A Tutorial Survey on Delivery of Service Data in Vehicular Ad-Hoc Networks

Good example of pervasive application in transportation and communications is TIS (Traffic Information Service). The valued TIS needs improvement of the delivery of service data. However, nodes form a disconnected network for most of the time due to vehicular mobility, low density, lossy link, etc, which may bring challenges to VANET (Vehicular Ad-hoc Network). This paper initially identifies the challenges in data delivery which is regarded as a process involving the data dissemination and information forwarding. It proposes a guideline for the design of data delivery protocols in VANET in terms of four elements, i.e., People, vehicles, roads and link. A condensed survey of existing methods is followed with the aim of understanding how the data can be delivered in a hop-by-hop way. We then propose an overview and taxonomy of simulators available for evaluation of data delivery protocols concentrating on the goals such as improving network good put, describing vehicles' mobile traces, and selecting the best forwarding time. In the end, we describe various open issues with suggestions of possible ways to extend the capabilities of current data delivery protocols.