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 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.