Contribution to design a communication framework for vehicular ad hoc networks in urban scenarios

The constant mobility of people, the growing need to be always connected, the large number of vehicles that nowadays can be found in the roads and the advances in technology make Vehicular Ad hoc Networks (VANETs) be a major area of research. Vehicular Ad hoc Networks are a special type of wireless Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANETs), which allow a group of mobile nodes configure a temporary network and maintain it without the need of a fixed infrastructure. A vehicular network presents some specific characteristics, as the very high speed of nodes. Due to this high speed the topology changes are frequent and the communication links may last only a few seconds. Smart cities are now a reality and have a direct relationship with vehicular networks. With the help of existing infrastructure such as traffic lights, we propose a scheme to update and analyse traffic density and a warning system to spread alert messages. With this, traffic lights assist vehicular networks to take proper decisions. This would ensure less congested streets. It would also be possible that the routing protocol forwards data packets to vehicles on streets with enough neighbours to increase the possibility of delivering the packets to destination. Sharing updated, reliable and real-time information, about traffic conditions, weather or security alerts, increases the need of algorithms for the dissemination of information that take into account the main beneffits and constraints of these networks. For all this, routing protocols for vehicular networks have the difficult task to select and establish transmission links to send the data packets from source to destination through multiple nodes using intermediate vehicles efficiently. The main objective of this thesis is to provide improvements in the communication framework for vehicular networks to improve decisions to select next hops in the moment to send information, in this way improving the exchange of information to provide suitable communication to minimize accidents, reduce congestion, optimize resources for emergencies, etc. Also, we include intelligence to vehicles at the moment to take routing decisions. Making them map-aware, being conscious of the presence of buildings and other obstacles in urban environments. Furthermore, our proposal considers the decision to store packets for a maximum time until finding other neighbouring nodes to forward the packets before discarding them. For this, we propose a protocol that considers multiple metrics that we call MMMR (A Multimetric, Map-Aware Routing Protocol ). MMMR is a protocol based on geographical knowledge of the environment and vehicle location. The metrics considered are the distance, the density of vehicles in transmission range, the available bandwidth and the future trajectory of the neighbouring nodes. This allows us to have a complete view of the vehicular scenario to anticipate the driver about possible changes that may occur. Thus, a node can select a node among all its neighbours, which is the best option to increase the likelihood of successful packet delivery, minimizing time and offering a level of quality and service. In the same way, being aware of the increase of information in wireless environments, we analyse the possibility of offering anonymity services. We include a mechanism of anonymity in routing protocols based on the Crowd algorithm, which uses the idea of hiding the original source of a packet. This allowed us to add some level of anonymity on VANET routing protocols. The analytical modeling of the available bandwidth between nodes in a VANET, the use of city infrastructure in a smart way, the forwarding selection in data routing byvehicles and the provision of anonymity in communications, are issues that have been addressed in this PhD thesis. In our research work we provide contributions to improve the communication framework for Vehicular Ad hoc Networks obtaining benefits toenhance the everyday of the population.La movilidad constante de las personas y la creciente necesidad de estar conectados en todo momento ha hecho de las redes vehiculares un área cuyo interés ha ido en aumento. La gran cantidad de vehículos que hay en la actualidad, y los avances tecnológicos han hecho de las redes vehiculares (VANETS, Vehicular Ad hoc Networks) un gran campo de investigación. Las redes vehiculares son un tipo especial de redes móviles ad hoc inalámbricas, las cuales, al igual que las redes MANET (Mobile Ad hoc Networks), permiten a un grupo de nodos móviles tanto configurar como mantener una red temporal por si mismos sin la necesidad de una infraestructura fija. Las redes vehiculares presentan algunas características muy representativas, por ejemplo, la alta velocidad que pueden alcanzar los nodos, en este caso vehículos. Debido a esta alta velocidad la topología cambia frecuentemente y la duración de los enlaces de comunicación puede ser de unos pocos segundos. Estas redes tienen una amplia área de aplicación, pudiendo tener comunicación entre los mismos nodos (V2V) o entre los vehículos y una infraestructura fija (V2I). Uno de los principales desafíos existentes en las VANET es la seguridad vial donde el gobierno y fabricantes de automóviles han centrado principalmente sus esfuerzos. Gracias a la rápida evolución de las tecnologías de comunicación inalámbrica los investigadores han logrado introducir las redes vehiculares dentro de las comunicaciones diarias permitiendo una amplia variedad de servicios para ofrecer. Las ciudades inteligentes son ahora una realidad y tienen una relación directa con las redes vehiculares. Con la ayuda de la infraestructura existente, como semáforos, se propone un sistema de análisis de densidad de tráfico y mensajes de alerta. Con esto, los semáforos ayudan a la red vehicular en la toma de decisiones. Así se logrará disponer de calles menos congestionadas para hacer una circulación más fluida (lo cual disminuye la contaminación). Además, sería posible que el protocolo de encaminamiento de datos elija vehículos en calles con suficientes vecinos para incrementar la posibilidad de entregar los paquetes al destino (minimizando pérdidas de información). El compartir información actualizada, confiable y en tiempo real sobre el estado del tráfico, clima o alertas de seguridad, aumenta la necesidad de algoritmos de difusión de la información que consideren los principales beneficios y restricciones de estas redes. Así mismo, considerar servicios críticos que necesiten un nivel de calidad y servicio es otro desafío importante. Por todo esto, un protocolo de encaminamiento para este tipo de redes tiene la difícil tarea de seleccionar y establecer enlaces de transmisión para enviar los datos desde el origen hacia el destino vía múltiples nodos utilizando vehículos intermedios de una manera eficiente. El principal objetivo de esta tesis es ofrecer mejoras en los sistemas de comunicación vehicular que mejoren la toma de decisiones en el momento de realizar el envío de la información, con lo cual se mejora el intercambio de información para poder ofrecer comunicación oportuna que minimice accidentes, reduzca atascos, optimice los recursos destinados a emergencias, etc. Así mismo, incluimos más inteligencia a los coches en el momento de tomar decisiones de encaminamiento de paquetes. Haciéndolos conscientes de la presencia de edificios y otros obstáculos en los entornos urbanos. Así como tomar la decisión de guardar paquetes durante un tiempo máximo de modo que se encuentre otros nodos vecinos para encaminar paquetes de información antes de descartarlo. Para esto, proponemos un protocolo basado en múltiples métricas (MMMR, A Multimetric, Map-aware Routing Protocol ) que es un protocolo geográfio basado en el conocimiento del entorno y localización de los vehículos. Las métricas consideradas son la distancia, la densidad de vehículos en el área de transmisión, el ancho de banda disponible y la trayectoria futura de los nodos vecinos. Esto nos permite tener una visión completa del escenario vehicular y anticiparnos a los posibles cambios que puedan suceder. Así, un nodo podrá seleccionar aquel nodo entre todos sus vecinos posibles que sea la mejor opción para incrementar la posibilidad de entrega exitosa de paquetes, minimizando tiempos y ofreciendo un cierto nivel de calidad y servicio. De la misma manera, conscientes del incremento de información que circula por medios inalámbricos, se analizó la posibilidad de servicios de anonimato. Incluimos pues un mecanismo de anonimato en protocolos de encaminamiento basado en el algoritmo Crowd, que se basa en la idea de ocultar la fuente original de un paquete. Esto nos permitió añadir cierto nivel de anonimato que pueden ofrecer los protocolos de encaminamiento. El modelado analítico del ancho de banda disponible entre nodos de una VANET, el uso de la infraestructura de la ciudad de una manera inteligente, la adecuada toma de decisiones de encaminamiento de datos por parte de los vehículos y la disposición de anonimato en las comunicaciones, son problemas que han sido abordados en este trabajo de tesis doctoral que ofrece contribuciones a la mejora de las comunicaciones en redes vehiculares en entornos urbanos aportando beneficios en el desarrollo de la vida diaria de la población

