa*, Yacine CHALLALb, Djamel DJENOURIa,
Messaoud DOUDOUa, Abdelmadjid BOUABDALLAHb, Nadjib BADACHEa.
a CERIST, Centre for Research on Scientific and Technical Information, Algiers, ALGERIA.
b Université de Technologie de Compiègne, Laboratoire Heudiasyc UMR CNRS 6599, France.

Abstract—With the constant increasing of Vehicular manage complex situations and enabling real-time
traffic around the world, especially in urban areas, adaptive traffic control systems. Data of interest
existing traffic management solutions become includes position, traffic condition, local weather,
inefficient. This can be clearly seen in our life through images, acceleration, etc. Some possible sensors for
persistent traffic jam and rising number of accidents. ITS include magneto resistive, light, pressure,
Wireless sensor networks (WSN) based intelligent infrared, video, etc.
transportation systems (ITS) have emerged as a cost
effective technology that bear a pivotal potential to
overcome these difficulties. This technology enables a
new broad range of smart city applications around
urban sensing including traffic safety, traffic
congestion control, road state monitoring, vehicular
warning services, and parking management.
This manuscript gives a comprehensive review on
WSN based ITS solutions. The main contribution of
this paper is to classify current WSNs based ITS
projects from the application type point of view with a
deep discussion on how the application requirements
are fulfilled. This work extends our previous study on Figure 1 Mote components.
traffic lights WSNs based projects []. The literature presents few surveys on WSNs based
ITS. In [2], authors survey vehicular sensor
Keywords—WSN, ITS, traffic management, traffic network (VSN) platforms, while those of [3]
monitoring, traffic safety, parking management. discuss many urban applications. In contrast, in this
survey we review WSN based ITS projects and
solutions based on both on-road and/or on-vehicle
1. Introduction sensors. We discuss their architectures, analyze
Nowadays, traffic jam and high number of
them according to several important performance
accidents in urban and metropolitan areas become
criteria and highlight some open issues.
more and more stressful and lead to dramatic
consequences on economy, human health, and The remainder of this paper will be organized as
environment. follows. Section 2 presents some applications of
ITS. In Section 3, some requirements of WSN
Existing ITS solutions detect vehicles in predefined
usage in ITS systems are discussed. Relevant
positions. They are based on bulky and power-
architectures that are used in ITS projects based
hungry devices which use wired technologies for
on WSN technology are presented in Section 4,
communication and power supply. This increases
followed by some projects for traffic management
their installation, maintenance, and reparation cost
that rely on WSN. In Section 6, the relation
and subverts the scalability of ITS affecting thus
between traffic management applications and WSN
their major objectives [1].
architectures is investigated. Finally, Section 7
Advances in embedded systems and wireless draws the conclusions and open research trends.
technology give birth to wireless sensor networks
(WSNs) which are composed of cheap and tiny 2. ITS Applications:
devices that communicate wirelessly and sense the Requirements and Challenges
surrounding environment. Each device node The ITSs attempt to manage optimally the urban
contains sensors; a processor, a memory, a radio, traffic by enhancing safety, reducing travel time
and energy source as depicted in Fig. 1. This and fuel consumption at the aim of improving our
technology has a great potential to overcome daily life. It works as a control loop system where it
existing difficulties of ITS. senses traffic and road conditions using surveillance
or detection system. The gathered information is
With WSN, different types of motes can be used to communicated to the decision system to be
sense, process and transmit data to optimally organized and analyzed in order to take appropriate
 decisions. Figure 2 illustrates a simplified scheme WSN based ITS can be deployed in many
of ITS. application scenarios and may fit into many
categories or diverge slowly from existing ones. So,
applications’ categorization has to be flexible
because answering the needs of the operators and
Figure 2 ITS mechanism.
end users is the first goal of tracing classification.

Figure 3 ITS Classification WSN Based projects

As the purpose of ITS is traffic monitoring and  Reliability: In WSN based ITS many critical
management to improve life quality, ITS decisions must be token regarding the received

Drivers’ safety: Its principle is to transmit

applications classification can include: information. So, the lost in some data packets can
lead to undesired system behavior. The harsh
information related to accidents and weather in environment conditions and the lossy nature of
order to reduce the number and severity of crashes wireless link raise the probability of lost which
that lowers the number of deaths and injuries. It can require reliable communication protocol.

