Vehicular traffic congestion monitoring through inter-vehicle communication and traffic chain counter

A system for monitoring vehicular traffic, the system comprising at least a given vehicle operative to carry out functions comprising:

• receiving a packet wirelessly broadcast from a nearby vehicle, wherein the packet contains at least (i) identification data including an identifier of the nearby vehicle, (ii) a location of the nearby vehicle, (iii) a direction of travel of the nearby vehicle, and (iv) a counter value;
• upon receipt of the packet, determining if the given vehicle is not already identified in the packet and if the given vehicle is traveling in substantially the same direction as the received packet indicates the nearby vehicle is traveling, and, only if so,
• (A) incrementing the counter value, adding an identifier of the given vehicle to the identification data so as to establish modified identification data, and then wirelessly broadcasting a next packet containing at least (i) the modified identification data, (ii) a location of the given vehicle, (iii) a direction of travel of the given vehicle, and (iv) the incremented counter value, and
• (B) transmitting to the nearby vehicle an acknowledgement of the received packet;
• and
• transmitting a reporting packet via a radio access network to a traffic monitoring server, wherein contents of the reporting packet are usable by the traffic monitoring server as a basis to determine vehicular traffic.

A system for monitoring vehicular traffic comprising:

• a plurality of vehicles each equipped to wirelessly communicate directly with nearby vehicles and further equipped to wirelessly communicate via a radio access network with a traffic monitoring server,
• wherein each given vehicle of the plurality is equipped to receive a packet broadcast from another vehicle, wherein the packet contains at least (i) identification data including an identifier of the other vehicle, (ii) a location of the other vehicle, (iii) a direction of travel of the other vehicle, and (iv) a counter value,
• wherein, upon receipt of the packet, the given vehicle determines if the given vehicle is not already identified in the packet and if the given vehicle is traveling in substantially the same direction as the received packet indicates the other vehicle is traveling, and, only if so,
• (A) increments the counter value, adds an identifier of the given vehicle to the identification data so as to establish modified identification data, and then broadcasts for receipt by any nearby vehicles a next packet containing at least (i) the modified identification data, (ii) a location of the given vehicle, (iii) a direction of travel of the given vehicle, and (iv) the incremented counter value, and
• (B) transmits to the other vehicle an acknowledgement of the received packet,
• wherein the given vehicle is further equipped to transmit a reporting packet via the radio access network to the traffic monitoring server, whereby contents of the reporting packet are usable by the traffic monitoring server to determine vehicular traffic.