Connectivity analysis and modeling in cognitive vehicular networks

This chapter presents an overview of the network connectivity problem in Cognitive Vehicular Networks (CVNs). Recent studies in CVNs have shown that dramatic changes in spatial and temporal topological behaviors of such wireless networks occur due to the unexpected mobility of vehicles, the increasing use of vehicular applications, limited transmission ranges of Road Side Units (RSUs) and channel utilization ratios of primary users. Such a highly fluctuating network triggers possible interference with primary users by resulting in degradation of CVNs' performance and this brings a crucial problem in terms of maintaining network connectivity. Establishing continuous communication and disseminating online information result with intermittent connectivity. All these challenges cause degradations both in the vehicle satisfaction and wireless communication quality in CVNs. Therefore, in this chapter, we concentrate on the network connectivity problem and present a connectivity modeling in CVNs.