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With the introduction of smartphones, cloud and edge computing, and
mobile Internet, the automotive ecosystem is shifting toward the
Internet of Vehicles (IoV). This article looks at the evolution leading
to the IoV and identifies related research and engineering challenges,
including
- Coexistence of cloud, edge computing, and data caching strategies at
the edge;
- Integration of data processing and management as IoV
services; and
- Seamless interoperability among vehicular sensors,
computing platforms, and consumer devices.
To address these challenges, we present an Internet of
Things (IoT) architecture that considers vehicles as IoT resources and
provides
- Mechanisms to integrate them in an IoV ecosystem
- Seamless interoperation among components (e.g.,
vehicular sensors, computational platform, and consumers)
The functional elements and operational stages of the
architecture also assist in maintaining interoperability among the
components.
Consumer expectations of the automotive industry have
undergone significant change during the last decade. The factors
prompting this evolution include mobile Internet, smartphones, powerful
onboard units (OBUs), and vehicle-to-anything (V2X) communications.
In parallel, smart-city initiatives are deploying
infrastructure to provide better road safety and cooperative mobility
management while reducing the effect on the environment. According to the
NTT, it is evident that the Auto 1.0 and Auto 2.0 ecosystems are not able
to meet smart-city requirements due to the absence of powerful OBUs, V2X
hardware, proper standards, etc.
The automotive industry is responding to the evolution with Auto 3.0.
Here the focus is shifting toward
- Supporting intelligent transportation systems (ITSs) through V2X
communications
- Exposing vehicular resources through web interfaces for data
collection, processing, and storage; and
- Seamless communication and information exchange among vehicular
gateways, edge servers, cloud systems, and consumer resources
The Auto 3.0 ecosystem enables automatic vehicle
information discovery and exchange with a computing system and other
vehicles. Enhanced access and core networking technologies coupled with
computation on vehicular sensor data are the stepping stones for vehicles
to be a part of the IoT ecosystem.
Vehicles are considered to be a resource for IoT
systems. An advantage of this philosophy is that the large variety of
vehicular sensor data can now be used for pollution monitoring,
traffic-flow management, and road-intersection management, which are
essential for smart-city initiatives. The expanded IoT ecosystem
integrates vehicular data with components from ITSs, edge and cloud
computing, and big data, paving the way for the IoV.
This article aims to study the IoV ecosystem and its
current landscape, and identifies research and engineering challenges
related to Auto 3.0 and the IoV. Research contributions include
- Presentation of a data-driven IoT architecture that addresses the
identified challenges and enables seamless interoperability among
consumers, vehicles, and computing platforms leading to creation of an
IoV ecosystem;
- Description of a framework (which follows the architecture) and its
operational phases to create IoV applications; and
- Deployment details of the framework, which advocates for a
distributed approach through coexistence of edge and cloud computing
platforms.
S. K. Datta, J. Haerri, C. Bonnet and R. Ferreira Da Costa,
entitled "Vehicles as Connected Resources: Opportunities and
Challenges for the Future," which was published in IEEE Vehicular
Technology Magazine, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 26-35, June 2017.
Full article: IEEE Vehicular Technology Magazine, Volume 12, Number 2, June 2017
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