Handling the inter-vehicular communications challenge - a survey

Inter-vehicle ad-hoc (IVC) networks are highly volatile due to high mobility rates of vehicles and varying driver behavior. A significant challenge in IVC networks would be the implementation of suitable routing protocols so as to ensure successful data packet delivery and lower packet delivery delay. IVC networks are subject to several limitations such as fragmentation of the network due to low deployment of ITS invehicle systems and low vehicle density. The rapidly changing topology would cause links between vehicles to be less reliable than those in traditional mobile ad hoc networks. This paper frames the issues and then surveys recent work done in this field, including routing protocol studies and research on network architectures making use of fixed roadside gateways.