Combined opportunistic vehicular/cellular networking for cooperative driving assistance in highway scenarios

In this paper a solution for improving connectivity and quality of service in vehicular communications is described. It is designed mainly for highway vehicular communications, where radio disconnections between moving vehicles occurs more frequently. The solution also improves networking by including in the cooperative driving vehicles that are not yet equipped with dedicated short range communication (DSRC) onboard units. An analysis on the impact on connectivity probability is provided along with a description of a specific communication algorithm designed to improve the road safety via cooperative driving.