  Heterogeneous Vehicular NETworks (HetVNETs) can meet various
quality-of-service (QoS) requirements for intelligent transport system (ITS)
services by integrating different access networks coherently. However, the
current network architecture for HetVNET cannot efficiently deal with the
increasing demands of rapidly changing network landscape. Thanks to the
centralization and flexibility of the cloud radio access network (Cloud-RAN),
soft-defined networking (SDN) can conveniently be applied to support the
dynamic nature of future HetVNET functions and various applications while
reducing the operating costs. In this paper, we first propose the multi-layer
Cloud RAN architecture for implementing the new network, where the multi-domain
resources can be exploited as needed for vehicle users. Then, the high-level
design of soft-defined HetVNET is presented in detail. Finally, we briefly
discuss key challenges and solutions for this new network, corroborating its
feasibility in the emerging fifth-generation (5G) era.
