Towards software-defined VANET: Architecture and services

Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs) have in recent years been viewed as one of the enabling technologies to provide a wide variety of services, such as vehicle road safety, enhanced traffic and travel efficiency, and convenience and comfort for passengers and drivers. However, current VANET architectures lack in flexibility and make the deployment of services/protocols in large-scale a hard task. In this paper, we demonstrate how Software-Defined Networking (SDN), an emerging network paradigm, can be used to provide the flexibility and programmability to networks and introduces new services and features to today´s VANETs. We take the concept of SDN, which has mainly been designed for wired infrastructures, especially in the data center space, and propose SDN-based VANET architecture and its operational mode to adapt SDN to VANET environments. We also discuss benefits of a Software-Defined VANET and the services that can be provided. We demonstrate in simulation the feasibility of a Software-Defined VANET by comparing SDN-based routing with traditional MANET/VANET routing protocols. We also show in simulation fallback mechanisms that must be provided to apply the SDN concept into mobile wireless scenarios, and demonstrate one of the possible services that can be provided by a Software-Defined VANET.