An ontology-based model for vehicular ad-hoc networks

The main body of research in vehicular ad-hoc networks (VANETs) has focused on solving network communication aspects and regulatory norms and standards, with much work remaining at the application level. Our hypothesis is that, semantic middleware platforms to exchange vehicular knowledge are essential in order to reach the next level of VANET applications. We propose a vehicular network ontology with the goal to facilitate the interoperability at the application level. As vehicular networks is a multi-facet domain, the developed ontology is modular and represents various aspects like communication, types of applications, traffic hazards, events, localisation. We also show how geospatial and temporal reasoning can be performed on top of our ontology.