Enhancing the 3GPP V2X Architecture with Information-centric Networking

Vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications allow a vehicle to interact with other vehicles and with communication parties in its vicinity (e.g., road-side units, pedestrian users, etc.) with the primary goal of making the driving and traveling experience safer, smarter and more comfortable. A wide set of V2X-tailored specifications have been identified by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) with focus on the design of architecture enhancements and a flexible air interface to ensure ultra-low latency, highly reliable and high-throughput connectivity as the ultimate aim. This paper discusses the potential of leveraging Information-Centric Networking (ICN) principles in the 3GPP architecture for V2X communications. We consider Named Data Networking (NDN) as reference ICN architecture and elaborate on the specific design aspects, required changes and enhancements in the 3GPP V2X architecture to enable NDN-based data exchange as an alternative/complementary solution to traditional IP networking, which barely matches the dynamics of vehicular environments. Results have been provided to showcase the performance improvements of the NDN-based proposal in disseminating content requests over the cellular network against a traditional networking solution.