An empirical investigation of performance challenges within context‐aware content sharing for vehicular ad hoc networks

Connected vehicles is a leading use-case within the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), which is aimed at automating a range of driving tasks such as navigation, accident avoidance, content sharing and auto-driving. Such systems leverage Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks (VANETs) and include vehicle to vehicle (V2V) and vehicle to roadside infrastructure (V2I) communication along with remote systems such as traffic alerts and weather reports. However, the device endpoints in such networks are typically resource-constrained and, therefore, leverage edge computing, wireless communications and data analytics to improve the overall driving experience, influencing factors such as safety, reliability, comfort, response and economic efficiency. Our focus in this paper is to identify and highlight open challenges to achieve a secure and efficient convergence between the constrained IoT devices and the high-performance capabilities offered by the clouds. Therein, we present a context-aware content sharing scenario for VANETs and identify specific requirements for its achievement. We also conduct a comparative study of simulation software for edge computing paradigm to identify their strengths and weaknesses, especially within the context of VANETs. We use FogNetSim++ to simulate diverse settings within VANETs with respect to latency and data rate highlighting challenges and opportunities for future research

Service Provisioning in Edge-Cloud Continuum Emerging Applications for Mobile Devices

Disruptive applications for mobile devices can be enhanced by Edge computing facilities. In this context, Edge Computing (EC) is a proposed architecture to meet the mobility requirements imposed by these applications in a wide range of domains, such as the Internet of Things, Immersive Media, and Connected and Autonomous Vehicles. EC architecture aims to introduce computing capabilities in the path between the user and the Cloud to execute tasks closer to where they are consumed, thus mitigating issues related to latency, context awareness, and mobility support. In this survey, we describe which are the leading technologies to support the deployment of EC infrastructure. Thereafter, we discuss the applications that can take advantage of EC and how they were proposed in the literature. Finally, after examining enabling technologies and related applications, we identify some open challenges to fully achieve the potential of EC, and also research opportunities on upcoming paradigms for service provisioning. This survey is a guide to comprehend the recent advances on the provisioning of mobile applications, as well as foresee the expected next stages of evolution for these applications

Toward a lightweight and efficient UAV‐aided VANET

International audienceConnectivity in a smart vehicular network is quite sensitive and highly affected by its dynamic network topology. Issues related to the intermittent nature of connectivity may arise due to the high mobility of nodes and network heterogeneity. In sparse areas, a vehicular network is basically a disruption‐tolerant network suffering from frequent disconnections, long delays, and messages loss. Facing these issues, and specifically for time‐sensitive applications, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) can provide valuable assistance to Vehicular Ad Hoc Network (VANET) by assuming a relay node role between disconnected segments in the road. In such scenarios, effective communication is either between vehicles (V2V) or between vehicles and UAVs (V2U), which would form subsequently a UAV‐assisted vehicular network. In the present paper, we propose a new framework for using small UAVs as mobile infrastructure nodes in order to enhance the connectivity between vehicles. The first part of this framework accurately predicts the disconnected segments such that drones can be deployed to reestablish lost links. We have implemented a theoretical game for this prediction process. Furthermore, since the battery reserves of the UAVs are limited, we have proposed a mitigation technique based on game theory to reduce the power draining effects that a broadcast storm would have on the energy consumption of the network. For the validation of the proposed UVE (UAV‐aided VANET framework, with energy‐conscious constraints), we conducted thorough simulation scenarios with Network Simulator 3. The obtained performances are promising in the sense that our approach achieves high packet delivery ratio, low end‐to‐end delay, and low overhead communication costs