VANET Applications: Hot Use Cases

Current challenges of car manufacturers are to make roads safe, to achieve free flowing traffic with few congestions, and to reduce pollution by an effective fuel use. To reach these goals, many improvements are performed in-car, but more and more approaches rely on connected cars with communication capabilities between cars, with an infrastructure, or with IoT devices. Monitoring and coordinating vehicles allow then to compute intelligent ways of transportation. Connected cars have introduced a new way of thinking cars - not only as a mean for a driver to go from A to B, but as smart cars - a user extension like the smartphone today. In this report, we introduce concepts and specific vocabulary in order to classify current innovations or ideas on the emerging topic of smart car. We present a graphical categorization showing this evolution in function of the societal evolution. Different perspectives are adopted: a vehicle-centric view, a vehicle-network view, and a user-centric view; described by simple and complex use-cases and illustrated by a list of emerging and current projects from the academic and industrial worlds. We identified an empty space in innovation between the user and his car: paradoxically even if they are both in interaction, they are separated through different application uses. Future challenge is to interlace social concerns of the user within an intelligent and efficient driving

Vehicular Networks with Infrastructure: Modeling, Simulation and Testbed

This thesis focuses on Vehicular Networks with Infrastructure. In the examined scenarios, vehicular nodes (e.g., cars, buses) can communicate with infrastructure roadside units (RSUs) providing continuous or intermittent coverage of an urban road topology. Different aspects related to the design of new applications for Vehicular Networks are investigated through modeling, simulation and testing on real field. In particular, the thesis: i) provides a feasible multi-hop routing solution for maintaining connectivity among RSUs, forming the wireless mesh infrastructure, and moving vehicles; ii) explains how to combine the UHF and the traditional 5-GHz bands to design and implement a new high-capacity high-efficiency Content Downloading using disjoint control and service channels; iii) studies new RSUs deployment strategies for Content Dissemination and Downloading in urban and suburban scenarios with different vehicles mobility models and traffic densities; iv) defines an optimization problem to minimize the average travel delay perceived by the drivers, spreading different traffic flows over the surface roads in a urban scenario; v) exploits the concept of Nash equilibrium in the game-theory approach to efficiently guide electric vehicles drivers' towards the charging stations. Moreover, the thesis emphasizes the importance of using realistic mobility models, as well as reasonable signal propagation models for vehicular networks. Simplistic assumptions drive to trivial mathematical analysis and shorter simulations, but they frequently produce misleading results. Thus, testing the proposed solutions in the real field and collecting measurements is a good way to double-check the correctness of our studie

Performance of management solutions and cooperation approaches for vehicular delay-tolerant networks

