A Multi-Layer Cooperation Framework for QoS-Aware Internet Access in Vanets

A VANET is composed of vehicles, equipped with short range wirelesscommunication capabilities, which cooperate to form a temporary distributednetwork enabling communications with other vehicles or road infrastructure nodes,located in line of sight or even out of the radio range (if a multihop network is builtamong vehicles). It is clear that granting to vehicles continuous and high-qualityconnections to the Internet is a very challenging objective, due to the dynamicityof vehicular networks. In this paper, we discuss some inter-layer cooperationprinciples that could drive the augmentation of widely deployed protocols, at theapplication and network layers, to provide vehicular users with the best availableInternet access.