SDN-Based Resource Management for Autonomous Vehicular Networks: A Multi-Access Edge Computing Approach

Enabling HD-map-assisted cooperative driving among CAVs to improve navigation safety faces technical challenges due to increased communication traffic volume for data dissemination and an increased number of computing/storing tasks on CAVs. In this article, a new architecture that combines MEC and SDN is proposed to address these challenges. With MEC, the interworking of multiple wireless access technologies can be realized to exploit the diversity gain over a wide range of radio spectrum, and at the same time, computing/storing tasks of a CAV are collaboratively processed by servers and other CAVs. By enabling NFV in MEC, different functions can be programmed on the server to support diversified AV applications, thus enhancing the server's flexibility. Moreover, by using SDN concepts in MEC, a unified control plane interface and global information can be provided, and by subsequently using this information, intelligent traffic steering and efficient resource management can be achieved. A case study is presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed architecture.