A data dissemination scheme based on clustering and probabilistic broadcasting in VANETs

VANETs (Vehicular Ad hoc Networks) have attracted tremendous attentions due to their high applicability and commercial value. However, the frequent topology changes caused by the fast mobility of nodes create many challenges to the efficient data delivery in vehicular environment. With the aim to guarantee the stable and reliable communication between nodes, in this paper, we propose a novel data dissemination scheme based on Clustering and Probabilistic Broadcasting (CPB). A clustering algorithm is first presented according to the driving directions of vehicles, by which vehicles could exchange their data in a clustered way with sufficient connection duration. In the constructed clustering structure, a probabilistic forwarding is presented to disseminate data among vehicles. Each cluster member forwards the received packet to its cluster head with a calculated probability which is associated with the number of times the same packet is received during one interval. When receiving the sent packet, the elected cluster header continues to disseminate it toward the transmission direction. Simulation results show that our proposed protocol CPB outperforms the existing schemes in terms of information coverage, average message delay and packet delivery ratio.