Software Defined Architecture for VANET: A Testbed Implementation with Wireless Access Management

Toward ITS, academia and industry aim to utilize all possible radio access technologies in order to support reliable services and applications in VANETs. Thus, the inclusion of already deployed Wi-Fi networks in VANET topology is a crucial step for the next generation vehicular networks. However, the VANET topology also requires preservation of the features already offered by DSRC and the core cellular network. As a result, the coexistence of multiple different access technologies results in high complexity in terms of the control and management of the network infrastructure. To this end, software defined networking provides a promising opportunity to simplify the management and control of clumsy network infrastructures by decoupling the data and control planes in order to provide elasticity for current networks. In this article, we propose an architectural model that exploits this opportunity in order to enhance VANET with Wi-Fi access capability. Moreover, we offer a novel software defined VANET architecture that consists of soft OpenFlow switches with Wi-Fi capabilities as both roadside units and vehicles. In particular, we first investigate existing test tools and environments for software defined wireless networks and also supply a novel testbed architecture in order to provide a feasible test environment for evaluating the proposed architecture. Additionally, we propose a Wireless Access Management (WAM) protocol that provides wireless host management and basic flow admission with respect to the available bandwidth to validate the capability of the offered architecture. The observation results of the deployed testbed prove the conformity of the offered 802.11 architecture to the VANET.