## 1 Introduction  
The developments in the automotive industry in the last few decades have been impressive. Cars today are much more fuel-efficient than ever before. However, the advancements in automotive technology did not have the same impact on the safety of the roads. Vehicles today are still as vulnerable to accidents due to fog, ice, and other hazards on the road, but above all, they are vulnerable to human error. However, this is all set to change: the automotive industry has been working actively for years to put different sensors in cars and connect them to an on-board computer. With advancement in telecommunications, it is now possible to connect vehicles to each other through wireless technologies to enable them to communicate and cooperate. Now, not only is the automotive industry pursuing autonomous vehicles--they are being encouraged by the governments as well. The UK government announced in March 2015 that a PS100 m funding for research into driver-less cars will bring in companies from not only the automotive industry but also from Information Technology (IT), telecommunications, and infrastructure [1]. In the US, car manufacturers like General Motors (GM) are already selling 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE)-connected cars in their 2015 fleet and they predict having fully autonomous cars by the end of this decade [2]. Moreover, IEEE believes that the need to get a driver's license might be eliminated by 2040 as autonomous cars would be ubiquitous [3]. Car manufacturers such as GM and Ford have opened up application development for their platforms by making their Application Program Interface (API) available to developers [4,5]. They plan to follow the conventional business model, _i.e._, the developers submit their apps which are tested and approved before making them available for download. This LTE connectivity alone will serve to improve the in-vehicle infotainment services by providing access to high- speed internet, streaming movies, navigation, music, and live television, _etc._ The other aspect is commercial, _i.e._, offering location-based services and ads to the vehicle passengers. The LTE connectivity will not only bring internet to the vehicle but also make the vehicle a part of the internet, easing the way for the Vehicular _Ad Hoc_ Networks (VANETs). The true potential of the connected vehicle will be realized only when vehicles are interconnected to each other. This network, formed by the interconnection of vehicles, is referred to as VANET. This paradigm shift in vehicular technology will usher in a new era of innovation and will open a huge range of application areas that can help in improving road safety and reducing accidents on roads. VANETs are considered important due to their huge potential and numerous applications. VANETs not only offer immense safety enhancements but also many commercial opportunities. Wireless access in the vehicular environment (WAVE) is based on IEEE 802.11p standard and provides the basic radio standard for Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC) in VANETs. DSRC has been allocated 75 MHz in the 5.9 GHz band by the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) in the US, and a similar band has been allocated in Europe as well. Vehicles use DSRC radios to communicate with each other, _i.e._, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication. The communication range of DSRC is between 300 and 1000 m.  
With the addition of 4G/LTE connectivity in vehicles, it is obvious that connected vehicles would be able to share data through the cloud. The advantages of using cloud are huge as the opportunities for applications are virtually limitless. The communication environment with both LTE and DSRC is shown in Figure 1.  
DSRC specifies one main type of beacon message, _i.e._, Basic Safety Message (BSM), that a vehicle transmits every 100 milli secs. In BSM, vehicles broadcast their location, speed, acceleration, and other useful parameters, which help other vehicles avoid collisions and generate warnings for improved safety.