Optimization of vehicular applications and communication properties with Connectivity Maps

Cellular networks are particularly suitable for the provision of vehicular online services due to their high coverage rates. The network dynamics and the mobility of the vehicle lead to frequent changes in the communication properties. Many vehicular application do not deal well with unexpected changes in conditions. In this paper we present our approach to provide vehicles with context data about the future network properties, using the principles of crowdsourcing. We demonstrate the usability of the approach with an adaptive video streaming where the bitrate and buffer size are adapted to the expected conditions. In a second scenario we use the knowledge for the optimization of handover times. Thus, the negative handover effects are significantly reduced. Based on an evaluation scenario, the differences between common network-dependent and the Connectivity Map supported handovers are investigated and the significant improvement potential is shown.