Real-Time Communications Over On-Board Mobile Networks

To achieve a pervasive computing environment, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has released routing standards that allow deployment of TCP/IP local area networks (LANs) onboard a moving vehicle and yet maintain permanent connectivity of the onboard LAN to the Internet via a vehicular mobile router. This development opens up new opportunities for providing efficient mobile computing for users on the move, especially for commuters traveling on public transports. However, current work in on-board communication has largely focused on deploying basic systems that allow passengers to avail of best-effort services such as Web browsing and e-mail. Supporting real-time communications over such onboard mobile networks is the main motivation of this book. Due to the volatility of the wireless bandwidth available to connect the moving LAN to the Internet at different locations of the trip, supporting on-line services that require bandwidth guarantees becomes a challenging task. Themain problem investigated is how to provide bandwidth guarantee efficiently, effectively, and in a scalable manner in the context of moving onboard networks. This book will be of interest to professionals and researchers in the area of on-board mobile network and QoS.