VARON:: Vehicular Ad hoc Route Optimisation for NEMO

In this paper, we analyse the provision of enhanced communications between vehicles. It is expected that vehicles will have several communication devices, and that a specialised node will provide external connectivity to these devices, i.e., the devices in the vehicle form a Mobile Network. We propose the use of Network Mobility communication solutions for providing access from the vehicles to an infrastructured network (e.g., the Internet) or for communication with other vehicles. The main contribution of this paper consists in a route optimisation solution for mobile networks - based on the use of mixed ad hoc and infrastructure communications - that enables intervehicle communications to be improved in terms of bandwidth and delay. The mechanism provides the same level of security than today's IPv4 Internet, by means of reusing Mobile IPv6 security concepts, and the use of public key cryptography and Cryptographically Generated Addresses. The proposed solution is characterised and evaluated through extensive simulation, showing that it provides an efficient optimisation in vehicular communications. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.