QuickSilver: Application-driven inter- and intra-cluster communication in VANETs

Support for efficient vehicle-to-vehicle communication is increasingly more important with the emergence of newer vehicles equipped with one or more wireless interfaces. While the applications aimed at such networks range from car-to-car chats to sharing dynamic map data, current approaches to inter-vehicular networking have been designed based on either node-centric or content-centric communication, but not both. The challenge for a comprehensive solution arises from the high mobility of nodes as well as the heterogeneity of contact patterns. In this paper, we propose QuickSilver, a system architecture that meets this challenge by leveraging an intrinsic characteristic of vehicular networks - clustering. By being aware of such clustering, Quicksilver enables a seamless integration of two networking paradigms, one for node-centric communication between members of the same cluster, the other for effective content dissemination and exchange during short cluster-to-cluster contacts. To achieve this goal efficiently, Quicksilver employs a novel combination of channel management and light-weight clustering that enables detection and management of headless, multihop clusters at very low cost. Evaluation results show that Quicksilver enables close-to-optimal performance when nodes across different clusters communicate.