Challenges and Opportunities in Vehicular Cloud Computing

Abstract

Vehicular ad-hoc networks (VANET) have become an important research area due to their ability to allow sharing resources among the users to carry out their application and provide services of transport and traffic management. VANET communication allows exchange of sensitive information among nearby vehicles such as condition of weather and road accidents in order to improve vehicle traffic efficiency through Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). Many technologies have been developed to enhance ITS. Recently, vehicular cloud computing (VCC) has been developed in order to overcome the drawbacks VANET. VCC technology provides low-cost services to vehicles and capable of managing road traffic efficiently by using the vehicular sources (such as internet) to make decisions and for storage. VCC is considered as the basis for improving and developing intelligent transportation systems. It plays a major role in people's lives due to its safety, security, trust, and comfort to passengers and drivers. This chapter investigates the vehicular cloud computing. The authors first concentrate on architectures. Then, they highlight applications and features provided by VCC. Additionally, they explain the challenges for VCC. Finally, the authors present opportunities and future for VCC.