SDN/NFV-Empowered Future IoV With Enhanced Communication, Computing, and Caching

TLDR

Internet‑of‑Vehicles links vehicles, sensors, pedestrians, and mobile devices, promising safer roads, better traffic management, and immersive experiences, but the growing device density, high mobility, and varied service demands make its operation intractable, prompting the use of SDN and NFV for flexible, automated, cost‑effective network management and optimization. This article surveys SDN/NFV‑enabled IoV, illustrating how these technologies enhance performance and enable diverse scenarios and applications. The authors first introduce IoV and SDN/NFV, then comprehensively review state‑of‑the‑art work categorized by their role in improving data communication, computing, and caching, and finally discuss open research issues for future directions.

Abstract

Internet-of-Vehicles (IoV) connects vehicles, sensors, pedestrians, mobile devices, and the Internet with advanced communication and networking technologies, which can enhance road safety, improve road traffic management, and support immerse user experience. However, the increasing number of vehicles and other IoV devices, high vehicle mobility, and diverse service requirements render the operation and management of IoV intractable. Software-defined networking (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV) technologies offer potential solutions to achieve flexible and automated network management, global network optimization, and efficient network resource orchestration with cost-effectiveness and are envisioned as a key enabler to future IoV. In this article, we provide an overview of SDN/NFV-enabled IoV, in which SDN/NFV technologies are leveraged to enhance the performance of IoV and enable diverse IoV scenarios and applications. In particular, the IoV and SDN/NFV technologies are first introduced. Then, the state-of-the-art research works are surveyed comprehensively, which is categorized into topics according to the role that the SDN/NFV technologies play in IoV, i.e., enhancing the performance of data communication, computing, and caching, respectively. Some open research issues are discussed for future directions.