A wide range of daily-life applications supported by vehicular networks attracted the interest, not only from the research community, but also from governments and the automotive industry. For example, they can be used to enable services that assist drivers on the roads (e.g., road safety, traffic monitoring), to spread commercial and entertainment contents (e.g., publicity), or to enable communications on remote or rural regions where it is not possible to have a common network infrastructure. Nonetheless, the unique properties of vehicular networks raise several challenges that greatly impact the deployment of these networks. Most of the challenges faced by vehicular networks arise from the highly dynamic network topology, which leads to short and sporadic contact opportunities, disruption, variable node density, and intermittent connectivity. This situation makes data dissemination an interesting research topic within the vehicular networking area, which is addressed by this study. The work described along this thesis is motivated by the need to propose new solutions to deal with data dissemination problems in vehicular networking focusing on vehicular delay-tolerant networks (VDTNs). To guarantee the success of data dissemination in vehicular networks scenarios it is important to ensure that network nodes cooperate with each other. However, it is not possible to ensure a fully cooperative scenario. This situation makes vehicular networks suitable to the presence of selfish and misbehavior nodes, which may result in a significant decrease of the overall network performance. Thus, cooperative nodes may suffer from the overwhelming load of services from other nodes, which comprises their performance. Trying to solve some of these problems, this thesis presents several proposals and studies on the impact of cooperation, monitoring, and management strategies on the network performance of the VDTN architecture. The main goal of these proposals is to enhance the network performance. In particular, cooperation and management approaches are exploited to improve and optimize the use of network resources. It is demonstrated the performance gains attainable in a VDTN through both types of approaches, not only in terms of bundle delivery probability, but also in terms of wasted resources. The results and achievements observed on this research work are intended to contribute to the advance of the state-of-the-art on methods and strategies for overcome the challenges that arise from the unique characteristics and conceptual design of vehicular networks.O vasto número de aplicações e cenários suportados pelas redes veiculares faz com que estas atraiam o interesse não só da comunidade científica, mas também dos governos e da indústria automóvel. A título de exemplo, estas podem ser usadas para a implementação de serviços e aplicações que podem ajudar os condutores dos veículos a tomar decisões nas estradas, para a disseminação de conteúdos publicitários, ou ainda, para permitir que existam comunicações em zonas rurais ou remotas onde não é possível ter uma infraestrutura de rede convencional. Contudo, as propriedades únicas das redes veiculares fazem com que seja necessário ultrapassar um conjunto de desafios que têm grande impacto na sua aplicabilidade. A maioria dos desafios que as redes veiculares enfrentam advêm da grande mobilidade dos veículos e da topologia de rede que está em constante mutação. Esta situação faz com que este tipo de rede seja suscetível de disrupção, que as oportunidades de contacto sejam escassas e de curta duração, e que a ligação seja intermitente. Fruto destas adversidades, a disseminação dos dados torna-se um tópico de investigação bastante promissor na área das redes veiculares e por esta mesma razão é abordada neste trabalho de investigação. O trabalho descrito nesta tese é motivado pela necessidade de propor novas abordagens para lidar com os problemas inerentes à disseminação dos dados em ambientes veiculares. Para garantir o sucesso da disseminação dos dados em ambientes veiculares é importante que este tipo de redes garanta a cooperação entre os nós da rede. Contudo, neste tipo de ambientes não é possível garantir um cenário totalmente cooperativo. Este cenário faz com que as redes veiculares sejam suscetíveis à presença de nós não cooperativos que comprometem seriamente o desempenho global da rede. Por outro lado, os nós cooperativos podem ver o seu desempenho comprometido por causa da sobrecarga de serviços que poderão suportar. Para tentar resolver alguns destes problemas, esta tese apresenta várias propostas e estudos sobre o impacto de estratégias de cooperação, monitorização e gestão de rede no desempenho das redes veiculares com ligações intermitentes (Vehicular Delay-Tolerant Networks - VDTNs). O objetivo das propostas apresentadas nesta tese é melhorar o desempenho global da rede. Em particular, as estratégias de cooperação e gestão de rede são exploradas para melhorar e optimizar o uso dos recursos da rede. Ficou demonstrado que o uso deste tipo de estratégias e metodologias contribui para um aumento significativo do desempenho da rede, não só em termos de agregados de pacotes (“bundles”) entregues, mas também na diminuição do volume de recursos desperdiçados. Os resultados observados neste trabalho procuram contribuir para o avanço do estado da arte em métodos e estratégias que visam ultrapassar alguns dos desafios que advêm das propriedades e desenho conceptual das redes veiculares

Algorithms for stable clustering in vanets (vehicular ad hoc networks)

Σημείωση: διατίθεται συμπληρωματικό υλικό σε ξεχωριστό αρχείο

Estratégias de encaminhamento para recolha oportunística de informação em redes móveis de internet das coisas