GSAR: Greedy Stand-Alone Position-Based Routing protocol to avoid hole problem occurance in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

The routing process in a Mobile Ad Hoc Network (MANET) poses critical challenges because of its features such as frequent topology changes and resource limitations. Hence, designing a reliable and dynamic routing protocol that satisfies MANET requirements is highly demanded. The Greedy Forwarding Strategy (GFS) has been the most used strategy in position-based routing protocols. The GFS algorithm was designed as a high-performance protocol that adopts hop count in soliciting shortest path. However, the GFS does not consider MANET needs and is therefore insufficient in computing reliable routes. Hence, this study aims to improve the existing GFS by transforming it into a dynamic stand-alone routing protocol that responds swiftly to MANET needs, and provides reliable routes among the communicating nodes. To achieve the aim, two mechanisms were proposed as extensions to the current GFS, namely the Dynamic Beaconing Updates Mechanism (DBUM) and the Dynamic and Reactive Reliability Estimation with Selective Metrics Mechanism (DRESM). The DBUM algorithm is mainly responsible for providing a node with up-to-date status information about its neighbours. The DRESM algorithm is responsible for making forwarding decisions based on multiple routing metrics. Both mechanisms were integrated into the conventional GFS to form Greedy Stand-Alone Routing (GSAR) protocol. Evaluations of GSAR were performed using network simulator Ns2 based upon a defined set of performance metrics, scenarios and topologies. The results demonstrate that GSAR eliminates recovery mode mechanism in GFS and consequently improve overall network performance. Under various mobility conditions, GSAR avoids hole problem by about 87% and 79% over Greedy Perimeter Stateless Routing and Position-based Opportunistic Routing Protocol respectively. Therefore, the GSAR protocol is a reasonable alternative to position-based unicast routing protocol in MANET

