A Position Sensitive Clustering Algorithm for VANET

In order to overcome the defects such as too many cluster heads and large overhead in traditional single hop VANET clustering algorithms when there are high density vehicles, this article proposes a multi-hop cluster algorithm named the position sensitive clustering algorithm (PSCA). Based on the establishment of cluster structure, initial cluster head is selected following the â??Randomly Competition, First Declare Winâ?? principle. Cluster members transmit their expected status messages through the maintained multiple hop routings. After a series of information fusion and calculation work, the cluster head broadcasts the management messages based on dynamic timestamps. This article also gives the cluster maintaining strategy when the cluster head disappears or new nodes join. Tests performed in the simulation by NS-2 show that the proposed algorithm has less cluster heads and lower control overhead compared to the single hop-based approach (the Lowest-ID algorithm)