Architectural design and evaluation for distribution and governance of vehicular information in smart cities
Abstract
The rate at which we generate data nowadays has instigated a migration of data processing
concepts and technologies from the Cloud-Computing paradigm. The potential destructive
impact of “Internet of Things” on the current network infrastructure has been addressed
by the rise of Edge Processing and Fog-Computing. However, it is clear that imminent
technologies such as Smart Cities and Connected Vehicles need a collaborative platform
of Edge/Fog/Cloud for success. Aggregated vehicle data can provide “data blanketing” of
every street throughout a city, giving an accurate snapshot of current traffic and driving
behaviour. Gathering such data is referred to as Vehicle Telematics, and can be obtained
through On-Board Units (OBU). Modern vehicles generate up to 5GB an hour, with newer
models generating far more. Processing and transmitting this information in the most
efficient way possible is a hotly researched topic.
In this thesis we design, implement, and evaluate a novel data-centric architecture with
capabilities of performing bi-directional communication between Edge/Fog/Cloud nodes.
Our architecture, WAVE-Flow, consists of a combination of Flow Based Programming
and the WAVE communication protocol, with the focus on Vehicle-to-Infrastructure
scenarios (V2I). With much of the current literature focusing on the communication
protocols between OBUs and Road-Side Units (RSU), this work develops a set of
mechanisms within the nodes that enhances governance over data processing and
distribution.
WAVE employs the IPv6 protocol, and also introduces a WAVE Short Message Protocol
(WSMP). Due to high mobility, connectivity between vehicles and RSUs may be unstable.
Furthermore, RSUs may only be situated at hotspots throughout a city, such as traffic
intersections. This may be problematic as vehicles may be out of range before data
transmission is finished. To combat this issue, we develop an in-vehicle mechanism called
W-V6 that switches between WSMP and IPv6 depending on its proximity of an RSU.
We have extended the WAVE protocol with a specific message set designed for vehicle
telematics. The WAVE-Flow architecture stores the message locally in-vehicle until
requested by an RSU. However, if, for example the vehicle moves out of the transmission
range of the RSU, and can no longer transmit via WSMP, the message will be packaged
as a UDP packet and sent via IPv6 to the RSU. Results will show our W-V6 mechanism
extends the service area of the RSU by hybridizing the communication protocols available
in multi-interface vehicles.
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