Information Dissemination in Vehicular Networks

We discuss information dissemination principles in vehicular networks. In the early days of vehicular networking, many ideas investigated in the Mobile Ad Hoc Network (MANET) domain have been revisited for their applicability in what has been called a Vehicular Ad Hoc Network (VANET). The basis for many of these activities has been short range radio broadcast using IEEE 802.11b style protocols until its derivate for Inter-Vehicle Communication (IVC), IEEE 802.11p, had been standardized. It turned out that the topology of vehicular networks is way too dynamic to make this MANET approach a success. In turn, completely new concepts for information dissemination have been developed, ranging from one-hop broadcasting, which is better known as beaconing now, to geo-casting, and to using store-carry-forward concepts. At the same time, also the use of 3G and 4G cellular networks has been investigated. We review all these concepts and point out future trends in information dissemination.