Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) are gaining momentum among researchers. ITS encompasses several technologies, including wireless communications, sensor networks, data and voice communication, real-time driving assistant systems, etc. These states of the art technologies are expected to pave the way for a plethora of vehicular network applications. In fact, recently we have witnessed a growing interest in Vehicular Networks from both the research community and industry. Several potential applications of Vehicular Networks are envisioned such as road safety and security, traffic monitoring and driving comfort, just to mention a few. It is critical that the existence of convenience or driving comfort services do not negatively affect the performance of safety services. In essence, the dissemination of safety services or the discovery of convenience applications requires the communication among service providers and service requesters through constrained bandwidth resources. Therefore, service discovery techniques for vehicular networks must efficiently use the available common resources. In this thesis, we focus on the design of bandwidth-efficient and scalable service discovery protocols for Vehicular Networks. Three types of service discovery architectures are introduced: infrastructure-less, infrastructure-based, and hybrid architectures. Our proposed algorithms are network layer based where service discovery messages are integrated into the routing messages for a lightweight discovery. Moreover, our protocols use the channel diversity for efficient service discovery. We describe our algorithms and discuss their implementation. Finally, we present the main results of the extensive set of simulation experiments that have been used in order to evaluate their performance.

With Vehicular mobile communication becoming a daily requirement and an ever increasing number of services being available to passengers, it is clear that vehicular networks efficient communication systems. VANETs, one of the most significant trends in ad-hoc networking, has much to gain from improved content delivery and one of the leading contenders for mobile networks is the Information-Centric networking approach. Its peculiarities define the Vehicular Environment requires specialized solutions, tailored for highly mobile environments. The main contribution of this thesis is the introduction of a novel architecture and components. We perform extensively discuss Information-Centric Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks. Additionally, we perform an in-depth analysis of bus-based transit systems into VANETs not only as participating members but as service providers and official agents including roles and potential challenges. We perform statistical analysis and analyze world data to denote the intrinsic potential of public transit systems. From the discussions presented, we introduce a novel service-based system architecture for Information-Centric Networking named SEVeN. The proposed model is designed to enable service exchange and service management in highly competitive vehicular ad-hoc networks. The proposed SEVeN architecture includes the introduction of a novel purpose-defined naming policy and service sub-layer as well as a service prioritization policy named LBD. We also discuss the current state of ICN caching in VANET, existing issues faced by vehicular networks and potential approaches based on intermediate cache coordination that can be taken to mitigate existing shortcommings. We perform a series of simulations and analyze the efficiency of popular caching in various network configurations to denote current shortcomings. From this discussion, we propose a cache content insertion policies, UG-Cache and MG-Cache, for ICN-VANETs. In these cache policies, cache insertion decisions are made based on recommendations from content sender dependent on request frequency and cache distance. We also introduce a caching policy based on collaborative observation of locality in request frequency, designed to allow vehicles to preemptively distribute and store in a reserved portion of the cache based on the cooperative observation of requests with provider-based location correlation. All novel elements proposed by this thesis are discussed, described, evaluated within the chapters of this thesis.

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With the recent growth and wide availability of heterogeneous wireless access technologies, inter-vehicle communication systems are expected to culminate in integrating various wireless standards for the next generation of connected and autonomous vehicles. The role of 5G-enabled vehicular networks has become increasingly important, as current Internet clients and providers have urged robustness and effectiveness in digital services over wireless networks to cope with the latest advances in wireless mobile communication. However, to enable 5G wireless technologies' dense diversity, seamless and reliable wireless communication protocols need to be thoroughly investigated in vehicular networks. 5G-enabled vehicular networks applications and services such as routing, mobility management, and service discovery protocols can integrate mobility-based prediction techniques to elevate those applications' performance with various vehicles, applications, and network measurements. In this thesis, we propose a novel suite of 5G-enabled smart mobility prediction and management schemes and design a roadmap guide to mobility-based predictions for intelligent vehicular network applications and protocols. We present a thorough review and classification of vehicular network architectures and components, in addition to mobility management schemes, benchmarks advantages, and drawbacks. Moreover, multiple mobility-based schemes are proposed, in which vehicles' mobility is managed through the utilization of machine learning prediction and probability analysis techniques. We propose a novel predictive mobility management protocol that incorporates a new networks' infrastructure discovery and selection scheme. Next, we design an efficient handover trigger scheme based on time-series prediction and a novel online neural network-based next roadside unit prediction protocol for smart vehicular networks. Then, we propose an original adaptive predictive location management technique that utilizes vehicle movement projections to estimate the link lifetime between vehicles and infrastructure units, followed by an efficient movement-based collision detection scheme and infrastructure units localization strategy. Last but not least, the proposed techniques have been extensively evaluated and compared to several benchmark schemes with various networks' parameters and environments. Results showed the high potentials of empowering vehicular networks' mobility-based protocols with the vehicles' future projections and the prediction of the network's status.

