CONVOY: a new Cluster-based routing Protocol for Vehicular Networks

Chapter 3The vehicular Ad Hoc network (VANET) could be considered as an ad hoc extension of a cellular mobile network. Thus communications are then possible either between vehicles or from vehicle to infrastructure based-network. However, the VANET suffers from a lack of connectivity and a limited capacity. One solution is to use clustering-based protocols to communicate between vehicles. The Clustering approach is well suited for vehicular networks because the dynamics of vehicular traffic result in the formation of natural groups of vehicles. In VANET, clustering criteria have to take into account the time and spatial dynamics of vehicular traffic. In this study, we review the effective clustering criteria used for VANET self-organization to exhibit such properties as scalability and stability of the structure. Finally, we introduce and develop a new clustering-based protocol for vehicular networks, called CONVOI. We show within simulation experiments that our proposal allows to build stable convoys with limited size