Performance evaluation of throughput and end-to-end delay using an Optimized Cluster Based Data Forwarding (OCDF) protocol

V2X communications are defined as the communication between vehicles and various elements of the intelligent transportation system (ITS). Two potential technologies of V2X communication are cellular and dedicated short-range communication (DSRC). Each of the technologies have their own limitations. DSRC offers low latency which are vital for vehicle safety applications. However, due to limited spectrum and short range, the performance of DSRC under high vehicle density scenarios degrades. Cellular network offers larger coverage range, high data rates, and high bandwidth. However, it suffers from higher latencies due to long transmission time intervals. Hence, there is a need to integrate DSRC and LTE as a heterogeneous solution to enhance the performance of vehicular networks in urban environments. In this paper, we have proposed a novel optimized cluster-based data forwarding (OCDF) protocol with an intelligent radio interface selection scheme to overcome the issues related with network performance when DSRC and cellular networks used alone. To evaluate the proposed protocol, three traffic applications were considered—safety services, bandwidth services, and voice services. Appropriate radio interface will be selected by determining packet loss ratio (PLR) levels. A minimum threshold value of PLR will be set by which radio interface can be selected intelligently. The proposed approach is compared with the existing approaches, and the performance of the throughput and end-to-end delay is evaluated using NS-3 simulation tool. Result shows that the performance of throughput and end-to-end delay is improved in comparison to the existing approaches under urban environments