A dynamic hierarchical VANET architecture for Named Data Networking applications

In this paper a hierarchical architecture for content distribution in vehicular network is proposed. A cluster-based organization of vehicles is considered based on the Named Data Networking (NDN) model where a subset of reference vehicles named barycenters plays the NDN router role. Complementary functionalities of both short-range and cellular communications are used, the former for vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), the latter for vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communications, to off-load the fixed NDN infrastructure, and increase the chance of finding a content in the VANET, while limiting the number of broadcasted information. The proposed model is described and analytical evaluations are presented to show the potential of the approach.