High vehicular mobility in urban scenarios originates inter-vehicles communication discontinuities, a highly important factor when designing a forwarding strategy for vehicular networks. Store, carry and forward mechanisms enable the usage of vehicular networks in a large set of applications, such as sensor data collection in IoT, contributing to smart city platforms. This work focuses on two main topics to enhance the forwarding decision: i) forwarding strategies that make use of location-aware and social-based to perform neighborhood selection, ii) and packet selection mechanisms to provide Quality of Service (QoS). The neighborhood selection is performed through multiple metrics, resulting in three forwarding strategies: (1) Gateway Location Awareness (GLA), a location-aware ranking classification making use of velocity, heading angle and distance to the gateway, to select the vehicles with higher chance to deliver the information in a shorter period of time, thus differentiating nodes through their movement patterns; (2) Aging Social-Aware Ranking (ASAR) that exploits the social behaviours of each vehicle, where nodes are ranked based on a historical contact table, differentiating vehicles with a high number of contacts from those who barely contact with other vehicles; (3) and to merge both location and social aforementioned algorithms, a hybrid approach emerges, thus generating a more intelligent mechanism. Allied to the forwarding criteria, two packet selection mechanisms are proposed to address distinct network functionalities, namely: Distributed Packet Selection, that focuses primarily on data type prioritization and secondly, on packet network lifetime; and Equalized Packet Selection, which uses network metrics to calculate a storage packet ranking. To do so, the packet number of hops, the packet type and packet network lifetime are used. In order to perform the evaluation of the proposed mechanisms, both real and emulation experiments were performed. For each forwarding strategy, it is evaluated the influence of several parameters in the network's performance, as well as comparatively evaluate the strategies in different scenarios. Experiment results, obtained with real traces of both mobility and vehicular connectivity from a real city-scale urban vehicular network, are used to evaluate the performance of GLA, ASAR and HYBRID schemes, and their results are compared to lower- and upper-bounds. Later, these strategies' viability is also validated in a real scenario. The obtained results show that these strategies are a good tradeoff to maximize data delivery ratio and minimize network overhead, while making use of moving networks as a smart city network infrastructure. To evaluate the proposed packet selection mechanisms, a First In First Out packet selection technique is used as ground rule, thus contrasting with the more objective driven proposed techniques. The results show that the proposed mechanisms are capable of provide distinct network functionalities, from prioritizing a packet type to enhancing the network's performance.A elevada mobilidade em cenários veiculares urbanos origina descontinuidades de comunicação entre veículos, um fator altamente importante quando se desenha uma estratégia de encaminhamento para redes veiculares. Mecanismos de store, carry and forward (guardar, carregar e entregar) possibilitam a recolha de dados de sensores em aplicações da Internet das coisas, contribuindo para plataformas de cidades inteligentes. Este trabalho é focado em dois tópicos principais de forma a melhorar a decisão de encaminhamento: i) estratégias de encaminhamento que fazem uso de métricas sociais e de localização para efetuar a seleção de vizinhos, ii) e mecanismos de seleção de pacotes que qualificam a rede com qualidade de serviço. A seleção de vizinhos é feita através de múltiplas métricas, resultando em três estratégias de encaminhamento: Gateway Location Awareness (GLA), uma classificação baseada em localização que faz uso de velocidade, ângulo de direção e distância até uma gateway, para selecionar os veículos com maior probabilidade de entregar a informação num menor período temporal, distinguindo os veículos através dos seus padrões de movimento. Aging Social-Aware Ranking (ASAR) explora os comportamentos sociais de cada veículo, onde é atribuída uma classificação aos veículos com base num histórico de contactos, diferenciando veículos com um alto número de contactos de outros com menos. Por fim, por forma a tirar partido das distintas características de cada uma das destas estratégias, é proposta uma abordagem híbrida, Hybrid between GLA and ASAR (HYBRID). Aliado ao critério de encaminhamento, são propostos dois mecanismos de seleção de pacotes que focam distintas funcionalidades na rede, sendo estes: Distributed Packet Selection, que foca em primeiro lugar na prioritização de determinados tipos de pacotes e em segundo lugar, no tempo de vida que resta ao pacote na rede; e Equalized Packet Selection, que usa métricas da rede para calcular a classificação de cada pacote em memória. Para tal, é usado o numero de saltos do pacote, o tipo de dados do pacote e o tempo de vida que resta ao pacote na rede. De forma a avaliar os mecanismos propostos, foram realizadas experiências em emulador e em cenário real. Para cada estratégia de encaminhamento, e avaliada a influência de vários parâmetros de configuração no desempenho da rede. Para além disso, é feita uma avaliação comparativa entre as várias estratégias em diferentes cenários. Resultados experimentais, obtidos usando traços reais de mobilidade e conetividade de uma rede veicular urbana, são utilizados para avaliar a performance dos esquemas GLA, ASAR e HYRID. Posteriormente, a viabilidade destas estratégias é também validada em cenário real. Os resultados obtidos mostram que estas estratégias são um bom tradeoff para maximizar a taxa de entrega de dados e minimizar a sobrecarga de dados na rede. Para avaliar os mecanismos de seleção de pacotes, um simples mecanismo First In First Out é utilizado como base, contrapondo com as técnicas propostas mais orientadas a objectivos concretos. Os resultados obtidos mostram que os mecanismos propostos são capazes de proporcionar à rede diferentes funcionalidades, desde prioritização de determinado tipos de dados a melhoramentos no desempenho da rede.Agradeço à Fundação Portuguesa para a Ciência e Tecnologia pelo suporte financeiro através de fundos nacionais e quando aplicável cofi nanciado pelo FEDER, no âmbito do Acordo de Parceria PT2020 pelo projecto MobiWise através do programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização (COMPETE 2020) do Portugal 2020 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-016426).Mestrado em Engenharia Eletrónica e Telecomunicaçõe

