A routing strategy for vehicular ad hoc networks in city environments

TLDR

Routing data in vehicular ad hoc networks is difficult because of high node dynamics, and while position‑based routing works well on highways, it struggles with two‑dimensional city scenarios that contain obstacles and voids. The study analyzes a position‑based routing approach that leverages vehicles’ navigational systems. The authors simulate the approach against DSR and AODV using realistic vehicle movement patterns from Daimler‑Chrysler’s Videlio traffic simulator. The position‑based approach outperforms AODV, and both outperform DSR, which suffers from scalability and mobility issues.

Abstract

Routing of data in a vehicular ad hoc network is a challenging task due to the high dynamics of such a network. Recently, it was shown for the case of highway traffic that position-based routing approaches can very well deal with the high mobility of network nodes. However, baseline position-based routing has difficulties to handle two-dimensional scenarios with obstacles (buildings) and voids as it is the case for city scenarios. In this paper we analyze a position-based routing approach that makes use of the navigational systems of vehicles. By means of simulation we compare this approach with non-position-based ad hoc routing strategies (dynamic source routing and ad-hoc on-demand distance vector routing). The simulation makes use of highly realistic vehicle movement patterns derived from Daimler-Chrysler's Videlio traffic simulator. While DSR's performance is limited due to problems with scalability and handling mobility, both AODV and the position-based approach show good performances with the position-based approach outperforming AODV.