Cost effective Video streaming for Internet of Connected Vehicles using Heterogeneous Networks

Abstract

quotInternet of Connected Vehicles (IoCV) comprises smart vehicles which communicate among themselves and are connected to the Internet through static infrastructure nodes. Infrastructure nodes may use heterogeneous network technologies like cellular networks, Wifi networks, or Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC) networks. Among these networks, cellular networks have limited resources and impose access costs. Therefore, reducing the number of simultaneous cellular connections in an IoCV is a requirement. Smart vehicles of IoCV need persistent Internet connections for various safety messages and infotainment services. Among the infotainment services, video type infotainment services are prevalent. As the major portion of the traffic carried by the Internet core is of video type, reducing video traffic is the need of the hour. To meet the high-quality and low-latency demands for video services, content originators use the services of Content Distribution Networks (CDN). While providing video infotainment services over IoCVs, the objectives of CDN providers are to reduce the traffic volume of the Internet core, reduce service costs, and increase service profitability. To reduce the traffic volume, CDN providers deploy replica servers to serve the demands locally. However, if several vehicles demand the same video content simultaneously, like in the case of a live video streaming, a CDN replica server may get overwhelmed by the number of concurrent and redundant flow requests. As the content demand is homogeneous, the number of one-to-one flows to the CDN replica server can be reduced by bringing the content further closer to an IoCV using edge servers. Using infrastructure nodes as edges incurs deployment costs or carrier partnership costs, whereas using vehicles as edges needs Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) collaborations. To reduce the service cost, the CDN provider needs to minimize the usage of simultaneous cellular connections and maximize V2V collaborations while ensuring service quality and client satisfaction.