Worm epidemics in vehicular networks

Connected vehicles promise to enable a wide range of new automotive services that will improve road safety, ease traffic management, and make the overall travel experience more enjoyable. However, they also open significant new surfaces for attacks on the electronics that control most of modern vehicle operations. In particular, the emergence of vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication risks to lay fertile ground for self-propagating mobile malware that targets automobile environments. In this work, we perform a first study on the dynamics of vehicular malware epidemics in a large-scale road network, and unveil how a reasonably fast worm can easily infect thousands of vehicles in minutes. We determine how such dynamics are affected by a number of parameters, including the diffusion of the vulnerability, the penetration ratio and range of the V2V communication technology, or the worm self-propagation mechanism. We also propose a simple yet very effective numerical model of the worm spreading process, and prove it to be able to mimic the results of computationally expensive network simulations. Finally, we leverage the model to characterize the dangerousness of the geographical location where the worm is first injected, as well as for efficient containment of the epidemics through the cellular network.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author’s final draft

SCALABLE MULTI-HOP DATA DISSEMINATION IN VEHICULAR AD HOC NETWORKS

Vehicular Ad hoc Networks (VANETs) aim at improving road safety and travel comfort, by providing self-organizing environments to disseminate traffic data, without requiring fixed infrastructure or centralized administration. Since traffic data is of public interest and usually benefit a group of users rather than a specific individual, it is more appropriate to rely on broadcasting for data dissemination in VANETs. However, broadcasting under dense networks suffers from high percentage of data redundancy that wastes the limited radio channel bandwidth. Moreover, packet collisions may lead to the broadcast storm problem when large number of vehicles in the same vicinity rebroadcast nearly simultaneously. The broadcast storm problem is still challenging in the context of VANET, due to the rapid changes in the network topology, which are difficult to predict and manage. Existing solutions either do not scale well under high density scenarios, or require extra communication overhead to estimate traffic density, so as to manage data dissemination accordingly. In this dissertation, we specifically aim at providing an efficient solution for the broadcast storm problem in VANETs, in order to support different types of applications. A novel approach is developed to provide scalable broadcast without extra communication overhead, by relying on traffic regime estimation using speed data. We theoretically validate the utilization of speed instead of the density to estimate traffic flow. The results of simulating our approach under different density scenarios show its efficiency in providing scalable multi-hop data dissemination for VANETs

