Evaluating the Robustness of the DGT Approach for Smartphone-based Vehicular Networks

To cope with millions users becoming increasingly connected to Internet on the move, location-based services may be better supported by decentralized infrastructures enabling improved scalability, access rate and resiliency. In this context, our previous work introduced the Distributed Geographical Table (DGT), an overlay scheme that builds and maintains virtual neighborhood relationships between peers with heterogeneous connections. In this paper we illustrate a smartphone-based vehicular network that uses the DGT, and we show its robustness against disconnections caused by the unavailability of connectivity/ coverage (mostly occurring in rural areas), as well as overlay reconnections due to vertical handovers (mostly occurring in highly serviced urban areas). The simulative analysis of sample scenarios based on experimental measurements of coverage and connection throughput, carried out across/around Parma urban area, gives us valuable insights for defining an integrated model that will combine the DGT, user/vehicle mobility and connectivity/ coverage types.