Traffic Management: the goal of such system is  Real-Time: Despite receiving reliable information,
be also used to guide ambulances and fire trucks.

to minimize congestion of the whole traffic network real time reception may be also more or less critical
and optimize the use of road capacity. This is done regarding the application. Ensuring delay guarantee
through traffic optimization and real-time traffic in WSN is challenging and must be dealt by the
underlying solution.
 Smart cities: It is clear that ITS’s goal is enabling
light control.

smart cities. So, this category covers the remaining  Heterogeneity: The coexistence of many WSN
applications. Because of limited space, we restrict based ITS solutions technologies is primordial for
our study to: (i) Traveler Navigation Guidelines to long life of the system.
minimize cost, time, and fuel consumption, (ii)
Pollution Prevention which become a sensible Security: Wireless communications impose more
field and needs more and more attention, and (iii) security issues namely, jamming and criminality
Efficient Parking Management which may be also a attacks, physical compromising of motes, etc. This
field of traffic optimization but it falls also in smart makes security handling mandatory for any
cities sub-classes. Figure summarizes our proposed proposed WSN based solution.
WSN based ITS applications.
Requirements
Despite their benedicts over conventional systems,
communication
interoperability
Applications

WSNs face many design challenges to fulfill ITS

Multimodal
reliability

Real time
security

sensing

application requirements. This stems from their

inherent properties such as: wireless
communication, absence of physical protection and
resource limitations. These challenges should be
overcome by any WSN based ITS solution.
Following a thorough analysis of ITS applications Traffic light ++ ++ + +++ +
in our previous study [RF], five main application Parking + + + + +
requirements can be distinguished thus far namely: management
reliability, security, interoperability, end-to-end Traffic + ++ + ++ ++
communication latency, and multimodal sensing. optimization
 safety + ++ + ++ + In this kind of communications all the above sub
Smart cities + ++ + ++ ++ classes can be found but in the presence of base
stations (BS) that can be also relayed to each
Table 1 Applications’ requirements
other or to servers and Internet through either
 Multimodal sensing: An ITS application is subject wireless or wired links. This includes wifi,
to various type of environment measurement Wimax, cellular, DSRC [13], and sensors.
depending on the application and user’s preference. (i) On-road sensors with Base Stations [14-21],
Such measurements variables include: gas (ii) Vehicular sensors with Base Stations [22-24].
emissions, traveling delay, traveling tolls, etc.
Consequently, the use of multimodal sensors by a (iii) Hybrid on-road and on-vehicles sensors with
WSN solution is more appropriate to efficient Base Stations [25, 26].
traffic management.
The BS makes decisions and notifies actuators.
Table 1 presents a summary on the degree of The BS may also communicate to take global
importance the above requirements should be decisions.
ensured by WSN for each type of ITS applications.
4.3 Hybrid ad-hoc and infrastructure-enabled
monitoring:
3. WSN Architectures for In this paradigm, static on-road and mobile on-
Urban Traffic Monitoring vehicle sensors and devices communicate using
available infrastructures (wifi, Wimax, cellular,
Network architecture for ITS applications using BS) or using multi-hop ad-hoc communications
WSN technology changes from an application to in the absence of infrastructure [27-30]. This
another, depending on the needs and the cost. kind of architecture is the most efficient and
Information exchange can be performed either takes advantage of all the available
through ad-hoc communication, or using architectures.
infrastructure, or hybrid. We also distinguish
two types of sensors: on-road sensors and on- 4. Projects on WSN-based
vehicle sensors. The combination of sensor types
and communication paradigms gives birth to Urban Traffic Management
various wireless sensor network architectures Many urban sensing applications are developed
for ITS applications: thus far, including traffic monitoring, urban
surveillance, and road surface monitoring. Some
4.1 Ad-hoc paradigm: relevant projects are highlighted in the following,
In this paradigm sensors do not have a specific using their application field.
backbone but they exchange and forward
collected data in an ad-hoc manner. Node 5.1 Traffic Management