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In the context of wireless communications, low latency autonomous systems continue to grow in importance. Some applications of autonomous systems where low latency communication is essential are (i) vehicular network's safety performance depends on how recently the vehicles are updated on their neighboring vehicle's locations, (ii) updates from IoT devices need to be aggregated appropriately at the monitoring station before the information gets stale to extract temporal and spatial information from it, and (iii) sensors and controllers in a smart grid need to track the most recent state of the system to tune system parameters dynamically, etc. Each of the above-mentioned applications differs based on the connectivity between the source and the destination. First, vehicular networks involve a broadcast network where each of the vehicles broadcasts its packets to all the other vehicles. Secondly, in the case of UAV-assisted IoT networks, packets generated at multiple IoT devices are transmitted to a final destination via relays. Finally for the smart grid and generally for distributed systems, each source can have varying and unique destinations. Therefore in terms of connectivity, they can be categorized into one-to-all, all-to-one, and variable relationship between the number of sources and destinations. Additionally, some of the other major differences between the applications are the impact of mobility, the importance of a reduced AoI, centralized vs distributed manner of measuring AoI, etc. Thus the wide variety of application requirements makes it challenging to develop scheduling schemes that universally address minimizing the AoI. All these applications involve generating time-stamped status updates at a source which are then transmitted to their destination over a wireless medium. The timely reception of these updates at the destination decides the operating state of the system. This is because the fresher the information at the destination, the better its awareness of the system state for making better control decisions. This freshness of information is not the same as maximizing the throughput or minimizing the delay. While ideally throughput can be maximized by sending data as fast as possible, this may saturate the receiver resulting in queuing, contention, and other delays. On the other hand, these delays can be minimized by sending updates slowly, but this may cause high inter-arrival times. Therefore, a new metric called the Age of Information (AoI) has been proposed to measure the freshness of information that can account for many facets that influence data availability. In simple terms, AoI is measured at the destination as the time elapsed since the generation time of the most recently received update. Therefore AoI is able to incorporate both the delay and the inter-packet arrival time. This makes it a much better metric to measure end-to-end latency, and hence characterize the performance of such time-sensitive systems. These basic characteristics of AoI are explained in detail in Chapter 1. Overall, the main contribution of this dissertation is developing scheduling and resource allocation schemes targeted at improving the AoI of various autonomous systems having different types of connectivity, namely vehicular networks, UAV-assisted IoT networks, and smart grids, and then characterizing and quantifying the benefits of a reduced AoI from the application perspective. In the first contribution, we look into minimizing AoI for the case of broadcast networks having one-to-all connectivity between the source and destination devices by considering the case of vehicular networks. While vehicular networks have been studied in terms of AoI minimization, the impact of mobility and the benefit of a reduced AoI from the application perspective has not been investigated. The mobility of the vehicles is realistically modeled using the Simulation of Urban Mobility (SUMO) software to account for overtaking, lane changes, etc. We propose a safety metric that indicates the collision risk of a vehicle and do a simulation-based study on the ns3 simulator to study its relation to AoI. We see that the broadcast rate in a Dedicated Short Range Network (DSRC) that minimizes the system AoI also has the least collision risk, therefore signifying that reducing AoI improves the on-road safety of the vehicles. However, we also show that this relationship is not universally true and the mobility of the vehicles becomes a crucial aspect. Therefore, we propose a new metric called the Trackability-aware AoI (TAoI) which ensures that vehicles with unpredictable mobility broadcast at a faster rate while vehicles that are predicable are broadcasting at a reduced rate. The results obtained show that minimizing TAoI provides much better on-road safety as compared to plain AoI minimizing, which points to the importance of mobility in such applications. In the second contribution, we focus on networks with all-to-one connectivity where packets from multiple sources are transmitted to a single destination by taking an example of IoT networks. Here multiple IoT devices measure a physical phenomenon and transmit these measurements to