Ensuring "Always Satisfactorily Connected" in Cooperative Vehicular Networks

The concept of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) presents new R\\&D challenges in the transportation and ICT sectors and is currently receiving considerable interest from the research community. The primary objective of ITS is the creation of advanced road traffic systems for improved traffic safety, efficiency, and travelling comfort. Applications such as trip planning, automatic tolling and emergency warnings, among others, are envisaged in a system which can potentially reform modern transportation. Basic vehicle and roadside infrastructure collaboration allows an increase in efficiency and safety and acts as the foundation for an extensive application set to achieve these ITS goals. There are some important considerations however; communications are the nervous system of ITS and the major challenge lies in ensuring ITS services are adequately supported by communication services. This paper highlights the issue of service and communications management in cooperative vehicular networks to ensure an "Always Satisfactorily Connected" (ASC) objective. Using the CALMnet simulation environment, a set of selection objectives following ASC and "Always Best Connected" (ABC) are examined and compared. Results highlight the impact of changing objectives in the cooperative vehicular environment and confirm that ASC most adequately meet service requirements.