Ion Turcanu

Bio: Ion Turcanu is an academic researcher from University of Luxembourg. The author has contributed to research in topics: Vehicular ad hoc network & Intelligent transportation system. The author has an hindex of 9, co-authored 23 publications receiving 184 citations. Previous affiliations of Ion Turcanu include Sapienza University of Rome.

Multi-Access Edge Computing for Vehicular Networks: A Position Paper

Abstract: With the emergence of self-driving technology and the ever-increasing demand of bandwidth-hungry applications, providing the required latency, security and computational capabilities is becoming a challenging task. Although being evolving, traditional vehicular radio access technologies, namely WLAN/IEEE 802.11p and cellular networks cannot meet all the requirements of future Cooperative, Connected and Automated Mobility (CCAM). In addition, current vehicular architectures are not sufficiently flexible to support the highly heterogeneous landscape of emerging communication technologies, such as mmWave, Cellular Vehicle-to-Everything (C-V2X), and Visible Light Communication (VLC). To this aim, Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) has been recently proposed to enhance the quality of passengers experience in delay-sensitive applications. In this paper, we discuss the in-premises features of MEC and the need of supporting technologies, such as Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV), to fulfil the requirements in terms of responsiveness, reliability and resiliency. The latter is of paramount importance for automated services, which are supposed to be always-on and always-available. We outline possible solutions for mobility-aware computation offloading, dynamic spectrum sharing, and interference mitigation. Also, by revealing MEC-inherent security vulnerabilities, we argue for the need of adequate security and privacy-preserving schemes in MEC-enabled vehicular architectures.

A Model for the Optimization of Beacon Message Age-of-Information in a VANET

Abstract: Beaconing is a basic communication process taking place in Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs) to achieve cooperative awareness among vehicles on the road. It is actually a paradigm of information spreading among peer-agents, where each node of a networks sends periodically broadcast messages containing information collected by the node itself. A trade-off arises between the update frequency of the broadcast information and the congestion induced in the wireless shared channel used to send the messages, which is based on the IEEE 802.11p standard in case of a VANET. For periodic updates, the primary metric is the Age-of-Information (AoI), i.e., the age of the latest update received by neighboring nodes. We define an analytical model to evaluate the AoI of a VANET, given the connectivity graph of the vehicles. Analytical results are compared to simulation to assess the accuracy of the model. The model provides a handy tool to optimize the AoI trade-off.

Traffic management and networking for autonomous vehicular highway systems

Abstract: We develop traffic management and data networking mechanisms and study their integrated design for an autonomous transportation system The traffic management model involves a multi-lane multi-segment highway Ramp managers regulate admission of vehicles into the highway and their routing to designated lanes Vehicles moving across each lane are organized into platoons A Platoon Leader (PL) is elected in each platoon and is used to manage its members and their communications with the infrastructure and with vehicles in other platoons We develop new methods that are employed to determine the structural formations of platoons and their mobility processes in each lane, aiming to maximize the realized flow rate under vehicular end-to-end delay constraints We set a limit on the vehicular on-ramp queueing delay and on the (per unit distance) transit time incurred along the highway We make use of the platoon formations to develop new Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) wireless networking cross-layer schemes that are used to disseminate messages among vehicles traveling within a specified neighborhood For this purpose, we develop algorithms that configure a hierarchical networking architecture for the autonomous system Certain platoon leaders are dynamically assigned to act as Backbone Nodes (BNs) The latter are interconnected by communications links to form a Backbone Network (Bnet) Each BN serves as an access point for its Access Network (Anet), which consists of its mobile clients We study the delay-throughput performance behavior of the network system and determine the optimal setting of its parameters, assuming both TDMA and IEEE 80211p oriented wireless channel sharing (MAC) schemes Integrating these traffic management and data networking mechanisms, we demonstrate the performance tradeoffs available to the system designer and manager when aiming to synthesize an autonomous transportation system operation that achieves targeted vehicular flow rates and transit delays while also setting the data communications network system to meet targeted message throughput and delay objectives

LTE floating car data application off-loading via VANET driven clustering formation

Abstract: Floating Car Data (FCD) applications are based on the collection of geo-localized information updates that are issued by vehicles roaming in a given area. These data are an essential source for traffic information and are widely employed by Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). We present and examine a hybrid networking architecture and protocol that are used for the efficient execution of such a collection process. We employ a VANET-based multihop dissemination logic to spread control messages and elect designated nodes. Those nodes are exploited to report vehicular data via LTE communications. The performance behavior of the proposed protocol is evaluated through the consideration of two real urban scenarios. In comparing with performance bounds that characterize the performance behavior attained by state-of-theart hybrid integrated VANET and LTE mechanisms, we show our approach to offer a substantial reduction in the traffic load rates induced over the LTE cellular radio access system.

