Publications

The growing mobility of people and goods has a very high societal cost in terms of traffic congestion, fatalities and injured people every year. In this context, Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) is identified as a key technology to increase safety, improve the transportation infrastructures and provide critical safety information to road users. Therefore, ITS is currently the centre of attention of car manufacturers as well as transportation authorities and communication organizations. The basic idea is to broaden the range of perception of the driver beyond his (her) field of vision and further on to assist the driver with autonomous assistance applications. In a few words, inter-vehicle communication network and vehicle-to-infrastructure network should perform crucial functions in road safety, detecting and avoiding traffic accidents, reducing traffic congestion as well as improving driving comfort. In this context, an in-depth understanding of wireless vehicular network architecture and vehicular application requirements is necessary to provide the groundwork for minimizing vehicular crashes. In this chapter, we will develop some insights into the design of future broadband vehicular networks capable of providing preventive safety measures as well as comfort services. More specifically, we will bring the focus on the vehicular network architecture and vehicular applications envisioned in vehicular wireless networks.