Parked Cars as Virtual Network Infrastructure: Enabling Stable V2I Access for Long-Lasting Data Flows

Vehicular networks are envisioned to cover various use cases from safety related applications to infotainment. While there exist standardized solutions for exchanging single messages in a geographical area, coping with longer lasting flows of messages is more difficult. Developed solutions may require high node densities for fast delivery or even require pre-installed infrastructure (e.g., road side units). In this paper, we present a concept where we exploit parked cars to form a virtual network infrastructure. In particular, we form clusters representing a virtual road side unit spanning a relatively large geographical area. To reduce the channel load, we select a subset of the parked cars as active gateways to the cluster. This is done in a way to ensure that the connectivity to the cluster is not impaired. We evaluate the proposed algorithm using the Car4ICT architecture, a concept that enables cars in smart cities to discover and use various kinds of services.