a central base station (BS). However, under certain scenarios, the BS and IoT devices are unable to communicate directly and this necessitates the use of UAVs as relays. This creates a two-hop scenario that has not been studied for AoI minimization in UAV networks. In the first hop, the packets have to be sampled from the IoT devices to the UAV and then updated from the UAVs to the BS in the second hop. Such networks are called UAV-assisted IoT networks. We show that under ideal conditions with a generate-at-will traffic generation model and lossless wireless channels, the Maximal Age Difference (MAD) scheduler is the optimal AoI minimizing scheduler. When the ideal conditions are not applicable and more practical conditions are considered, a reinforcement learning (RL) based scheduler is desirable that can account for packet generation patterns and channel qualities. Therefore we propose to use a Deep-Q-Network (DQN)-based scheduler and it outperforms MAD and all other schedulers under general conditions. However, the DQN-based scheduler suffers from scalability issues in large networks. Therefore, another type of RL algorithm called Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO) is proposed to be used for larger networks. Additionally, the PPO-based scheduler can account for changes in the network conditions which the DQN-based scheduler was not able to do. This ensures the trained model can be deployed in environments that might be different than the trained environment. In the final contribution, AoI is studied in networks with varying connectivity between the source and destination devices. A typical example of such a distributed network is the smart grid where multiple devices exchange state information to ensure the grid operates in a stable state. To investigate AoI minimization and its impact on the smart grid, a co-simulation platform is designed where the 5G network is modeled in Python and the smart grid is modeled in PSCAD/MATLAB. In the first part of the study, the suitability of 5G in supporting smart grid operations is investigated. Based on the encouraging results that 5G can support a smart grid, we focus on the schedulers at the 5G RAN to minimize the AoI. It is seen that the AoI-based schedulers provide much better stability compared to traditional 5G schedulers like the proportional fairness and round-robin. However, the MAD scheduler which has been shown to be optimal for a variety of scenarios is no longer optimal as it cannot account for the connectivity among the devices. Additionally, distributed networks with heterogeneous sources will, in addition to the varying connectivity, have different sized packets requiring a different number of resource blocks (RB) to transmit, packet generation patterns, channel conditions, etc. This motivates an RL-based approach. Hence we propose a DQN-based scheduler that can take these factors into account and results show that the DQN-based scheduler outperforms all other schedulers in all considered conditions. / Doctor of Philosophy / Age of information (AoI) is an exciting new metric as it is able to characterize the freshness of information, where freshness means how representative the information is of the current system state. Therefore it is being actively investigated for a variety of autonomous systems that rely on having the most up-to-date information on the current state. Some examples are vehicular networks, UAV networks, and smart grids. Vehicular networks need the real-time location of their neighbor vehicles to make maneuver decisions, UAVs have to collect the most recent information from IoT devices for monitoring purposes, and devices in a smart grid need to ensure that they have the most recent information on the desired system state. From a communication point of view, each of these scenarios presents a different type of connectivity between the source and the destination. First, the vehicular network is a broadcast network where each vehicle broadcasts its packets to every other vehicle. Secondly, in the UAV network, multiple devices transmit their packets to a single destination via a relay. Finally, with the smart grid and the generally distributed networks, every source can have different and unique destinations. In these applications, AoI becomes a natural choice to measure the system performance as the fresher the information at the destination, the better its awareness of the system state which allows it to take better control decisions to reach the desired objective. Therefore in this dissertation, we use mathematical analysis and simulation-based approaches to investigate different scheduling and resource allocation policies to improve the AoI for the above-mentioned scenarios. We also show that the reduced AoI improves the system performance, i.e., better on-road safety for vehicular networks and better stability for smart grid applications. The results obtained in this dissertation show that when designing communication and networking protocols for time-sensitive applications requiring low latency, they have to be optimized to improve AoI. This is in contrast to most modern-day communication protocols that are targeted at improving the throughput or minimizing the delay.