The Trap Coverage Area Protocol for Scalable Vehicular Target Tracking

Vehicle target tracking is a sub-field of increasing and increasing interest in the vehicular networking research area, in particular for its potential application in dense urban areas with low associated costs, e.g., by exploiting existing monitoring infrastructures and cooperative collaboration of regular vehicles. Inspired by the concept of trap coverage area, we have originally designed and implemented an original protocol for vehicle tracking in wide-scale urban scenarios, called TCAP. TCAP is capable of achieving the needed performance while exploiting a limited number of inexpensive sensors (e.g., public-authority cameras already installed at intersections for traffic monitoring), and opportunistic vehicle collaboration, with high scalability and low overhead if compared with state-of-the-art literature. In particular, the wide set of reported results show i) the suitability of our TCAP tracking in the challenging urban conditions of high density of vehicles, ii) the very weak dependency of TCAP performance from topology changes/constraints (e.g., street lengths and speed limits), iii) the TCAP capability of self-adapting to differentiated runtime conditions

Intertwined localization and error-resilient geographic routing for mobile wireless sensor networks

“This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in Wireless Networks. The final authenticated version is available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11276-018-1836-7”Geographic routing in wireless sensor networks brings numerous inherent advantages, albeit its performance relying heavily on accurate node locations. In mobile networks, localization of the continuously moving nodes is a challenging task and location errors are inevitable and affect considerably routing decisions. Our proposal is in response to the unrealistic assumption widely made by previous geographic routing protocols that the accurate location of mobile nodes can be obtained at any time. Such idealized assumption results in under-performing or infeasible routing protocols for the real world applications. In this paper, we propose INTEGER, a localization method intertwined with a new location-error-resilient geographic routing specifically designed for mobile sensor networks even when these networks are intermittently connected. By combining the localization phase with the geographic routing process, INTEGER can select a relay node based on nodes’ mobility predictions from the localization phase. Results show that INTEGER improves the efficiency of the routing by increasing the packet delivery ratio and by reducing the energy consumption while minimizing the number of relay nodes compared to six prevalent protocols from the literature.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Recent Developments on Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks and Vehicular Ad-Hoc Networks

This book presents collective works published in the recent Special Issue (SI) entitled "Recent Developments on Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks and Vehicular Ad-Hoc Networks”. These works expose the readership to the latest solutions and techniques for MANETs and VANETs. They cover interesting topics such as power-aware optimization solutions for MANETs, data dissemination in VANETs, adaptive multi-hop broadcast schemes for VANETs, multi-metric routing protocols for VANETs, and incentive mechanisms to encourage the distribution of information in VANETs. The book demonstrates pioneering work in these fields, investigates novel solutions and methods, and discusses future trends in these field

Study of Obstacle effect on the GPSR protocol and a Novel Intelligent Greedy Routing protocol for VANETs

In recent years, connected vehicle technologies have been developed by automotive companies, academia, and researchers as part of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). This group of stakeholders continue to work on these technologies to make them as reliable and cost-effective as possible. This attention is because of the increasing connected vehicles safety-related, entertainment, and traffic management applications, which have the potential to decrease the number of road accidents, save fuel and time for millions of daily commuters worldwide. Vehicular Ad-Hoc Network (VANET), which is a subgroup of Mobile Ad-Hoc Network (MANET), is being developed and implemented in vehicles as the critical structure for connected vehicles applications. VANET provides a promising concept to reduce the number of fatalities caused by road accidents, to improve traffic efficiency, and to provide infotainment. To support the increasing number of safety-related applications, VANETs are required to perform reliably. Since VANETs promise numerous safety applications requiring time-bound delivery of data packets, it is also necessary to replicate real-world scenarios in simulations as accurately as possible. Taking into account the effect of realistic obstacles while simulating a variety of case scenarios increases the reliability of the tested routing protocol to appropriately perform in real-world situations. It also exposes routing protocols to possible vulnerabilities caused by obstacles. Nevertheless, it is not uncommon for researchers to omit real-world physical layer communication hurdles in simulation-based tests, including not considering the effect of obstacles on their routing protocol performance evaluation simulations. Consequently, the performance of these protocols is usually overestimated and do not support in real-world environment. Failure to account for obstacle effects overstate the network performance. In this thesis, a framework for measuring obstacle effects on routing protocols is defined. We also propose, a new routing protocol based on the traditional Greedy Perimeter Stateless Routing (GPSR) protocol called Intelligent Greedy Routing (IGR) protocol. The proposed IGR protocol considers a parameter called $Receptivity$ to chose the next hop in a route. We implemented the new protocol using the Simulation of Urban Mobility (SUMO) and the Network Simulator (NS-3). An analysis of Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR), End-to-End Delay (E2ED) and Mean Hop count with the assumption that nodes (vehicles) are moving in various topologies is presented in this thesis. The study presented here gives a general idea of the effects of obstacles on the Greedy Perimeter Stateless Routing (GPSR) protocol considering multiple realistic scenarios such as Urban, Residential and Highway. In addition, we compare the performance of GPSR and the new IGR protocols with the presence of obstacles considering various topologies. The new proposed IGR protocol performs better compared to the traditional GPSR for all the investigated metrics

