Using Groups to Reduce Communication Overhead in VANETs

type of mobile Peer-To-Peer wireless network that allows providing communication among nearby vehicles and between vehicles and nearby fixed roadside equipment. The lack of centralized infrastructure, high node mobility and increasing number of vehicles in VANETs result in several problems discussed in this paper, such as interrupting connections, difficult routing, security of communications and scalability. Groups are proposed as a solution to decrease the number and size of packets exchanged among vehicles because by using groups, VANETs can be split in small sub-VANETs that allow to avoid sending the same information through different paths. In this way, the proposal improves the efficiency and safety of communications through a hybrid model that combines symmetric and asymmetric cryptography. To reach this goal, nodes must know how to behave depending on their state, so this paper provides a full description of each group management process and of how to deal with the information within a group. Keywords-VANET; Groups; P2P; wireless networks; I