TraC: A Trajectory-aware Content distribution strategy for vehicular networks

In vehicular networking, contacts have short duration and may seldom occur. Hence, maximizing the amount of data transferred per contact opportunity is of utmost importance. In this work, we propose TraC which combines network nodes caching, typically used in Content-Centric Networks (CCNs), and users' trajectory knowledge. The idea is to improve data delivery by proactively caching the content requested by users over the access points along their trajectories to destination. To accomplish this, we use the network formed by access points to forward individual interests containing information regarding users' destination. In addition, we develop two forwarding strategies consistent with the content oriented paradigm, and a neighborhood discovery protocol, required for the operation of the proposed forwarding strategies. The results obtained through simulations in highway, urban, and rush-hour scenarios show that TraC can increase the fraction of interests satisfied as well as accelerates content delivery compared with a typical CCN implementations for wireless environments.