A Three-level Routing Hierarchy in improved SDN-MEC-VANET Architecture

Existing routing algorithms that based on traditional Vehicular Ad-Hoc NETwork (VANET) architectures cannot provide fast and diverse routing services due to dynamic and unstable environment. To address this issue, we propose a three-level routing hierarchy in improved Software-Defined VANET architecture based on Mobile Edge Computing (SDN-MEC-VANET) to improve routing performance and enrich the data transmission mode for the VANET. Moreover, it can be applied to almost all VANET protocols, enabling protocol-independent forwarding. Besides, this improved architecture can coordinate different edge devices to timely adjust the service delivery strategy under the predictive correction from controllers, providing high-bandwidth and low-delay transmission for Internet of Vehicles (IoV). Meanwhile, MEC technology is introduced to perform local control, leveraging the storage and computing capabilities of edge devices to reduce the processing pressure of the controller. Simulation results show that our routing algorithm in improved network architecture can achieve a higher packet delivery ratio within a reasonable delay than other approaches under different scenarios of network scale, communication frequency and vehicular velocity.