In ITS networks, users in vehicles expect that they are able to receive useful information at anytime, anywhere. It is supposed that the data transmission in ITS networks will increase in proportion to the number of vehicles accessing the internet or intranet through several wireless networks. Under these circumstances, how to realise an efficient data transfer to moving vehicles is one of the important issues in ITS info-communication. In this paper, an ITS network model, the characteristics of data access in the model, and the effectiveness of multicast communications in ITS networks are outlined. Indirect Multicast Architecture for a heterogeneous network that consists of a fixed network and wireless networks was adopted. In the architecture, BS multicast groups are introduced for management of mobile hosts belonging to multicast groups. By managing the members of BS multicast groups, it is possible to reduce message traffic for multicast group management, and to eliminate packet loss during mobile hosts' movement between base stations. For the covering abstract see ITRD E114174.
Abstract