Introduction of Vehicular Network Architectures

Abstract

A vehicular network organizes and connects vehicles with each other, and with mobile and fixed-locations resources. This chapter discusses the architectures in the vehicular network environment. The authors introduce the overview of in-vehicle and out-vehicle network architectures. An automobile in an in-vehicle network adopts four vehicle bus protocols, CAN (Controller Area Network), LIN (Local Interconnect Network), MOST (Media Oriented Systems Transport) and FlexRay. However, these protocols cannot intercommunicate with each other. Therefore, the OSEK operating system is designed as standard software architecture for the various ECUs (Electronic Control Units). In the out-vehicle network, the OBU (On Board Unit) in the automobile can communicate with the infrastructure via the Internet. The authors discuss next-generation vehicular network architecture, the modern in-vehicle networks, on-board computers and the Internet, mobile telecommunications and telematics applications in the ground vehicles, and finally, we introduce future desired features. This chapter discusses the architectures in vehicular network environment. The first section introduces the overview of in-vehicle and out-vehicle network architectures. The next section describes in-vehicle network architecture for disaster communication network by combining various automotive bus protocols. The third section describes the out-vehicle network architecture for disaster communication network by combining various wireless LANs. The last section discusses next-generation vehicular network architecture, the modern in-vehicle networks, on-board computers and the Internet, mobile telecommunications and telematics applications in the ground vehicles, and introduces future desired features.