Dr. Bassem Mokhtar

Title of the research page: Vehicular Edge of Thing Computing for Sustainable Internet and Traffic Services at Smart Cities

Modern vehicles are getting increasingly smart with many sensors and actuators, computation and processing power, storage, and Internet connectivity to provide various services. Achieving such services with high-quality service mandates broadband wireless connectivity with fast and efficient service provisioning. It is a challenging duty to adopt the current broadband wireless network to support delay-sensitive applications as required by autonomous vehicles. With the fast development of the automotive and freight supply chain, vehicular communication will face a challenging situation to provide sustainable connectivity for emerging applications like AI-based traffic management, including traffic volume estimation, ensuring adherence to traffic laws, as well as monitoring drivers’ behavior. Autonomous vehicles will encounter an even more critical situation regarding data processing and getting instructions to enable the automated ride in case of no internet connectivity.

This research project explores the capability of enabling edge AI devices embedded in vehicles to communicate with each other among different vehicles in a seamless way, presenting the technology of Vehicular Edge of Things Computing (VEoTC). VEoTC would support intelligent transportation systems by providing capabilities of accessing vehicular resources and offloading tasks to achieve smart communication and mobility, and road safety services. The project outcomes and significance aligned with the UAE ICT sector goals and national smart mobility strategy, as well as the research goals of UAEU. The project work targets the following impacts:

• Provisioning a variety of vehicular services and applications
• Supporting and promoting autonomous-driving vehicles
• Reducing the vehicle traffic/services overload in the public road communication networks

The research project aims to design, simulate, and analyze the efficiency and efficacy of the VEoTC system for providing sustainable Internet and traffic-related services in smart cities.