Cooperative Vehicular Networking: A Survey

Abstract: With the remarkable progress of cooperative communication technology in recent years, its transformation to vehicular networking is gaining momentum. Such a transformation has brought a new research challenge in facing the realization of cooperative vehicular networking (CVN). This paper presents a comprehensive survey of recent advances in the field of CVN. We cover important aspects of CVN research, including physical, medium access control, and routing protocols, as well as link scheduling and security. We also classify these research efforts in a taxonomy of cooperative vehicular networks. A set of key requirements for realizing the vision of cooperative vehicular networks is then identified and discussed. We also discuss open research challenges in enabling CVN. Lastly, the paper concludes by highlighting key points of research and future directions in the domain of CVN.

Minimizing the Age of Information in Wireless Networks with Stochastic Arrivals

Abstract: We consider a wireless network with a base station serving multiple traffic streams to different destinations. Packets from each stream arrive to the base station according to a stochastic process and are enqueued in a separate (per stream) queue. The queueing discipline controls which packet within each queue is available for transmission. The base station decides, at every time t, which stream to serve to the corresponding destination. The goal of scheduling decisions is to keep the information at the destinations fresh. Information freshness is captured by the Age of Information (AoI) metric.In this paper, we derive a lower bound on the AoI performance achievable by any given network operating under any queueing discipline. Then, we consider three common queueing disciplines and develop both an Optimal Stationary Randomized policy and a Max-Weight policy under each discipline. Our approach allows us to evaluate the combined impact of the stochastic arrivals, queueing discipline and scheduling policy on AoI. We evaluate the AoI performance both analytically and using simulations. Numerical results show that the performance of the Max-Weight policy is close to the analytical lower bound.

Toward Enabled Industrial Verticals in 5G: A Survey on MEC-Based Approaches to Provisioning and Flexibility

Abstract: The increasing number of heterogeneous devices connected to the Internet, together with tight 5G requirements have generated new challenges for designing network infrastructures. Industrial verticals such as automotive, smart city and eHealthcare (among others) need secure, low latency and reliable communications. To meet these stringent requirements, computing resources have to be moved closer to the user, from the core to the edge of the network. In this context, ETSI standardized Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC). However, due to the cost of resources, MEC provisioning has to be carefully designed and evaluated. This survey firstly overviews standards, with particular emphasis on 5G and virtualization of network functions, then it addresses flexibility of MEC smart resource deployment and its migration capabilities. This survey explores how the MEC is used and how it will enable industrial verticals.

Optimized Age of Information Tail for Ultra-Reliable Low-Latency Communications in Vehicular Networks

Abstract: While the notion of age of information (AoI) has recently been proposed for analyzing ultra-reliable low-latency communications (URLLC), most of the existing works have focused on the average AoI measure. Designing a wireless network based on average AoI will fail to characterize the performance of URLLC systems, as it cannot account for extreme AoI events, occurring with very low probabilities. In contrast, this paper goes beyond the average AoI to improve URLLC in a vehicular communication network by characterizing and controlling the AoI tail distribution. In particular, the transmission power minimization problem is studied under stringent URLLC constraints in terms of probabilistic AoI for both deterministic and Markovian traffic arrivals. Accordingly, an efficient novel mapping between AoI and queue-related distributions is proposed. Subsequently, extreme value theory (EVT) and Lyapunov optimization techniques are adopted to formulate and solve the problem considering both long and short packets transmissions. Simulation results show over a two-fold improvement, in shortening the AoI distribution tail, versus a baseline that models the maximum queue length distribution, in addition to a tradeoff between arrival rate and AoI.

Heterogeneous vehicular communications: A comprehensive study

Abstract: Vehicular communications have developed rapidly contributing to the success of intelligent transportation systems. In VANET, continuous connectivity is a huge challenge caused by the extremely dynamic network topology and the highly variable number of mobile nodes. Moreover, message dissemination efficiency is a serious issue in traffic effectiveness and road safety. The heterogeneous vehicular network, which integrates cellular networks with DSRC, has been suggested and attracted significant attention recently. VANET-cellular integration offers many potential benefits, for instance, high data rates, low latency, and extended communication range. Due to the heterogeneous wireless access, a seamless handover decision is required to guarantee QoS of communications and to maintain continuous connectivity between the vehicles. On the other hand, VANET heterogeneous wireless networks integration will significantly help autonomous cars to be functional in reality. This paper surveys and reviews some related studies in the literature that deals with VANET heterogeneous wireless networks communications in term of vertical handover, data dissemination and collection, gateway selection and other issues. The comparison between different works is based on parameters like bandwidth, delay, throughput, and packet loss. Finally, we outline open issues that help to identify the future research directions of VANET in the heterogeneous environment.