A Novel Vehicular Information Network Architecture Based on Named Data Networking (NDN)

Vehicular information network and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies have been receiving a lot of attention in recent years. As one of the most important and promising IoT areas, a vehicular information network aims to implement a myriad of applications related to vehicles, traffic information, drivers, passengers, and pedestrians. However, intervehicular communication (IVC) in a vehicular information network is still based on the TCP/IP protocol stack which is not efficient and scalable. To address the efficiency and scalability issues of the IVC, we leverage the named data networking (NDN) paradigm where the end user only cares about the needed content and pays no attention to the actual location of the content. The NDN model is highly suitable for the IVC scenario with its hierarchical content naming scheme and flexible content retrieval and caching support. We design a novel vehicular information network architecture based on the basic communication principle of NDN. Our proposed architecture aims to improve content naming, addressing, data aggregation, and mobility for IVC in the vehicular information network. In addition, the key parameter settings of the proposed schemes are analyzed in order to help guide their actual deployment.