Peer-to-peer multimedia content provisioning for vehicular ad hoc networks

In the past decade, Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANET), that specialize Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANET), to vehicle to vehicle (V2V) and vehicle to infrastructure (V2I) communications have received a great deal of attention in the research community. And with a good reason: vehicular communications promise to integrate driving into a ubiquitous and pervasive network that is already redefining the way we live and work. The potential societal impact of VANET was confirmed by the proliferation of consortia and initiatives involving car manufacturers, government agencies and academia including, among others, the Car-2-Car Communication Consortium, the Vehicle Safety Consortium, the Networks-on-Wheels Project, the Vehicle Infrastructure Integration Program, and the Advanced Safety Vehicle Program. While the original impetus for VANET was traffic safety, more recent concerns involve privacy and security. It was recently noticed that allocation of 75MHz spectrum in the 5.9GHz band for Dedicate Short Range Communications (DSRC) in North America opens VANET to multimedia applications including peer-to-peer (P2P) content provisioning and the fast-growing mobile infotainment industry. In spite of their close resemblance to MANET, with which they share the same underlying philosophy, VANET networks have a number of specific characteristics that set them apart from MANET. The presentation will discuss the state of the art in VANETs as well as a zero-infrastructure for multimedia over peer to peer for VANET.