Efficient and Reliable Pseudonymous Authentication

Privacy, security, and reliability are key requirements in deploying vehicular ad-hoc networks (VANET). Without those the VANET technology won’t be suitable for market diffusion. In this chapter, the authors are concerned with how to fulfill these requirements by using pseudonym-based authentication, designing security schemes that don’t endanger transport safety while maintaining low overhead. At the same time our design improves the system usability by allowing nodes to self-generate their own pseudonyms.

Simulation of VANET Applications

This chapter systematically presents actual issues regarding the simulation of VANET applications. Some of them refer to challenges in developing VANET simulators. The chapter discusses simulator architectures, models used for representing the communication among vehicles, vehicles mobility features, and simulation tool implementation methods. A critical analysis of the solutions adopted in some well-known actual simulators is also included. Other issues relate to the use of simulation in the evaluation of applications that aim at improving the traffic safety and control. Representative city and highway application scenarios are discussed, and results that can be obtained by simulation, along with ways these results can be exploited by VANET developers and users are highlighted. Future trends in the development of simulators that produce more accurate results and their use for the evaluation of more sophisticated traffic control solutions are also included.

An Overview of Positioning and Data Fusion Techniques Applied to Land Vehicle Navigation Systems

In this chapter, the authors will review the problem of estimating in real-time the position of a vehicle for use in land navigation systems. After describing the application context and giving a definition of the problem, they will look at the mathematical framework and technologies involved to design positioning systems. The authors will compare the performance of some of the most popular data fusion approaches and provide some insights on their limitations and capabilities. They will then look at the case of robustness of the positioning system when one or some of the sensors are faulty and will describe how the positioning system can be made more robust and adaptive in order to take into account the occurrence of faulty or degraded sensors. Finally, they will go one step further and explore possible architectures for collaborative positioning systems, whereas many vehicles are interacting and exchanging data to improve their own position estimate. The chapter is concluded with some remarks on the future evolution of the field.

In-Vehicle Network Architecture for the Next-Generation Vehicles

New types of communication networks will be necessary to meet various consumer and regulatory demands as well as satisfy requirements of safety and fuel efficiency. Various functionalities of vehicles will require various types of communication networks and networking protocols. For example, driveby- wire and active safety features will require fault tolerant networks with time-triggered protocols to guarantee deterministic latencies. Multimedia systems will require high-bandwidth networks for video transfer, and body electronics need low-bandwidth networks to keep the cost down. As the size and complexity of the network grows, the ease of integration, maintenance and troubleshooting has become a major challenge. To facilitate integration and troubleshooting of various nodes and networks, it would be desirable that networks of future vehicles should be partitioned, and the partitions should be interconnected by a hierarchical or multi-layer physical network. This book chapter describes a number of ways using which the networks of future vehicles could be designed and implemented in a cost-effective manner. The book chapter also shows how simulation models can be developed to evaluate the performance of various types of in-vehicle network topologies and select the most appropriate topology for given requirements and specifications.

The Localisation Problem in Cooperative Vehicle Applications

The next paradigm towards enhancing vehicle safety and road transportation represent cooperative systems. Advances in computer and communications technologies are facilitating the establishment of vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) wireless communications links. This enables the sharing and aggregation of information which results in an extension of the driver awareness horizon in an electronic manner. In this chapter, V2V and V2I applications are considered as a spatio-temporal problem. The tenet is that sharing information can be made only if this is time stamped and related to a spatial description of the information sources. The chapter formulates the spatio-temporal problem having as constraint the precision of the pose estimates of the vehicles involved. It regards the localisation problem and accuracy of digital road maps as a combined issue that needs to be addressed for the successful deployment of cooperative vehicle applications. Two case studies, intersection safely and an overtaking manoeuvre are included. Recommendations on the precision limits of the vehicle pose estimations and the potential uncertainties that need to be considered when designing V2V and V2I applications complete the chapter.