Virtual Router Approach For Wireless Ad Hoc Networks

Wireless networks have become increasingly popular in recent years. There are two variations of mobile wireless networks: infrastructure mobile networks and infrastructureless mobile networks. The latter are also known as mobile ad hoc network (MANET). MANETs have no fixed routers. Instead, mobile nodes function as relay nodes or routers, which discover and maintain communication connections between source nodes and destination nodes for various data transmission sessions. In other words, an MANET is a self-organizing multi-hop wireless network in which all nodes within a given geographical area participate in the routing and data forwarding process. Such networks are scalable and self-healing. They support mobile applications where an infrastructure is either not available (e.g., rescue operations and underground networks) or not desirable (e.g., harsh industrial environments). In many ad hoc networks such as vehicular networks, links among nodes change constantly and rapidly due to high node speed. Maintaining communication links of an established communication path that extends between source and destination nodes is a significant challenge in mobile ad hoc networks due to movement of the mobile nodes. In particular, such communication links are often broken under a high mobility environment. Communication links can also be broken by obstacles such as buildings in a street environment that block radio signal. In a street environment, obstacles and fast moving nodes result in a very short window of communication between nodes on different streets. Although a new communication route can be established when a break in the communication path occurs, repeatedly reestablishing new routes incurs delay and substantial overhead. To address this iv limitation, we introduce the Virtual Router abstraction in this dissertation. A virtual router is a dynamically-created logical router that is associated with a particular geographical area. Its routing functionality is provided by the physical nodes (i.e., mobile devices) currently within the geographical region served by the virtual router. These physical nodes take turns in forwarding data packets for the virtual router. In this environment, data packets are transmitted from a source node to a destination node over a series of virtual routers. Since virtual routers do not move, this scheme is much less susceptible to node mobility. There can be two virtual router approaches: Static Virtual Router (SVR) and Dynamic Virtual Router (DVR). In SVR, the virtual routers are predetermined and shared by all communication sessions over time. This scheme requires each mobile node to have a map of the virtual routers, and use a global positioning system (GPS) to determine if the node is within the geographical region of a given router. DVR is different from SVR with the following distinctions: (1) virtual routers are dynamically created for each communication sessions as needed, and deprecated after their use; (2) mobile nodes do not need to have a GPS; and (3) mobile nodes do not need to know whereabouts of the virtual routers. In this dissertation, we apply Virtual Router approach to address mobility challenges in routing data. We first propose a data routing protocol that uses SVR to overcome the extreme fast topology change in a street environment. We then propose a routing protocol that does not require node locations by adapting a DVR approach. We also explore how the Virtual Router Approach can reduce the overhead associated with initial route or location requests used by many existing routing protocols to find a destination. An initial request for a destination is expensive v because all the nodes need to be reached to locate the destination. We propose two broadcast protocols; one in an open terrain environment and the other in a street environment. Both broadcast protocols apply SVR. We provide simulation results to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed protocols in handling high mobility. They show Virtual Router approach can achieve several times better performance than traditional routing and broadcast approach based on physical routers (i.e., relay nodes

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

Enabling SDN in VANETs: What is the Impact on Security?

The demand for safe and secure journeys over roads and highways has been growing at a tremendous pace over recent decades. At the same time, the smart city paradigm has emerged to improve citizens’ quality of life by developing the smart mobility concept. Vehicular Ad hoc NETworks (VANETs) are widely recognized to be instrumental in realizing such concept, by enabling appealing safety and infotainment services. Such networks come with their own set of challenges, which range from managing high node mobility to securing data and user privacy. The Software Defined Networking (SDN) paradigm has been identified as a suitable solution for dealing with the dynamic network environment, the increased number of connected devices, and the heterogeneity of applications. While some preliminary investigations have been already conducted to check the applicability of the SDN paradigm to VANETs, and its presumed benefits for managing resources and mobility, it is still unclear what impact SDN will have on security and privacy. Security is a relevant issue in VANETs, because of the impact that threats can have on drivers’ behavior and quality of life. This paper opens a discussion on the security threats that future SDN-enabled VANETs will have to face, and investigates how SDN could be beneficial in building new countermeasures. The analysis is conducted in real use cases (smart parking, smart grid of electric vehicles, platooning, and emergency services), which are expected to be among the vehicular applications that will most benefit from introducing an SDN architecture