Survey and Review on Various Topology and Geographical based Routing Protocol Parameters to Ensure the QOS Parameters of VANET

Vehicular Ad Hoc Network (VANET) is a type of wireless network that allows communication between vehicles and infrastructure. One of the critical considerations in VANET is Quality of Service (QoS) parameters, which determine the network's performance. The effective management of QoS parameters is essential for VANET's reliable and efficient operation. In this research paper, we aim to explore topology-based and geographical-based routing protocol parameters to ensure QoS parameters in VANET. The former uses the network topology to make routing decisions, while the latter uses the location information of vehicles.  We will first provide an overview of VANET and QoS parameters. Then, we will delve into the key parameters of topology-based and geographical-based routing protocols and how they affect QoS. We will also survey and review the existing routing protocols and parameter values used in these protocols. The findings of this research paper will provide insights into the effective management of QoS parameters in VANET and contribute to the development of more efficient routing protocols

Vehicular ad hoc routing protocol with link expiration time (VARP-LET) information

This thesis presents a vehicular ad hoc routing protocol that uses link expiration time (LET) information in selection of routes. The proposed protocol is named as VARP-LET, which uses LET information to increase reliability and stability of the routes. LET information is used selectively in the route discovery mechanism to reduce the routing control overhead. In addition to LET a Route Break Indicator (RBI) message is introduced. RBI is generated when a link breakage is about to occur. A source node on receiving the RBI signal preemptively stops sending data packets through a route before it breaks. This provision decreases the packet loss. The effectiveness of LET and RBI is tested via network simulations with NS-2. These simulations show that VARP-LET protocol increases packet delivery ratio by 20.7% in street section mobility model and by 30% in highway mobility scenario compared to regular AODV protocol. It is also shown that the protocol significantly reduces frequent route failure and routing overhead

INRISCO: INcident monitoRing in Smart COmmunities

Major advances in information and communication technologies (ICTs) make citizens to be considered as sensors in motion. Carrying their mobile devices, moving in their connected vehicles or actively participating in social networks, citizens provide a wealth of information that, after properly processing, can support numerous applications for the benefit of the community. In the context of smart communities, the INRISCO [1] proposal intends for (i) the early detection of abnormal situations in cities (i.e., incidents), (ii) the analysis of whether, according to their impact, those incidents are really adverse for the community; and (iii) the automatic actuation by dissemination of appropriate information to citizens and authorities. Thus, INRISCO will identify and report on incidents in traffic (jam, accident) or public infrastructure (e.g., works, street cut), the occurrence of specific events that affect other citizens' life (e.g., demonstrations, concerts), or environmental problems (e.g., pollution, bad weather). It is of particular interest to this proposal the identification of incidents with a social and economic impact, which affects the quality of life of citizens.This work was supported in part by the Spanish Government through the projects INRISCO under Grant TEC2014-54335-C4-1-R, Grant TEC2014-54335-C4-2-R, Grant TEC2014-54335-C4-3-R, and Grant TEC2014-54335-C4-4-R, in part by the MAGOS under Grant TEC2017-84197-C4-1-R, Grant TEC2017-84197-C4-2-R, and Grant TEC2017-84197-C4-3-R, in part by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), and in part by the Galician Regional Government under agreement for funding the Atlantic Research Center for Information and Communication Technologies (AtlantTIC)

On the Delay of Reactive-Greedy-Reactive Routing in Unmanned Aeronautical Ad-hoc Networks

AbstractReactive-Greedy-Reactive (RGR) has been proposed as a promising routing protocol in highly mobile density-variable Unmanned Aeronautical Ad-hoc Networks (UAANETs). In RGR, location information of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) as well as reactive end-to-end paths are employed in the routing process. It had already been shown that RGR outperforms existing routing protocols in terms of packet delivery ratio. In this paper, the delay performance of RGR is evaluated and compared against Ad-hoc On-demand Distance Vector (AODV) and Greedy Geographic Forwarding (GGF).We considerextensive simulation scenariostocover both searchingand tracking applicationsofUAANETs. The results illustrate that when the number of UAVs is high enough in a searching mission to form a connected UAANET, RGR performs well. In sparsely connected searching scenarios or dense tracking scenarios, RGR may also slightly decrease delay compared to traditional reactive routing protocols for similar PDR