%0 Journal Article
%T Providing Adapted Contextual Information in an Overlay Vehicular Network
%A Jos¨¦ Santa
%A Andr¨¦s MuŁżoz
%A Antonio F. G¨®mez-Skarmeta
%J International Journal of Digital Multimedia Broadcasting
%D 2010
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2010/216582
%X Current vehicular networks are developed upon commercial solutions based on cellular networks (CNs) or vehicular ad-hoc networks (VANETs), both present in numerous research proposals. Current approximations are not enough to cover the communication necessities of several applications at the same time, and they are not suitable for future vehicular pervasive services. The vehicular network presented in this paper fills the existent gap between solutions lacking in flexibility, mainly supported by an infrastructure deployment, and those highly local and distributed, such as sole-VANET approximations. In this manner, an overlay communication platform which can work over the CN basis has been designed and developed. This architecture is complemented by an additional support of an information system located at the infrastructure side. Moreover, since most of the information received from current notification services is not relevant for the driver, an additional subsystem has been devised to provide adapted information to users. This has been carried out by means of an ontology model which represents users' preferences and contextual information. Finally, using a whole prototype of the telematic platform, the performance of this interring process has been evaluated to point out its impact on the system operation. 1. Introduction Vehicular networks are becoming essential for telematics services within the Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSs) field. The usefulness of wireless data communications in vehicles is noticeable in current monitoring solutions, which help companies to manage their transport fleets. These systems are mainly based on a navigation unit and a communication channel, which is usually established through the cellular network (CN). These first systems have been, therefore, the starting point of vehicular communications. However, new generation services conceived for future cars need a more suitable communication platform to connect the vehicle with the environment [1]. Unfortunately, the solutions provided by the current research on this topic are highly case-specific in most cases. Ideally, a network should be used to connect vehicles among them and to the infrastructure, and it should cover all communication necessities of all possible services aimed at the vehicle or the road side [2]. According to the current state of vehicular networks, connectivity requirements can be divided into vehicle to vehicle communications (V2V) and communications with the infrastructure, following a vehicle to infrastructure (V2I) or infrastructure to
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijdmb/2010/216582/