MDP-based Vehicular Network Connectivity Model for VCC Management

Vehicular Cloud computing is new paradigm where vehicles collaboratively exchange data and resources to support services and problem-solving in urban environments. Characteristically, such Clouds undergo severe challenging conditions from the high mobility of vehicles, and by essence, they are rather dynamic and complex. Many works have explored the assembling and management of Vehicular Clouds with designs that heavily focus on mobility. However, a mobility-based strategy relies on the geographical position of vehicles and its feasibility has been questioned in some recent works. Therefore, we present a more relaxed Vehicular Cloud management scheme that relies on connectivity. This work models uncertainty and considers every possible chance a vehicle may be available through accessible communication means, such as V2X communications and the vehicle being in the range of RSUs for data transmissions. We utilize the MDP model to track the state of vehicles and when there are connected and available for transmission of the data.