Standard Protocols for Heterogeneous P2P Vehicular Networks

Abstract

Vehicular Communication Systems are developing form of networks in which moving vehicles and side road units are the main communicating nodes. In such networks, vehicular nodes provide information to other nodes via Vehicle-to-Vehicle communication protocols. A vehicular communication system can be used to support smart road applications such as accidents and traffic congestion avoidance, collision warning forwarding, forensic accidents assistance, crime site investigation, and alert notification. However, current Vehicular Communication Systems suffer from many issues and challenges, one of which is their poor interoperability as they lack standardization due to the inconsistent technologies and protocols they use. This paper proposes several standard protocols and languages for P2P vehicular networks that are built using heterogeneous technologies and platforms. These standards consist of three protocols: a Standard Communication Protocol which enables the interoperable operation between the heterogeneous nodes of a P2P Vehicular network; an Autonomous Peers Integration Protocol which enables the self-integration and selfdisintegration of functionalities; and a Standard Information Retrieval Protocol which allows the P2P network to be queried using a standard high-level language. In the experiments, a case study was presented as a proof of concept which demonstrated the feasibility of the proposed protocols and that they can be used as a standard platform for data exchange in P2P Vehicular Communication Systems. As future work, Service-oriented architectures for vehicular networks are to be investigated while addressing security issues such as confidentiality, integrity, and availability.