Vehicular ad-hoc networks vanets: a detailed study and research extensions

Abstract

This B.Sc. thesis analyzes the basic concepts and mechanisms that are used in the new IEEE wireless standard, 802.11p in order to enhance the performance of the vehicular networks. The issues of Security, Quality of Service and Routing are extensively covered along with the existing current research and enhancement proposals by various researchers. Basic definitions as well as complex mechanisms are analyzed and presented in order to enable the average reader to fully comprehend the subject and the ideas that have been introduced. The work is separated into chapters, starting with the introduction and basic concepts of vehicular networks. In the second chapter a small introduction helps the understanding of the role of road side infrastructure in vehicular communications. The third chapter is comprised of the book chapter authored and finally accepted in the book entitled "Roadside Networks for Vehicular Communications: Architectures, Applications and Test Fields", that will be published by IGI-Global in 2012. This book chapter includes a detailed analysis on the vehicular networks and how roadside infrastructure helps improve security, quality of service and routing. In the fourth chapter, we present an introduction about the concept of intelligent transportation systems and its socioeconomic effects. In the final chapter of the current thesis, we present the paper that was submitted and finally accepted in the Panhellenic Conference on Informatics (PCI 2011), that is an overview of the past and recent scientific projects and organizations that have set their focus towards the wide acceptance of the vehicular communication networks and the intelligent transportation systems as well as their large-scale deployment.