System and method for forming clusters of probe vehicles in a real-time traffic application

摘要

A system and method for forming a cluster of probe vehicles, aggregating and processing (e.g., averaging) data generated by the members of the cluster, and reporting only the processed data to a receiving center, such as a Traffic Management Center, thereby reducing the number of simultaneous communication channels required to report the data and reducing the amount of data which must be processed in real-time at the receiving center. Broadly, each cluster identifies one member to which all other members report. The identified member receives the individual reports, aggregates and processes the data, and then transmits it to the receiving center for further processing.