Service and communication management in cooperative vehicular networks

With the increasing demand for traffic safety and efficiency and constant search for innovative solutions within the automotive market coupled with supporting initiatives from regulatory (governmental) domains, the potential of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) is vast. Basic vehicle and roadside infrastructure collaboration allows an increase in efficiency and safety and acts as the foundation for an extensive application set to achieve the ITS goals of cleaner, safer and more efficient travel. There are some important considerations however. Taking into account the wide array of communication technologies and plethora of proposed applications, this paper aims to address one of the major and largely unexplored challenges facing the ITS research community in relation to service and communication management (SCM), whereby the underlying communications capability is sufficiently exploited to assure satisfactory operation of deployed ITS applications. Such functionality is integral in ensuring the successful dissemination of relevant information throughout the vehicular network, contributing to the overall success and acceptance of the ITS hypothesis. On examination of the state of the art, a foundational architecture for service and communication management in cooperative vehicular systems is presented. Using this proposed framework, a diverse mix of approaches for SCM are examined using CALMnet, a network centric ITS simulation environment, highlighting the effect of different techniques on system performance and user satisfaction.