GrIMS: Green Information-centric Multimedia Streaming Framework in Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks

Information Centric Networking (ICN), as a novel network paradigm, is expected to natively support mobility, multicast, and multihoming in Vehicular Ad hoc Networks (VANETs). In this paper, the adoption of ICN principles for multimedia streaming in multihomed VANETs is investigated, with a major emphasis on the tradeoff between Quality of Experience (QoE) and energy efficiency (EnE). To formalize this problem, a cost optimization model is first proposed, based on queueing theory arguments. Then, a novel Green Information-centric Multimedia Streaming framework (GrIMS) is designed to drive the system towards optimal working points in practical settings. GrIMS consists of three enhanced mechanisms for on-demand cloud-based processing, adaptive multi-path transmission and cooperative in-network caching. Finally, a massive simulation campaign has been carried out, demonstrating that, thanks to its core components, GrIMS enables flexible multimedia service provisioning and achieves an improved performance in terms of start-up delay, playbacks continuity and energy efficiency with respect to state-of-the-art solutions.