Virtual virtual circuits: One step beyond virtual mobile nodes in vehicular Ad-Hoc networks

Virtual mobile nodes (VMNs) were recently introduced as a means to address the challenges raised by the mobility of the nodes in ad hoc networks. This concept can be readily applied in the specific realm of VANETs, taking advantage of the facts that the movements of the vehicles are bound to the road and street maps, and that the variation of vehicle density has statistical behavior in time and space. Several studies have proved that VMNs can facilitate the planning of communications among the vehicles that travel through a given area. We introduce the concept of virtual virtual circuits (VVCs) as a means to reduce even further the number of control packets flowing through the VANETs and the computational load on the communication devices. Early results are presented that evidence significant improvements in terms of delay, packet losses and throughput. © 2012 IEEE.