deployment can be classified into:
(i) On road sensor network, where all sensors
5.1.1 Traffic Light Control
are implanted shallowly inside the carriage or on Controlling isolated or interconnected intersections
poles next to the road. In this case, sensors are from ITS point of view is to optimize its capacity
static. Sensors communicate in a multi-hop way utilization through managing the intersection
(without using any infrastructure). parameters [13]. Many optimization algorithms
(ii) Vehicular sensor network, where all sensors were proposed in order to achieve this goal.
are included in vehicles. In V2V (vehicle-to-
vehicle) communications, mobile nodes directly Through the domain literature, off-line methods
communicate to each other without any need of using historical measurements conduct to fixed time
infrastructure [7-10]. Vehicles exchange strategies while on-line ones using real time
information helping to avoid severe situations like measurements give birth to traffic responsive
traffic jam and enhancing drivers’ security. strategies. This category can be ameliorated using
Decisions can be taken even locally or WSN based ITS. Our previous study [] focused on
cooperatively. this ITS application type.
(iii) Hybrid ad-hoc sensor network, which is
more robust and combines the two previous In [14-16,18,20], the authors use on-road sensors to
deployments. Both on-road and in-vehicle implement traffic light WSN based solutions. In
sensors, exchange traffic information to [19,29,30] authors use on-road and on-vehicle
cooperatively take correct and real-time sensors, while in [10] authors use only on-vehicle
decisions for traffic optimization and driver safety sensors.
[11, 12].
5.1.2 Parking applications
4.2 Infrastructure-enabled monitoring:
In these applications, sensors are located on the and the surface is not explained a part the existence
ground and form a network to monitor vehicles of a sensor at each turning lane and the half of the
entrance/exit to a parking lot, to update availability lane which are not sufficiently precise in long lane
of parking spaces, and possibly to help orienting diameter. A Possible integration of the system with
drivers towards these places. other ITS applications will enhance overall city
driving.
Zhang et al. [17] propose a three level architecture
system (Figure 3) where the lower one composed of 5.1.3 Traffic optimization
sensors forming a cluster, monitoring the From [44], the efficiency and optimization of traffic
surrounding environment and fusing data through can be viewed from two perspectives. The whole
their cluster head. The middle level is the ITS system goal is ensuring road fluency and
transmission and management composed of the minimizing accidents while individual driver goal is
cluster heads which communicate between them fast arriving with minimum cost.
and transmit information to data terminal, the The authors propose a minimizing travel time
benefits to use two frequencies avoiding algorithm that uses road sensor nodes measurement
interference intra-cluster and inter-cluster heads is to estimate lane travelling time and choosing the
clear. The higher level is the decision-making level fast one.
where the control is done to manage traffic and
implement ITS strategies. Collins and Muntean [23, 24] present TraffCon
Which try optimizing the overall system efficiency
The system is applied to parking management with rather than individual only demands by optimizing
a sensor per vehicle place to find available spaces the whole network road capacity utilization through
and their location and inform drivers about it drivers re routing, changing lanes, etc. This goal is
through interface. reached using a client server architecture where the
Sensors in each parking area form a cluster, sense clients interact with the server part using WAVE
empty places and notify the base station so that (Wireless Access in Vehicular Environments). The
places will be displayed to users. vehicles equipped with GPS gather road state
information and the server make decisions using
The architecture used is efficient in many ITS optimization algorithms (like genetic algorithms) to
applications but only parking application use don’t be consumed by clients through displays or audio
need this architecture because the decision taken media. So, the clients don’t take decisions by their
are not so complex and does not need so levelled own and the system guideline respect drivers’
system. comfort.
Authors suppose that all vehicles are equipped
which may not always be true.

