Section: Application Domains

Vehicular Networks and Smart Cities

Vehicular ad hoc networks (VANET) are based on short- to medium-range transmission systems that support both vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-roadside communications. Vehicular networks will enable vehicular safety applications (safety warnings) as well as non-safety applications (real-time traffic information, routing support, mobile entertainment, and many others). We are interested in developing an efficient routing protocol that takes advantage of the fixed network infrastructure deployed along the roads. We are also studying MAC layer issues in order to provide more priority for security messages which have stringent delivery constraints.

Smart cities share with the military tactical networks the constraint on pedestrian and vehicular mobility. Furthermore, the coexistence of many networks operating in the same radio spectrum may cause interferences that should be avoided. Cognitive radio takes advantage of the channels temporarily left available by the primary users to assign them to secondary users. Such an opportunistic behavior can also be applied in wireless sensor networks deployed in the cities. Smart cities raise the problem of transmitting, gathering, processing and storing big data. Another issue is to provide the right information at the right place: where it is needed.