Le degré de pénétration du marché des appareils intelligents tels que les smartphones et les tablettes avec les technologies de communication embarquées comme le WiFi, 3G et LTE a explosé en moins d'une décennie. En complément de cette tendance technologique, les appli- cations des réseaux sociaux ont virtuellement connecté une grande partie de la population, en génèrant une demande de trafic de données croissant vers et depuis l'infrastructure de com- munication. Les communications pervasive ont aussi acquis une importance dans l'industrie automobile. L'émergence d' une gamme impressionnante d' appareils intelligents dans les véhicules permettant services tels que assistance au conducteur, infotainment, suivi à dis- tance du vehicule, et connectivité àux réseaux sociaux même en déplacement. La demande exponentielle de connectivité a encore défié les fournisseurs de services de télécommunications pour répondre aux attentes des utilisateurs du réseau à grande vitesse. L'objectif de cette thèse est de modéliser et comprendre la mobilité dynamique des utilisateurs à grande vitesse et leurs effets sur les architectures de réseau sans fil. Compte tenu de l' importance du développement de notre étude sur une représentation réal- iste de la mobilité des véhicules, nous étudions tout d'abord les approches les plus populaires pour la génération de trafic routier synthétique et discutons les caractéristiques des ensem- bles de données accessibles au public qui decrivent des mobilités véhiculaires. En utilisant l'information des déplacements de la population dans une région métropolitaine, les données du réseau routier détaillées et des modèles réalistes de conduite microscopiques, nous pro- posons un jeux de données de mobilité véhiculaire original qui redéfinit l'état de l'art et qui replie la circulation routière de facon realiste dans le temps et dans l'espace. Nous étudions ensuite l'impact des dynamiques de mobilité du point de vue de la couverture cellulaire en présence d'un déploiement réel des stations de base. En outre, en examinant les effets de la mobilité des véhicules sur les réseaux autonomes, nous voyons des possibilités pour les futurs paradigmes de réseaux hétérogènes. Motivés par l'évolution dynamique dans le temps de la mobilité des véhicules observée dans notre jeux de données, nous proposons également une approche en ligne pour prédire les flux de trafic macroscopiques. Nous analysons les paramètres affectant la prédiction de la mobilité en milieu urbain. Nous dévoilons quand et où la gestion des ressources réseau est plus crucial pour accueillir le trafic généré par les utilisateurs à bord. Ces études dévoilent des multiples opportunités de gestion intelligente des transports, soit pour construire de nouvelles routes, soit pour l'installation de bornes de recharge électriques, ou pour la conception de systèmes de feux de circulation intelligents, contribuant ainsi à la planification urbaine.

