Abstract
Vehicular Ad hoc NETworks (VANETs) is an area under intensive research that promises to improve security on the road by developing an intelligent transport system (ITS). The main purpose is to create an inter-communication network among vehicles, as well as between vehicles and the supporting infrastructure. The system pretends to offer drivers data concerning other nearby vehicles, especially those within sight. The problem of information sharing among vehicles and between the vehicle and the infrastructure is another critical aspect. A general communication infrastructure is required for the notification, storage, management, and provision of context-aware information about user travel. Ideally an integrated vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication paradigm enriched with an information management system would solve the problem. The infrastructure should manage all the collected safety events garnered from vehicles and the interesting information to be provided to the user, which is adapted to the car context and driver preferences. Finally, security issues should be considered. Since the information conveyed over a vehicular network may affect critical decisions, fail-safe security is a necessity. The first directive for any V2V communication scheme is, therefore, that every safety message must be authenticated. Because of the high speed and therefore short duration within which communication between two cars is possible, communication must be non-interactive, and message overhead must be very low. The urgency of safety messages implies that authentication must be instantaneous without additional communication. Moreover, providing strong security in vehicular networks raises important privacy concerns that must also be considered. Safety messages include data that is dangerous to the personal privacy of vehicle owners. Most relevant is the danger of tracking a vehicle through positional information. A set of security basics to address these challenges should be proposed that can be used as the building blocks of secure applications. In this article we will focus on the aforementioned technologies and engineering issues related to vehicular ad-hoc networks, emphasizing the challenges that must be overcome to accomplish the desired vehicular safety infrastructure.
TopBackground
Ubiquitous computing is nowadays an emerging research field in mobile communications, due to more and more integration of heterogeneous services over different operation environments. The capacity of customizing services to the client, and the adaptation of its behavior according to the context, will offer the user value-added features in the new age of computer communications. Taking into account this premise, in this article our aim is to create a feasible environment for providing integrated services in the vehicle field.
Wireless communications in the vehicle field through ad hoc networks (or Vehicular Ad hoc NETworks–VANETs) are currently being used as a novel and promising technology to improve driving safety. Mainstream research usually considers these communication patterns to offer intelligent transportation systems (ITSs), where one of the most important aims is the creation of communication networks among vehicles, in vehicle-to-vehicle transmissions (V2V), but without forgetting communications between vehicle and infrastructure (V2I). The usefulness of these developments is focused on providing every vehicle with information about the surrounding vehicles, and especially the ones not located in the field of vision.
Due to the continuous improvements of communication technologies, a great number of considerations must be taken into account when a network system is elected. Although VANET developments have predominated in V2V communications, it is necessary to study whether the facilities offered by the network design cover the requirements collected from the future deployable services. Collision avoidance applications have been the main safety service implemented for the vehicle field. However, a great number of non-safety services are appearing. When the amount of services for the vehicle side grows, more consideration is needed. It is mandatory to research in technological solutions which deal with the requirements of a generic and flexible architecture for service provisioning and usage.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Vehicle to Vehicle (V2V): Relates all the data communication that takes place between various vehicles on the road.
Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS): A satellite system that is used to pinpoint the geographic location of a user’s receiver anywhere in the world.
On-Board Unit (OBU): Computing device located in a vehicle that establishes the connection with the RSU and the other OBUs on nearby vehicles.
Mobile Ad-hoc NETwork (MANET): A type of wireless network, made of a self-configuring network of mobile devices. These devices are connected by wireless links. The union of all these devices forms an arbitrary topology.
Roadside Unit (RSU): Computing device located on the roadside that provides connectivity support to passing vehicles.
Vehicle to Infrastructure (V2I): Involves all the communication aspects between vehicles and the supporting infrastructure.
Universal Mobile Telecommunications Service (UMYS): A third-generation (3G) broadband, packet-based transmission of text, digitized voice, video, and multimedia at data rates up to 2 Mbps.
Vehicular Ad hoc Network (VANET): A mobile network whose node are vehicles (i.e., car, trucks, etc.); considered an extension of a MANET (Mobile Ad hoc Networks) because of the possibility of working without a fixed infrastructure.