A UAV-assisted V2X network architecture with separated data transmission and network control

With the explosive increasing number of connecting devices such as smart phones, vehicles, drones, and satellites in the wireless networks, how to manage and control such a huge number of networking nodes has become a great challenge. In this paper, we combine the advantages of centralized networks and distributed networks approaches for vehicular networks with the aid of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), and propose a Center-controlled Multi-hop Wireless (CMW) networking scheme consisting of data transmission plane performed by vehicles and the network control plane implemented by the UAV. Besides, we jointly explore the advantages of Medium Access Control (MAC) protocols in the link layer and routing schemes in the network layer to facilitate the multi-hop data transmission for the ground vehicles. Particularly, the network control plane in the UAV can manage the whole network effectively via fully exploiting the acquired network topology information and traffic requests from each vehicle, and implements various kinds of control based on different traffic demands, which can enhance the networking flexibility and scalability significantly in vehicular networks. Simulation results validate the advantages of the proposed scheme compared with existing methods.