The goal of Iftode et al. [22] in their Active high

way paradigm is ensuring drivers’ traveling time
boundaries near of that ensured by train and
airlines. This is done through scheduling in a
flexible manner users’ travels. To do, drivers
Figure 3 Three tier architecture. reserve their travel through internet or in real time
while driving. This permits them to drive in
Boda et al. [21] design and implement a wireless reserved lanes which cohabit with ordinary lanes.
sensor network using magnetic sensors for real-time For ensuring system well work, real-time
available parking spaces and integrates it with measurements of road state (congestion, accidents,
telecommunication network (as telephony weather related state…) is collected and sent to the
network), so that end users check for places using decision maker server by different sensing
their cellular telephones. This work gains in cost by mechanisms as vehicles’ sensors, on road sensors.
putting sensors in determined key locations rather It is clear that the reservations and system
than every vehicle place using a studied location orientations (speed, route changing…) need users’
scheme in the goal to know the number and displays to be present, localization mechanisms are
location of empty places. There are three types of also required. The system takes into account
nodes which are the key location sensor nodes, the security and privacy requirements to satisfy users’
router nodes without sensors, and finally the base intentions and ensure system well functioning.
station which is simply the collecting node relayed
to the computer. The idea behind Active highways is interesting but
need more investigation to guaranty time bounds
Authors don’t involve how to consume the especially when internet reservation is done the
available information or how to request for it. The exact entrance moment may be relayed which
relation between the number of sensors in the path perturbs the scheduling. The exit system from the
high lanes needs more details because if the vehicle transmission security is ensured using soft
can’t exit quickly it slows vehicles in the lane. mechanisms in this scheme due its high importance
especially for post accidents as data may stay for
long time before being requested. Road sensors and
5.2 Safety vehicles communicate using IEEE 802.15.4and
The purpose of Jankuloska et al. [28] in SRM is to
vehicles use IEEE 802.11p to distribute the
gather traffic information, which enhances system
information in multi-hop manner. The solution was
and driver safety, to display to drivers and
tested through a real implementation.
authority, through SMS or e-mail, in order to take
appropriate decisions. The traffic information in
The scheme proposed may be used for traffic
SRM concern violations of traffic signals by drivers
management. As it combines road side sensors, the
(over speed driving, no respect of stop or direction
overall system performance may be enhanced. The
interdiction signals...) or dangerous situations as
use of access points may also enhance the
accident’ happening. VSN (vehicular sensor
application. Authors introduce the security of
networks) is used in addition to on-road nodes
storage which is important and introduce security
combining so ad-hoc and infrastructure based
when requesting the databases. But storing the data
scheme. The vehicle nodes, after sensing their
in the WSN itself is not so interesting compared the
environment, send data to the road node units
use of gateways especially for long time storage
which at their turn send the aggregated data to the
and the exploitation of stored data will be easier
data centre where decisions are taken. The Road
from requesting the WSN.
units communicate this decision to vehicle nodes.
The Data Centre contains system data bases and is
responsible of decision taken and transmission to 5.3 Smart cities
authorities (like SMS to police cars). The inter The work presented by Fantacci and Chiti [25],
vehicles communication are permitted and enhance which servers among others to sense environment
system functionality by exchanging hazardous pollution level load, is composed by road sensor
information. A real test of the prototype has shown nodes, mobile in vehicle sensors, and
its feasibility and benefit. interconnected access points. The access points
gather information from the both nodes type,
Authors propose this architecture for safety but it aggregate and encode them and send them to the
can be used also to enhance road capacity through mobile vehicles which are not restricted to a
sending the recommended speed to avoid dedicated access point. The consumption of this
congestion or to reroute vehicles through other information by the vehicles is done through a
empty roads. The use of RSN unit may be enhanced displayer and serves to take appropriate decisions
by introducing sensors in it. The communication concerning congestion avoidance, pollution load
between RSN units is not also highlighted which balancing in the whole system, optimum route
can increase the performance. Security of choice, etc.
communication does not also be introduced.
Authors focalize on efficient gathering and coding
The work in [51], presents a scheme to avoid operations ensuring also reliability. But they don’t
vehicle collision using on-road and on-vehicle introduce inter vehicles communication which can
wireless nodes. This scheme is based on wireless enhance system performance. Also the integration
signal quality and strength, where stationary on- of this system with other ITS application to manage
road nodes send to approaching vehicles traffic is not introduced. The information presented
information about the in-intersection vehicles after to drivers may be augmented with orientations to
detection using magnetic sensors. The authors test guide drivers to take right decisions. The use of
their system on a real prototype. But this work does pollution information must be system based to
not present how to secure communication or ensure avoid drivers’ ignoring.
their reliability, as loss of information when drivers
trust on it result on catastrophes. The system proposed by Xia et al. [26], whose
goal is helping to intelligent navigation and path
Festag et al. [11, 12] work combines road sensor planning, is composed of vehicles equipped with
