Futuristic highway with solar-powered road side units enabling wireless communication between vehicles.

Smart Roads, Smarter Future: How Green Tech is Revolutionizing Traffic

Beau Callahan in Tech & Innovation December 2025 • 4 min read.

"Discover how eco-friendly, self-powered networks are making our roads safer, more reliable, and paving the way for sustainable transportation."

Imagine a world where traffic flows seamlessly, accidents are minimized, and our roads are powered by the sun. This vision is becoming a reality thanks to innovative projects like the Green Vehicular Ad Hoc Network (GVANET). GVANET is not just about improving transportation; it's about creating a sustainable and intelligent infrastructure for our cities.

Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs) are a groundbreaking framework that supports a range of applications, from enhancing road safety to delivering multimedia content. By enabling vehicles to communicate with each other (V2V) and with the infrastructure around them (V2I), VANETs pave the way for smarter and more responsive transportation systems.

At the heart of GVANET is the concept of self-powered Road Side Units (RSUs). Traditionally, RSUs were tethered to wired electricity sources, limiting their placement and coverage. GVANET overcomes this limitation by utilizing renewable energy sources, primarily solar power, allowing RSUs to be deployed anywhere and creating a truly ubiquitous communication network.

GVANET: Building a Greener, More Reliable Road Network

Futuristic highway with solar-powered road side units enabling wireless communication between vehicles.

The GVANET project, initiated in 2009, focuses on creating a self-powered communication infrastructure that is cost-effective, reliable, secure, and easy to install. This involves a two-level design approach: device level and system level.

At the device level, the project enhances the architecture of RSUs to ensure robustness and availability. This includes:

Choosing the Right Platform: Selecting low-power, high-performance hardware like the Ubicom IP2022 Network Processor, powered by solar panels.
Solar Energy Harvesting Module: Implementing efficient power adaptation and routing circuits using units like the TPS63000 Texas Instrument DC-DC converter.
Power Management Strategies: Employing strategies like Duty Cycle Estimation (DCE) and Centralized Green Scheduler (CGS) to manage energy consumption.
Embedded Security: Protecting RSUs with an embedded cooperative-hybrid intrusion detection system (ECHIDS) to ensure service availability.

The system level concentrates on building a sustainable, secure, reliable, and scalable communication infrastructure. This involves addressing systematic problems that arise when implementing RSUs as members of the GVANET. Efforts include extensive experimentation, simulation, and designing a secure and sustainable system using methods that guarantee privacy, integrity, and access control.

The Road Ahead: Future Innovations for GVANET

While GVANET has achieved significant milestones, there's still room for growth and innovation. Future developments include integrating modern multipath routing protocols to enhance reliability, incorporating Quality of Service (QoS) concepts to improve data delivery, and proposing security models to protect the VANET infrastructure during network recovery. As technology evolves, GVANET promises to pave the way for a smarter, greener, and more connected transportation future.

About this Article -

This article was crafted using a human-AI hybrid and collaborative approach. AI assisted our team with initial drafting, research insights, identifying key questions, and image generation. Our human editors guided topic selection, defined the angle, structured the content, ensured factual accuracy and relevance, refined the tone, and conducted thorough editing to deliver helpful, high-quality information.See our About page for more information.

This article is based on research published under:

DOI-LINK: 10.1049/iet-wss.2018.5112, Alternate LINK

Title: Gvanet Project: An Efficient Deployment Of A Self‐Powered, Reliable And Secured Vanet Infrastructure

Subject: Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Journal: IET Wireless Sensor Systems

Publisher: Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET)

Authors: Qutaiba Ibrahim Ali

Published: 2018-10-30

Everything You Need To Know

What is GVANET, and how does it aim to revolutionize transportation?

GVANET, or Green Vehicular Ad Hoc Network, is a project designed to establish self-powered, reliable, and secure vehicular networks. It aims to transform transportation by creating a sustainable and intelligent infrastructure, improving traffic flow, minimizing accidents, and potentially powering roads using renewable energy sources like solar power. The use of Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs) enables vehicles to communicate with each other (V2V) and with the surrounding infrastructure (V2I).

How does GVANET address the limitations of traditional Road Side Units (RSUs)?

Traditional Road Side Units (RSUs) are typically tethered to wired electricity sources, which restricts their placement and coverage. GVANET overcomes this limitation by utilizing renewable energy sources, primarily solar power, to power the RSUs. This allows for more flexible deployment of RSUs, creating a ubiquitous communication network. Power adaptation is achieved using units like the TPS63000 Texas Instrument DC-DC converter.

What are some of the key components and strategies employed at the device level to ensure the robustness and availability of GVANET Road Side Units (RSUs)?

At the device level, GVANET enhances the architecture of RSUs using several key components and strategies. These include selecting low-power, high-performance hardware such as the Ubicom IP2022 Network Processor, powered by solar panels. It implements efficient power adaptation and routing circuits using units like the TPS63000 Texas Instrument DC-DC converter. Power Management Strategies like Duty Cycle Estimation (DCE) and Centralized Green Scheduler (CGS) are used to manage energy consumption. Finally, Embedded Security is ensured through an embedded cooperative-hybrid intrusion detection system (ECHIDS) to protect RSUs and ensure service availability.

How does GVANET ensure security and privacy within its vehicular network infrastructure at the system level?

At the system level, GVANET addresses systematic problems that arise when implementing Road Side Units (RSUs). Efforts include extensive experimentation, simulation, and designing a secure and sustainable system using methods that guarantee privacy, integrity, and access control. The specifics of these methods aren't detailed, but the aim is to protect the network from vulnerabilities and ensure only authorized access to the system, promoting a safer and more reliable communication infrastructure.

What future innovations are being considered to further enhance GVANET's capabilities and impact?

Future developments for GVANET include integrating modern multipath routing protocols to enhance reliability, incorporating Quality of Service (QoS) concepts to improve data delivery, and proposing security models to protect the VANET infrastructure during network recovery. These enhancements aim to improve the overall performance, security, and efficiency of GVANET, further paving the way for a smarter, greener, and more connected transportation future. Integration of modern multipath routing protocols is considered to enhance the reliability.