Toward A Generic Vehicular Cloud Network Architecture: A Case of Virtual Vehicle As A Service
In recent years, cloud computing has gained more and more popularity. The motivation towards implementing cloud computing in vehicular networks is due to the availability of communication, storage, and computing resources represented by communication, vehicles, roadside units (RSUs), and central servers. These resources can be utilized and provided to vehicles, drivers on the road, travellers, and customers on the internet. Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) applications can utilize vehicular cloud computing to provide efficient real-time services, as well as to improve transportation safety, mobility, and comfort levels for drivers. In this paper, all possible vehicular cloud models are presented. Each vehicular cloud model offers different services. Integrating all vehicular cloud models into one integrated system will provide all services and serve internet users, passengers, and vehicles. Therefore, a generic vehicular cloud model is proposed. After that, a new service called Virtual Vehicle is proposed in vehicular cloud computing. The virtual vehicle is a virtual machine that migrates from one physical vehicle to another. It provides the same services as the physical vehicle according to the consumer's requirements.