Communication protocols for vehicular ad hoc networks

Vehicular networks are envisioned for large scale deployment, and standardization bodies, car manufacturers, and academic researchers are solving a variety of related challenges. After a brief description of intelligent transportation system (ITS) architectures and the main already-established low-level standards, this tutorial elaborates on four particular aspects of vehicular networks, which are (i) the potential for a large set of innovative applications, (ii) a review of the main modeling approaches used for both roads and traffic, and finally two important communication primitives, that are (iii) data dissemination via broadcasting/geocasting, and (iv) routing in both highway and urban environments. A particular emphasis is on recent protocols that realistically consider the inherently complex nature of vehicular mobility, such as intermittent connectivity, speed variability, and the impact of intersections. Copyright (C) 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.