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10.3.1
VSNs Topology
Creating high-speed, highly scalable, and secure VSNs presents an extraordinary
challenge. The combination of highly dynamic mobility patterns in VSNs, com-
bined with high velocities, results in highly dynamic network topologies. However,
VSNs also employ certain features that can actually facilitate the topology forma-
tion process. They have access to ample computational and power resources within
the network itself and can usually utilize high-performance wireless communica-
tion and advanced antenna technology. In addition, it can be expected that a signifi-
cant fraction of vehicles will have an accurate knowledge of their own geographical
position by means of GPS.
Main topology candidate for VSNs is the
Wireless Mesh Networking
(
WMN
)
[
15
], which lately emerged as an important technology in building next generation
networks. It provides a range of benefits over traditional wired and wireless net-
working solutions including low deployment costs, scalability under higher traffic
density situations, and resiliency to faults. Moreover, the WMN is often described
as being autonomic with self-healing and self-configuring properties and its popu-
larity has grown both as a research platform and as a commercially exploitable
technology. Therefore, WMN is today used as the key topology formation concept
in VSNs, Fig.
10.1
.
A WMN topology and the
multi-hop communication
it inherently provides offer
multiple redundant communications paths throughout the network. This character-
istic can be useful for overcoming dead-spots if some sensors in some vehicles stop
operating or the communication is temporarily blocked, e.g., sudden lane change of
a heavy vehicle (such as a truck or a bus) can introduce a shade zone and,
Computer
PLC
Fig. 10.1
WMN topology
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