A Novel Direction-Based Clustering Algorithm in Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks

Abstract

The application of Mobile Ad Hoc Network (MANET) technologies to Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs) in the service of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) has brought new challenges in maintaining communication clusters of network members for long time durations. Stable clustering methods reduce the overhead of communication relay in MANETs and provide a more efficient hierarchical network topology. During the creation of clusters, one vehicle node per cluster is selected as the cluster head to act as the routing node. In this paper, we propose a new distributed algorithm which takes into consideration the moving direction of vehicles and leadership duration of cluster heads. A simulation study has been conducted in an innovative and realistic vehicular network model to determine which algorithm provides optimum stability over the simulation timeline. The results show that the proposed clustering logic significantly improves cluster stability under such circumstances.