With the emergence of connected and autonomous vehicles, sensors are increasingly deployed within car. Traffic generated by these sensors congest traditional intra-vehicular networks, such as CAN buses. Furthermore, the large amount of wires needed to connect sensors makes it hard to design cars in a modular way. These limitations have created impetus to use wireless technologies to support intra-vehicular communication. In this dissertation, we tackle the challenge of designing and evaluating data collection protocols for intra-car networks that can operate reliably and efficiently under dynamic channel conditions. First, we evaluate the feasibility of deploying an intra-car wireless network based on the Backpressure Collection Protocol (BCP), which is theoretically proven to be throughput-optimal. We uncover a surprising behavior in which, under certain dynamic channel conditions, the average packet delay of BCP decreases with the traffic load. We propose and analyze a queueing-theoretic model to shed light into the observed phenomenon. As a solution, we propose a new protocol, called replication-based LIFO-backpressure (RBL). Analytical and simulation results indicate that RBL dramatically reduces the delay of BCP at low load, while maintaining its high throughput performance. Next, we propose and implement a hybrid wired/wireless architecture, in which each node is connected to either a wired interface or a wireless interface or both. We propose a new protocol, called Hybrid-Backpressure Collection Protocol (Hybrid-BCP), for the intra-car hybrid networks. Our testbed implementation, based on CAN and ZigBee transceivers, demonstrates the load balancing and routing functionalities of Hybrid-BCP and its resilience to DoS attacks. We further provide simulation results, obtained based on real intra-car RSSI traces, showing that Hybrid-BCP can achieve the same performance as a tree-based protocol while reducing the radio transmission power by a factor of 10. Finally, we present TeaCP, a prototype Toolkit for the evaluation and analysis of Collection Protocols in both simulation and experimental environments. TeaCP evaluates a wide range of standard performance metrics, such as reliability, throughput, and latency. TeaCP further allows visualization of routes and network topology evolution. Through simulation of an intra-car WSN and real lab experiments, we demonstrate the functionality of TeaCP for comparing different collection protocols.

FundaÃÃo Cearense de Apoio ao Desenvolvimento Cientifico e TecnolÃgico / Os avanÃos alcanÃados na computaÃÃo mÃvel e na comunicaÃÃo sem o levaram ao desenvolvimento do Sistema Inteligente de Transporte, onde se pode destacar as redes veiculares. Nelas, o roteamento à uma tarefa desaadora devido à alta mobi- lidade dos nÃs, à instabilidade dos enlaces sem-o e a diversidade de cenÃrios. Por essa razÃo, diversos protocolos de roteamento foram projetados com o objetivo de solucionar um ou mais problemas especÃcos de cada cenÃrio. Entretanto, apesar de existirem vÃrias soluÃÃes propostas para o problema do roteamento em redes veicu- lares, nenhuma delas alcanÃou um desempenho satisfatÃrio em mais de um cenÃrio, como urbano e rodovia. Sendo assim, nesta dissertaÃÃo, analisamos atravÃs de si- mulaÃÃes o impacto da densidade, da carga da rede e da mobilidade no desempenho de um protocolo de roteamento para fornecer diretrizes para os projetistas de redes veiculares desenvolverem protocolos de roteamento ecientes, capazes de se adaptar aos cenÃrios urbano e de rodovia. Para alcanÃar esse objetivo, quatro protocolos existentes na literatura foram avaliados nos cenÃrios urbano e de rodovia, dois deles voltados diretamente para redes veiculares e os outro dois tradicionais de redes âd hoâ. / Advances in mobile computing and wireless communications have made possible the development of the Intelligent Transportation System, which contain the vehi- cular networks. There, routing is a challenging task due to the high node mobility, the instability of wireless links and the diversity of scenarios. For this reason, several routing protocols have been designed with the goal of solving one or more specic problems of each scenario. However, although there are several proposed solutions to the routing problem in vehicular networks, none of them has achieved a satisfac- tory performance in more than one scenario, such as urban and highway. Thus, in this work, we rst analyze with simulations the impact of density, the network load and the mobility pattern in the performance of routing protocols for these networks. Then, we provide new directions for designing ecient vehicular network routing protocols, able to adapt to urban and highway scenarios. To achieve this goal, four existing protocols were evaluated in urban and highway scenarios.

Vehicular networks are an emerging technology that offer potential for providing a variety of new services. However, extending vehicular networks to include IP connections is still problematic, due in part to the incompatibility of mobile IP handovers with the increased mobility of vehicles. The handover process, consisting of discovery, registration, and packet forwarding, has a large overhead and disrupts connectivity. With increased handover frequency and smaller access point dwell times in vehicular networks, the handover causes a large degradation in performance. This thesis proposes a predictive handover solution, using a combination of a Kalman filter and an online hidden Markov model, to minimize the effects of prediction errors and to capitalize on advanced handover registration. Extensive simulated experiments were carried out in NS-2 to study the performance of the proposed solution within a variety of traffic and network topology scenarios. Results show a significant improvement to both prediction accuracy and network performance when compared to recent proposed approaches.