nodes to extend the vision of vehicle sensors, different sensors communicating between them and
ensuring so driver safety. The WSN composed by having on board displays, road sensors that send
road nodes send the aggregated data concerning road state like vehicles speed to sink sensor nodes
road state such as weather and obstacles especially where data is stored, and data center where decision
in harsh situation like forests and icy zones. The are taken after receiving sinks data. The data center
vehicles exchange these transmitted values to draw sends utile information to end users in their vehicles
a more complete view. This architecture avoiding and to traffic deciders to take appropriate reactions.
accidents is also used to ensure post accidents As an example of the system functioning is traffic
procedure as drivers’ responsibility. Data and jam detecting and so route changing. The vehicle
noting its speed staying low for a long time in a city. It presents three middleware platforms for
transmits a message to the sink through sources on- three different programming models.
road sensors. This last, after a significant messages
number receiving, broadcasts to vehicles and data The model proposed in Urbanet is interesting but
server the road jamming state. The vehicles them does not use collected data from different kinds of
selves broadcast this message to enlarge the sensors to manage traffic. Attaching Urbanet with
coverage. A prototype was tested by authors in their existing infrastructure will also enhance the overall
work. system performance and will permit using
The scheme used in this work is interesting. But additional ITS applications. Urbanet interest on
authors don’t give enough details on algorithms programming applications but does not give details
used to perform path selection. The integration of on communication protocols and security
this system results’ are not explored for traffic mechanisms which needs also investigation.
management as adaptive traffic lights. Security
communication is not introduced; even authors Nadeem et al. [8,9] present TrafficView which
highlight its necessity and application reliability for provides drivers with traffic conditions information
well application running. to be used in route planning and driving during
special weather conditions causing low visibility.
Hull et al. develop “Car Tel” [27], which is a Each vehicle is supposed having a computing
mobile sensing and computing system that uses device with a display, a short-range wireless
phones and on-board vehicle devices. Each node interface, and a GPS receiver.
gathers, processes, and delivers sensing data to a
central portal, where the data is stored in a database Vehicles gather and broadcast information about
for further analysis and visualization and them and other vehicles they know about, in an ad-
constructing a reusable software platform for many hoc manner (car-to-car communications).
mobile traffic sensing applications. CarTel nodes Localization algorithms using angles between roads
rely on wireless technologies (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and vehicles speed are developed in this project.
other CarTel nodes and mobile phone) to
communicate with the portal. Traffic View model has been used in Traffic
management protocol [29], but the integration of
Car-Tel project includes traffic mitigation [46,47], this model with on road sensors will enhance the
road surface monitoring and hazard detection [48], performance. Also the integration of this model
vehicular networking [49], privacy protocols, with the infrastructure will also help especially for
intermittently connected databases. requesting through internet based browsers. Also a
The model used by Cartel is very interesting security communication is envisaged by authors in
especially the heterogeneity handling of different following versions.
communication technologies. But including static
on road sensors and actor infrastructure to the same CitySense [50] is an urban sensor network testbed
system network may enhance system performance, developed at Harvard University and BBN
especially when many existing cars don’t dispose Technologies. It consists of 100 wireless sensors
on-board sensors or displays. Cartel permits drivers deployed across a city (on light poles, private or
to know about jams and statistical data but don’t public buildings) in Cambridge, MA. Each node is
give enough details on traffic management or an embedded PC, with dual 802.11a/b/g radio
guiding which may be added easily to it as cartel is interface, and various sensors for monitoring
conceived in a modular manner. weather conditions and air pollutants. Users
reprogram and monitor CitySense nodes via
As smart phones offer complex computation, huge Internet. The testbed contains wire line gateways
storage, and long-range communication, Urbanet linking the wireless mesh to the Internet, and back-
[7] proposed by Riva and Borcea use them as multi end servers for reprogramming and monitoring,
sensor (audio, video…) devices creating a wireless storing data generated by user jobs, and a web-
mobile ad-hoc sensor network and act based interface to end users.
collaboratively to provide sensing coverage, collect
and share data enabling users to exploit sensor-rich Citysense can be used as a backbone to test
world. Urbanet is a middleware platform that applications using on road sensors for traffic
enables applications running on mobile devices monitoring and management.
(smart phones and vehicular systems) to collect
real-time sensed data in a decentralized manner Table 3 gives a summary of projects with their
without dedicated servers or Internet. It optimizes architectures and destined application.
resource utilization to the sensing activity, network
conditions, and local resources. Urbanet proposes a 5. Discussion
mobile application for drivers to detect traffic jams architectures Applications
 Pollution Parking Traffic Traffic safety Hybrid with
prevention lots optimization light BS ++ ++ + ++ ++
Ad-hoc On- Hybrid Ad-
road + + + hoc and BS ++ ++ ++ ++ ++
Ad-hoc On- Table2 architectures use in ITS applications
vehicles + + +
Ad-hoc
hybrid + + + + +
On-road
with BS + + ++
On-vehicles
with BS + + ++
solutions architectures applications Validation tests
on

