Providing Always Best Connected Service in VANET with Complete and Partial Information

Abstract

Mobile communication has become the preferred choice of personal communication today. With the rapid proliferation of wireless network technologies, heterogeneous wireless network environments increase more and more. Such environments provide multiple access networks simultaneously for mobile users. Each mobile user wishes to get connected to Internet using the access technology that best suits his needs at any point in time. Always Best Connected is considered as a special concept for mobile users to select their suitable access networks. In this paper, we have presented two scenarios which are based on Always Best Connected concept to provide, for a smart vehicle moving in a road network installed with multiple access technologies, an always best connected service at any point in time. In the first scenario, we assume that the mobile user (vehicle) has complete information on the road network (all access technologies installed in the road network). Whilst the second scenario is the same as the first one except that the mobile user periodically receives a partial information on the road network (only the access technologies installed in the edges which are immediately accessible by mobile user). For both scenarios, we have proposed a graph model to characterize the observed mobility pattern. Also, two algorithms are proposed to find the optimal path that provides always best connected service for vehicles in both scenarios.