A Vertical Handover management scheme for VANET Cloud Computing systems

Abstract

Vehicular Cloud Computing (VCC) systems use heterogeneous network access technologies in order to fulfill the requirements of modern services. Therefore, the need for efficient Vertical Handover (VHO) management schemes must be addressed. In this paper a VHO management scheme for VCC systems is described. The proposed method takes into account the vehicles velocity as well as its current connection type and applies a two step VHO algorithm to reduce operations' costs and optimize mobility management. Accordingly, as a first step a VHO initiation process evaluates the necessity to perform handover and subsequently a network selection process selects the appropriate network alternative considering both vehicular service requirements and operators' policies. The proposed scheme is applied to a VCC system which includes Long Term Evolution (LTE) Macrocells and Femtocells as well as 802.11p Road Side Units (RSUs). Performance evaluation shows that the suggested algorithm ensures the Always Best Connection (ABC) principle, while at the same time outperforms existing VHO management schemes.