with

Hybrid Ad-hoc

experimentation
Hybrid with BS
ad-hoc On-road

Ad-hoc hybrid

optimization
Traffic light
Parking lots
prevention

simulation
Pollution
On-vehicles

control
Traffic

safety
On-road
vehicles

with BS
Ad-hoc

and BS
BS
CURIAC and
VOLOSENCU
+ + + - -
[14]
Sensys [15] + + + +
Tubaishat et + + + -
al [16]
Youcef et al + + + -
[18]
Zhou et al + + + +
[20, 42]
Gradinscu et + + + -
al [29]
Chen et al + + + -
[30]
Salama et al + + - -
[19]
Ferreira et al + + + -
[10]
Zhang et al + + - -
[17]
Boda et al + + - +
[21]
Jankuloska et al
[28]
+ + - +
Collins and
Muntean [23]
+ + + -
Festag et al [11,
12]
+ + + +
Fantacci and
Chiti [25]
+ + + + + -
Xia et al [26]
+ + + - +
Iftode et al [22]
+ + + - -
Hull et al [27]
+ + + - +
Riva and
Borcea [7]
+ + + - -
Nadeem et al
[8,9]
+ + + - +
Table 3 A summary of projects architectures and applications

Mobile systems, such as vehicular sensor and engender catastrophic results in life and
networks, sense the environment with better materials.
granularity and at higher scale, compared to
static sensor networks (particularly over large Therefore, using VSN or hybrid on-road and
areas), and instrument a larger geographical VSN for requesting real-time traffic information
area with a less number of sensors. But there are and avoiding traffic jam is very efficient, but not
many traffic management applications where for taking vital decisions in real time manner (as
critical decisions must be taken in real-time, traffic light monitoring in [10]).
such as traffic light monitoring.
Supposing all vehicles dispose on-board sensors For traffic management systems using WSN,
or display devices is not yet reasonable. many parameters may be used to enhance the
Therefore, the taken decisions may be wrong efficiency of the whole system, added to the
collected real-time data concerning vehicles
(speed, queue length…). For example, a traffic ITS system drawbacks, due to its cheapness and
light network of a whole city can use weather scalability nature. Even that, much research keeps
and climate (air pollution) values to choose essential to make WSN the suitable partner, as seen
sequences time length. in the literature projects.
In safety and traffic optimization applications, In this study, we highlighted some existing works
vehicles must contain sensors (in vehicle or driver of this field, showing their application type,
smart phone) to display or use in an automated architectural aspect and some weaknesses to fulfill
manner the gathered information. following the requirements that are related to each
type of architectures.
In Table2, the mapping between applications and
required architectures is proposed. References:
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