A Tutorial Survey on Delivery of Service Data in Vehicular Ad-Hoc Networks

Good example of pervasive application in transportation and communications is TIS (Traffic Information Service). The valued TIS needs improvement of the delivery of service data. However, nodes form a disconnected network for most of the time due to vehicular mobility, low density, lossy link, etc, which may bring challenges to VANET (Vehicular Ad-hoc Network). This paper initially identifies the challenges in data delivery which is regarded as a process involving the data dissemination and information forwarding. It proposes a guideline for the design of data delivery protocols in VANET in terms of four elements, i.e., People, vehicles, roads and link. A condensed survey of existing methods is followed with the aim of understanding how the data can be delivered in a hop-by-hop way. We then propose an overview and taxonomy of simulators available for evaluation of data delivery protocols concentrating on the goals such as improving network good put, describing vehicles´ mobile traces, and selecting the best forwarding time. In the end, we describe various open issues with suggestions of possible ways to extend the capabilities of current data delivery protocols.