The Dynamics of Vehicular Networks in Large-Scale Urban Environments

Vehicular Ad hoc Networks (VANETs) have emerged as a platform to support Intelligent Transportation Applications. A key to the development of protocols and services for IVC lies in the knowledge of the topological characteristics of the VANET communication graph. This article aims provide a "higher order" knowledge in the time-evolving dynamics of vehicular networks in large-scale urban environments through complex network analysis. In addition, we examine VANET dynamics from a spatial viewpoint in order to identify where/why in the underlying road network, particular network phenomena occur. We make reference and correlate our findings with the main communication paradigms employed in VANETs, and discuss whether the emerging network phenomena can indeed support (and to what extend) these paradigms.