The Role of Communications in Cyber-Physical Vehicle Applications

Cyber-physical systems use sensing, communications, and computing to control the operation of physical devices. Sensing and computing devices have been embedded in automobiles and in the transportation infrastructure. Communications adds a new dimension to the capabilities of these systems. The embedded computers and sensors in both vehicles and the infrastructure will be networked into cyber-physical systems that reduce accidents, improve fuel efficiency, increase the capacity of the transportation infrastructure, and reduce commute times. The authors describe applications that improve the operation of automobiles, control traffic lights, and distribute the load on roadways. The requirements on the communications protocols that implement the applications are determined and a new communications paradigm, neighborcast, is described. Neighborcast communicates between nearby entities, and is particularly well suited to transportation applications.

Integrating Traffic Flow Features to Characterize the Interference in Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks

Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs) are composed of vehicles equipped with advanced wireless communication devices. As a paradigm of decentralized advanced traveler information systems (ATIS), VANETs have obtained interests of researchers in both communication and transportation fields. The research in this chapter investigates several fundamental issues, such as the connectivity, the reachability, the interference, and the capacity, with respect to information propagation in VANETs. The authors’ work is distinguished with previous efforts, since they incorporate the characteristics of traffic into these issues in the communication layer of VANETs; this mainly addresses the issue of the interference. Previous efforts to solve this problem only consider static network topologies. However, high node mobility and dynamic traffic features make the interference problem in VANETs quite different. To investigate this problem, this chapter first demonstrates the interference features in VANETs incorporating realistic traffic flow features based on a validated simulation model. Then, analytical expressions are developed to evaluate the interference under different traffic flow conditions. These analytical expressions are validated within the simulation framework. The results show that the analytical expressions perform very well to capture the interference in VANETs. The results from this work can facilitate the development of better algorithms for maximizing throughput in the VANETs.

Automotive Network Architecture for ECUs Communications

This chapter deals with automotive networks and the emerging requirements involved by the X-by-wire and X-tainment applications. The introduction of ECUs (Electronic Control Units) has been driven by new market (like navigation, multimedia, and safety). Furthermore, the automotive industry has to face a great challenge in its transition from mechanical engineering towards mechatronical products. Combining the concepts of networks and mechatronic modules makes it possible to reduce both the cabling and the number of connectors. To connect the ECUs, a variety of network technologies are already widespread. A review of the most widely-used automotive networks and emerging ones is given first. To fulfill the increasing demand of intra-car communications, a new technique based on power line communication (PLC) is proposed and reviewed in the second section. On the other hand, there are several infotainment applications (like mobile phones, laptop computers) pushing for the adoption of intra-car wireless communications. Some of the most common wireless technologies that have potential to be used in the automotive domain are considered and different experimentations are presented. Finally, the challenges of these wired or wireless alternative solutions to automotive networks are highlighted.

Electromagnetic Compatibility Issues in Automotive Communications

Engineers and engineering managers involved in the design of automotive electronic systems need to have a basic familiarity with electronic noise and the electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) issues that influence the design and the performance of automotive systems. When EMC issues are addressed early in a product’s design cycle, the resulting designs often meet all EMC requirements without significant cost or performance problems. EMC problems detected after a product has been built and tested, on the other hand, can be very difficult and costly to fix. This chapter reviews automotive EMC requirements and discusses the design of automotive electronics for EMC. The objective of the chapter is to provide non-EMC engineers and engineering managers with basic information that will help them recognize the importance of designing for electromagnetic compatibility, rather than addressing electronic noise problems as they arise.

Enabling Secure Wireless Real-Time Vehicle Monitoring and Control

The use of in-car networked electronic controller units (ECUs) for monitoring and control of various vehicle subsystems has become a common practice among the automotive manufacturers. In this chapter, the author surveys one of the most popular in-car networking technologies, the Controller Area Network (CAN), as well as newer and emerging in-car network technologies called FlexRay and Media-Oriented System Transport (MOST). Currently, these networks are deployed for in-car applications such as engine diagnostics, and infotainment systems. In this chapter, however, the author extends the use of these embedded vehicular networks by proposing to remotely monitor and control the vehicles through them, in order to realize safety and driver assistance related applications. To accomplish this task, additional technologies such as real-time wireless communications and data security are required, and each of them is introduced and described in this chapter.