Maximum Lifetime Optimized Collaboration of Data and Energy Routing in VANET

Abstract

The roadside units (RSUs) based on traditional grid has high carbon footprint and high deployment cost in vehicle dedicated network. An ideal green alternative has become an important issue in Vehicular Ad-Hoc Networks (VANETs). In this paper, we propose a novel framework of energy harvesting and cooperation to maximize the life cycle in VENETs. In this VANET scenario, the RSU node can harvest energy from the nature and also receive down steam vehicle energy dispatch to maintain the energy needed for data transmission, may transfers a portion of obtained energies by RSU nodes to the neighboring RSU nodes through energy cooperation. Each vehicle can access the RSU in two ways: 1) direct delivery when the vehicle is within the transmission range of the RSU; 2) multi-hop relay when the vehicle is not within the transmission range of the RSU. By analysing the data rate, transmission power and energy transmission, we solve the problem of maximum network life cycle in the conservation law of energy and traffic. We consider involving energy constraints and data transmission joint problem, we optimize each RUS nodes energy management over vehicular outgoing data links and its energy transfers to neighboring RSU nodes. For this case, with no energy cooperation, we show that each RSU node should allocate more power to links with more noise and/or more data flow. In addition, when there is energy cooperation, our numerical results indicate that the energy is routed from nodes with higher energy to nodes with lower energy. Simulation results show that energy and data routing cooperation in VANET strategy can effectively improve the network life cycle.