Space-Ground Integrated Information Network Enabled Internet of Vehicles: Architecture and Key Mechanisms

Despite the emerging network technologies such as 5G, edge computing, and cloud computing growing vigorously, it is difficult for terrestrial networks to provide quality services for IoV and other daily communications at the same time. With the advancement of satellite communication technology, more and more people are paying attention to the integration of satellite networks and ground networks. In this article, we propose a space-ground integrated information network based Internet of Vehicles (SGIIN-IoV) architecture supporting multilink access, which provides a good example for the application of the SGIIN in the IoV. In SGIIN-IoV, high delay-tolerant data will be transmitted through satellite links, avoiding using ultra low-latency links. Afterward, we propose a multilayer resource awareness (MLRA) mechanism to achieve full-dimensional monitoring in SGIIN-IoV, which consists of an intravehicle service layer, a link detection layer, and a global monitor layer. Further, we design an adaptive multilink data transmission (AMDT) mechanism to improve utilization of heterogeneous links in SGIIN-IoV. Finally, we verify the two mechanisms, MLRA and AMDT, and the results show that the proposed design can provide higher reliability for data transmission in time.