That is not a typo: VDN is Vehicle Defined Networking.

I just conjured this, so googling it may not help!

First, some context. Some of you may have missed an important release issued by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which announced its intention to pursue a mandate of the connected-vehicle technology in light vehicles in an effort to improve highway safety, prevent crashes, and help alleviate congestion, among other potential benefits.

What has that got to do with VDN? The idea is for the vehicle and driver to be fed real-time information about traffic conditions, weather, accidents, lane closures, etc., with the information appearing unobtrusively on the windshield or navigation system such that both the vehicle and driver can take corrective action. Isn't there a striking parallel to the world of software-defined networking (SDN)? In this case, all the big data analytics and software algorithms are creating this real-time feed and based on the fact that the vehicles are adjusting their network in response to real-time information! But that's just to set the context.

Now let's get into the meat of the argument and introduce network functions virtualization (NFV) into the mix. And to spice things up let's call this Network Functions Vehicularization! One of the key issues with this VDN is — you guessed it — security. The security manifests itself in three ways: the security of the myriad compuers inside each car that need to be protected, the privacy of the communication channel between each car and the mothership, and finally, the authenticity of the data received by each car based on which corrective action needs to be taken.

Doesn't network functions virtualization — with analytics, security, privacy and authentication services riding on this platform constantly communicating with each vehicle, baselining typical traffic patterns, monitoring any vehicular pattern changes following an update broadcast — seem like a match made in heaven ? Think about it. These vehicles need to talk to each other over the network in real time. The data needs to be confidential, and its integrity needs to be maintained. And the services need to be highly available. Building an NFV platform that is tuned to provide these services fits in well with the needs of these connected vehicles — more data per vehicle, more vehicles and real-time critical information that these vehicles needs to act upon. The platform needs to be scalable, agile, and cost-effective.

Another compelling use case for NFV that creates a safe driving experience for all!